Nuggets get another promising forward and get under the second apron. Sign back Watson, Spencer Jones, Tyus, Bruce, Roddy, and Pickett. Use the MLE to sign a backup center, I think doing so won't put us over the second apron. All my thoughts are below.
This trade works on Spotrac by using Grizzlies 28 mil TPE to make up for the salary difference, I think fanspo isn't using it because it thinks an apron team can't use those with combined salaries but I think there's workarounds for that. They might have to split this into two trades or something to get it to work.
Maybe the Nuggets squeeze a pick out of Memphis because of how valuable he is, but Memphis has all the leverage here.
I expect the Nuggets to waive and stretch Big Val which will give them a cap hit of $666,667 for the next 3 years, won't let me do that for some reason. Also doesn't do Val justice, really liked having him and wished we played him more even though it was rough sometimes. The day we traded Saric for him was one of the best days of my life.
Doesn't do Cam justice for how good of a player he is but being able to keep Watson is more valuable. If the front office keeps Cam I'll be super happy because I love him, but the fact that it most likely means we gave away Braun + Watson, or Gordon or Murray, makes this my preferred outcome.
Signing Peyton Watson and keeping Cam Johnson would be awesome, but not sure what all the second apron entails going forward. I don't see that as an option based on how terrible the playoffs were and what Josh said in his presser.
Another FYI, I don't believe the financials showing for the Nuggets are correct because vet minimums don't count towards the cap for how much they're actually paid, the cap hit is the baseline minimum of $2.9M. Not sure if it keeps that into account or not.
Note to Adelman, "CHOOSE A BACKUP PG AND USE HIM. YOU'VE GOT TWO COMPETENT MEN IN PICKETT AND TYUS JONES, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY"
Excited to have Bruce and Spencer back, will be great for defense off the bench and to fill in for starters if injuries pop up.
Either use the MLE to sign a backup center or have to rely on a combination of Daron Holmes, Aaron Gordon, and Spencer Jones. I don't think that's a situation we wanna be in. My calculations show that we can use the MLE and use one of our draft picks and we'll still be under the second apron.
Love David Roddy, I prayed to the Lord the Nuggets would draft him out of CSU, but Grizzlies swooped in and took him. Makes sense though, man looks like a grizzly. I think his comp is Grant Williams, hopefully he can be a plus effort guy off the bench.
My overall thoughts are last year was the best team of the Jokic era and the injuries destroyed them, and then they gave such little effort in the playoffs it shook my entire psyche. After game 6 I was fully ready to call it quits, go throw my Murray jersey in the trash. After some time I just thought of all the times they earned that trust and I've brought myself back to being able to at least root for them to make another push. I know this isn't the whole story, and I hate myself for defending them, but if you think about these points, I can at least hope we can be a quiet contender that hangs around and waits for their next turn with this same core.
Murray had by far the best season of his career
Gordon isn't even close to the same player he was when we won the title. I think he still has the same strength, defense, and heart, while also adding that he can be a 40+% 3 point shooter, secondary ball handler, and secondary go to scorer.
Jokic somehow was better again last year. We saw what we saw at the beginning of the year, it was the best he's ever been and I believe that's how good he really is. What choice do we have but to have faith in our lord and savior.
Christian Braun..... he had the foot thing, I don't know how big of a factor it was and even if it was awful for him he was so terrible. But I think back to the preseason of last year. In the first 3 games after not seeing him for the whole summer he went 14/15 on shots in 60 minutes of game time and 7/8 from 3. After that 3rd game I was convinced he was gonna shock us all and have an Aaron Gordon - esque leap in value and everyone would be wondering how the we got this guy on a 25 mil contract for the next 4 years. Christian is one of those guys.... like Gordon and Jokic, they've had good times and they've had bad, but if you're asking me who I'd die for it's them. I think back to his performance as a rookie in the finals, and how could I not trust that man with my life. Screw all the people hating on him, I hope he comes out next year ready to be the killer he was in 2023 and in college. If his foot recovers I think that's exactly what he'll be aiming for. I hope Adelman and the rest the boys know that the entire league has counted them out going forward, and I hope they plan on firmly placing themselves back in the mix of a top 2 team in the West and the league. They have the talent to be there, it'll just take effort and focus. Go Nuggs, justice for Chris Marlowe.