They're going to be in luxury tax hell going forward based on the commitments to Harden, Paul and Capela, so I can see why they'd try squeeze him in these negotiations. Every last dollar carries increased significance when you start factoring in the penalties.
I don't think he let Ariza walk. No way was Morey paying more than the 1/$15M he got from PHO.
Feel like they have to be eating money rather than an offer sheet.
My Nuggets will be fun to watch as an offensive juggernaut. And they won't defend worth a damn.
Denver had to back up the piggy bank to sign him.
Agreed. That Schroeder contract is absolutely toxic. They should just pay him to stay away from the team.
Denver moved $44M in dead money this off-season in an incredibly tight cap market. I can think of a few other teams that should have been moving $.
Only somewhat related. But who the hell thought that JJ Barrea would have a 12+ year NBA career? I saw him play while at Northeastern, and while a very good player, I never once thought to myself that he would even play a minute of NBA ball.
I have no problem with the IT deal (that goes in the good column).
Yeah, this is what happens when the teams with cap space are largely the dregs of the league. The sorts of guys that will generally sign with you aren't guys you can build around, so there's more profit in acquiring draft picks in exchange for cash than in signing roleplayers.
Well, based on his contract, he certainly will be a poor man's something (relatively speaking).
Ouch.
I'm hoping that Nuggets fans will be seeing another Michael Adams (off the bench this time).
He didn't really have to be effective as he was either playing against a 2nd unit guard or hidden on the opponents non-scoring startinf guard, which was easy to do back then. You can't hide guys nearly as easily in today's game.
My bad, $34M not $44M ($21M Arthur/Faried + $13M from Chandler). The $21M move did save them $43M in payroll+ luxury tax for the owner
What was Denver's corresponding bad move here? Signing IT or dumping Faried and Arthur's contracts?
Those Nuggets teams of the 80s were fun to watch. As a kid growing up in Colorado, they formed some of my earliest memories of basketball.
They might be a top 4 team even in the west. As you correctly point out, they were close last year.
It was covered earlier in this thread, but basically it has to do with timing. If you use the larger full MLE instead of the lower taxpayer MLE your team is hard-capped. That exception is only available to non-tax teams. If you have a player or players that remain unsigned when you use the full MLE you essentially lose the right to pay whatever you want, even if you posses Bird rights. This to prevent teams from circumventing the cap by using all their exceptions then signing their own players with Bird rights.
The Hawks fan reactions I've seen are pretty negative about the Lin signing, FWIW - that's a lot of money and a lot of cap spaced used up for 2018/19 on a player whose best asset might be his ability to mentor to Trae Young. But I have no idea at this point.
Yeah I remember when I was a kid I looked at the statistical leaderboard to see Bird's place and said "who the heck is Alex English?"
given today's NBA, i wonder if DEN would rather have Nurkic on his contract or Jokic on his?
Well, it was a trade and the Hawks are awful;, this still has them below the cap floor and they got something, even if it wasn’t great, for it. NBA if you don’t spend to floor, you just pay he remaining guys extra. I’m not seeing the downside.
This answer should be obvious. Jokic is way more skilled and fits today's game. There's a reason he was maxed and Nurkic got what he got.
I'm still not convinced Jokic could stay on the floor in a playoff series against GSW or Boston.
Jokic could play Al and Dray. He's 6'10' and not a complete oaf. He hit 40% of his 3s and 85% of FTs last year, he can shoot from the perimeter and distribute.
What? Jokic is the best modern center. His passing, shooting, and rebounding make him a mismatch for any opposing center.
Exactly. Just cause he's overpaid doesn't mean he's not a useful player. It's also problematic that Malone plays Jokic and Plumlee together way too often, which somewhat negates Jokic.
Jokic is a massively plus offensive talent, but that "only weakness" is the one that gets you played off the floor against an elite team with spacing and top-end iso players. Honestly I hope I'm wrong, since I enjoy watching him (and the Nuggets in general) play, but I'm not super optimistic.
