The Nuggets need help.
The roster is just short-handed despite some promising minutes from guys like Jalen Pickett and Julian Strawther in the win over the Hawks last Sunday.
Denver doesn’t have enough playoff-caliber players to make a real title run and when you have the best player in the world playing the best he ever has, maybe the best anyone ever has, you need to go for it.
Reports are already surfacing that the team is aggressively looking at trade options and finding out they don’t have the assets. But still, fans will talk about it. It’s in all our comments on our YouTube Live Shows.
1. Jamal Murray cannot be traded until this summer. No matter how frustrated Nuggets fans are with the temperamental former champ, Murray’s not going anywhere after signing his max extension this summer. Due to the contraints in the CBA, Murray cannot be traded during the following season after signing that extension.
He’s ineligible to be traded until next summer at the earliest. The Blue Arrow isn’t going anywhere. By this summer, hopefully, Nuggets fans feel differently about keeping Murray around after what he contributed in multiple playoff runs. (Aaron Gordon, by the way, is also ineligible to be dealt until next summer and he has a trade kicker.)
2. The Nuggets can’t trade for Jimmy Butler. This one comes from friend of the program Jake Coyne who noted on Twitter that because both the Heat and Nuggets are over the first apron, they cannot trade for Butler unless they were able to match salaries at 100% on both sides, which they cannot.
While fun in theory - Jimmy Butler will not be going to Denver this season.
— Jake Coyne (@TheStatSquatch) December 10, 2024
Unless Miami dumps salary, both they and Denver can take back no more than 100% in outgoing salary via trade.
This is one of the new wrinkles in the CBA that will prevent trades like this. https://t.co/aJItkGEV8I
3. MPJ’s Trade Value Isn’t Simple. MPJ has been more available than you would have thought possible after three back surgeries. He’s been healthy, consistent, and available. Porter has been the Nugget’s 2nd-best offensive player this season.
But any deal involving Porter would require a physical after the trade. For Denver, that physical could mean agreeing to a trade, shocking the roster, and then having it rescinded by the other team if they don’t like what they find in examining MPJ’s medicals and going “nevermind.”
That would devastate the locker room and could impact Porter’s mindset. Porter’s shown a lot of maturity dealing with what he has the last three years. But despite Denver’s utter confidence in the longterm health and availability of Porter as proven by the contracts they’ve given him, it’s a risk that makes it difficult to move him despite him being the player with the most on-court trade value right now.
Denver will keep looking for moves, especially those that would get Zeke Nnaji’s deal off the books. But you can adjust your expectations based on the above information.
