The first hour of NBA free agency came and went, with not much news coming through. Then the second hour began. And the Denver Nuggets went on a tear.
In a trade that no one had anticipated, the Nuggets took advantage of the Brooklyn Nets’ cap space – and the lack of free agents worth using it on – to make a cost-cutting trade that might also better their team. They agreed to a deal that will send Michael Porter Jr to the Nets, along with Denver’s first-round pick in 2032, in exchange for Cam Johnson.
The Nuggets were able to send a first-round pick that far into the future because they were just about under the NBA’s second apron. Teams over that threshold can only send picks as far as six years out; had the Nuggets’ payroll been only slightly higher, then, this trade would not have been on the table at all. And the deal’s primary motivating factor was to significantly reduce their payroll burden further, and prevent similar stickiness in the future.
Franchise-Altering Surprise Trade
The Nuggets entered the offseason with a payroll at a projected $203.5 million, slightly under the NBA’s second apron threshold of $207,824,000. The salaries committed to the three-star model of Nikola Jokic ($55,224,526), Jamal Murray ($50,422,680 estimated) and Porter Jr ($38,333,050) burned up the cap, even before adding in Aaron Gordon ($22,841,455). Let alone anyone else.
Simply put, this payroll was too high, and it restricted the team from being able to do much of anything. As the Boston Celtics have proven over their month of hardcore cost-cutting, “flexibility” is not just a buzz word – it is a real concept in NBA roster building, and the Nuggets did not have any.
Given that the Nuggets have also fallen away on the court enough to fire their head coach with just three games remaining, they needed a rejuvenation. They needed a shake-up around the Jokic-Murray two-man game, they needed to get better defensively, and they needed the financial wiggle-room to do it all with.
With this trade, they have achieved all of that. A huge win; the sort of huge win that no one could predict. Hence why no one did.
Johnson’s offensive production last season with the Nets (18.4 points, 3.4 assists per game, 39.0% three-point shooting) was remarkably similar to that of Porter Jr in Denver (18.2 points, 2.1 assists, 39.5% three-point shooting), but came without the benefit of Jokic to set him up. Johnson’s premier movement will mesh very well with Jokic’s ability to pass to every part of the court from any other, while Johnson’s defence (and particularly his team defence) is far more effective.
Younger, $17 million cheaper and arguably better, Johnson is both addition by subtraction for the Nuggets, and addition by addition.
Nuggets Were Not Done
The Nuggets followed this up with a steal of a free agency signing. While all other news was about teams spending their mid-level exceptions, the Nuggets pulled off a minimum-salary coup by announcing the return of Bruce Brown after two years away.
Brown had been a star role player on the Nuggets’ title-winning team of 2022-23 before leaving to get the giant paydays he had earned. Now, he returns to the team where he made his name, to take quite literally the smallest possible payday. It, too, is a huge win; the sort of huge win that no one could predict. Hence why no one did.
To be sure, losing the 2032 pick may come back to hurt the team. But if it does, it will hurt them in seven years, by which time Jokic will be 37 years old and everyone else will be gone. Rather than being poor or reckless assset management, this is in fact prudence, and entirely what baring the cupboard is supposed to achieve.
From stagnancy and imbalance, the Nuggets will now find themselves reborn. They are no longer limited to just the minimum salary exception. And even if they were, they are making great signings with it.
Nuggets Transformed Their Team in Just 1 Hour