The miracle of Nikola Jokic that brought Denver a long-sought championship also landed the Nuggets in the mess they\u2019re stuck in now.<\/p>\n
Joker is too great for the team\u2019s own good.<\/p>\n
While that might sound crazy, his generational talent fooled Stan and Josh Kroenke into believing they had a core worthy of being a perennial NBA title contender.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets have foolishly fallen victim to the Joker Halo Effect.<\/p>\n
Please allow me to explain.<\/p>\n
As we\u2019ve heard teammates preach with evangelical zeal, being a disciple of Jokic makes playing the hard game of basketball infinitely easier.<\/p>\n
With a nearly bottomless bag of tricks that includes a soft shooting touch, hard-nosed rebounding and otherworldly court vision that made him famous, Joker elevates the productivity of teammates significantly above their natural skill levels.<\/p>\n
And that gospel truth applies equally to an All-Star like Jamal Murray or a journeyman named Bruce Brown.<\/p>\n
Teammates love Jokic for many reasons, but none more than the fact that he helps everyone get paid.<\/p>\n
After being exposed in the playoffs by the broken but undaunted Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver is stuck in the luxury tax hell of the league\u2019s ridiculous current collective bargaining agreement with a roster that Jokic accurately describes as \u201cfar away\u201d from title contention.<\/p>\n
This team\u2019s No. 1 problem?<\/p>\n
The Nuggets have paid their core of Murray, Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun more than their true basketball worth.<\/p>\n
Critics howling for the Kroenkes to wade deeper into the luxury tax, just because Stan and Josh own more Benjamins than Walmart has baby wipes, have badly missed the plot of how the Nuggets got in this mess.<\/p>\n
Phones of Denver front-office execs better start buzzing in search for a trade that makes sense for Murray, Gordon or Braun.<\/p>\n
The reason is not to cut payroll for frugality\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n
The Band-Aids need to be ripped off to treat the underlying systemic ailment afflicting this team. It\u2019s not a salary dump when the roster is so dangerously top-heavy that a single injury to a starter makes this team so easy to topple that Minnesota loudmouth Jaden McDaniels can huff, puff and blow the Nuggets down.<\/p>\n
While Murray comes closest among the overpaid players to being worth a massive $50 million cap hit on Denver\u2019s accounting ledger for next season, he simply isn\u2019t as outstanding as at least half the point guards remaining in the playoff field, which features Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey.<\/p>\n
The blue arrows of Murray beautifully strike the bull\u2019s-eye on open looks, many of them created by Jokic. But he\u2019s a subpar defender and no better than average distributor of the ball.<\/p>\n
Gordon is the ultimate teammate. In a sport crowded with bloated egos, he is beloved as Mr. Nugget for his unrelenting team-above-self attitude.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the catch: Denver was able to make a smart trade for A.G. in 2021 because Orlando grew disheartened with a top five draft choice who was not wired to be an alpha dog.<\/p>\n
Gordon is a loyal follower, not a natural leader. Combine that fact with the harsh reality of his now-chronic injury history, and his $31.9 million salary for the 2026-27 season, which seemed like a bargain back when he signed a contract extension, is dead weight that could sink any hope of championship contention. The Nuggets must now consider swallowing hard and unloading Mr. Nugget for pennies on the dollar in return for some reliable parts.<\/p>\n
And Braun? Don\u2019t get me started. Signing him to a five-year extension at an average salary of $25 million per season is one of the franchise\u2019s dumbest ideas since allowing Dikembe Mutombo to walk as a free agent, and it\u2019s proof that even smart basketball executives can get blinded by the Joker Halo Effect.<\/p>\n
While Braun dispels the myth that white men can\u2019t jump when an injured ankle isn\u2019t barking, he\u2019s a role player with not a single skill set that ranks Grade A on the NBA scale.<\/p>\n
The greatest pitfall of the Jokic era is how management has fallen hopelessly in love with the teammates of a Hall of Fame center, rather than exploiting the Joker effect on the trade market.<\/p>\n
It was Josh Kroenke, not basketball ops chief Ben Tenzer or player personnel director Jon Wallace, who got votes from league peers as Executive of the Year. So when Kroenke takes time Friday to meet the media and explain his findings from an autopsy on a 54-win team that\u2019s far away from winning a title, it\u2019s on him. The boss must instill confidence that Denver can retain restricted free agent Peyton Watson and take more decisive action to reshape the roster than to hand David Adelman another year of veteran Jonas Valanciunas, a center the coach never found fit to give meaningful minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n
No champion in recent NBA history has been more dependent on one player than the Nuggets, who won rings in 2023.<\/p>\n
The lie was Denver telling itself it had a championship window.<\/p>\n
Maybe the real measure of Jokic\u2019s magic is how he fooled everybody into believing this team\u2019s core was something more than a bunch of guys who hopped on a runaway bandwagon of generational greatness.<\/p>\n
Jokic has carried Murray, Gordon and Braun as far as they can go.<\/p>\n
Joker got everybody paid.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to identify the freeloaders and start kicking them off the bus.<\/p>\n
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