Denver’s front office is stuck between a mountain and a hard place.
Executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace and executive vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer did a lot of things right on paper last year, even if vice chairman Josh Kroenke got the love in the NBA Executive of the Year voting. Trading Michael Porter Jr. and a future first-round pick for Cam Johnson, acquiring Jonas Valanciunas for Dario Saric and signing Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown to minimum contracts looked like moves that maximized the championship chances this season.
Repeating the feat won’t be easy. After Nikola Jokic reiterated his desire to be a Nugget “forever,” offering the franchise cornerstone the maximum four-year extension worth nearly $280 million is the only obvious decision in the brain-trust trio’s second summer after disaster struck.
Jamal Murray was the only member of Denver’s starting five who didn’t miss a significant stretch of the regular season. Christian Braun and Jokic returned from their respective injuries but still weren’t their typical selves by the time the postseason started. The cuts that Braun used to finish with highlight-reel dunks or at least a trip to the line became kickouts. Jokic’s 3-point shot wasn’t the same in the second half of the season.
The two players who provided the athleticism and defensive versatility upon which Denver’s championship hopes hinged – Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson – were extremely limited or unavailable in the playoffs. That’s the calculus for humiliation at the hands of a Minnesota team that dealt with worse injury luck during the six-game series. The difference was the Timberwolves wanted it more.
“If you saw their interviews, all of them are excited to play us. They got up to play us. They enjoyed playing us. We have to match that,” Murray acknowledged after elimination. “We have to feel the same way about them. I’m sure we will next year. They took this matchup, you could say, kind of personal and wanted it really bad. We’ve got to want it more.”
The options moving forward can most easily be boiled down to three paths, none of which are obvious choices:
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) walks off the court after the Nuggets lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 6 of a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Route 1
Moving on from Murray is the most extreme of the reasonable options. Coming off his best regular season to date and three more years on his current contract, he could be appealing to teams that want to change directions while staying competitive. A deal with Houston for Kevin Durant fits the mold. Calling Milwaukee about Giannis Antetokounmpo is a no-brainer, but the Bucks probably get more than Denver’s best offer – Murray, Watson via a sign-and-trade and the 26th pick of this year’s draft – from another team. The only other way moving off Murray makes sense is if he’s the best player in the trade that nets Denver multiple impactful rotation players. Detroit and Orlando have the young, athletic defenders the Nuggets need and could use the spacing Murray’s shooting provides. Even though Murray should soon add an All-NBA selection to his resume, it’s hard not to wonder how having his playoff efficiency limited by Lu Dort and Jaden McDaniels in consecutive series impacts his value. The two-man game that was crucial to Denver’s 2023 title run has never looked more guardable than it did against Minnesota.
“We are still good. I think we created good looks. Sometimes we need to make it,” Jokic said of his pairing with Murray.
“I think a miss doesn’t make you a bad player. A miss doesn’t make you a bad decision-maker. It’s a miss-or-make league. We couldn’t make any shots, especially from 3, except for a couple of guys.”
Denver Nuggets players look on from the bench during the second half of Game 6 of a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Route 2
Retooling is the safest and most likely route. Denver doesn’t have much in the way of positive-value contracts outside of the stars. Johnson’s expiring deal is the most likely to be moved to retain Watson on a new contract. Braun’s five-year extension, worth $125 million, which looks like one of the front office’s few missteps in year one kicks in next season, making it a very hard contract to move. Gordon, hampered by soft-tissue injuries in each of the last two seasons, is on the wrong side of 30 while being owed more than $100 million over the next three seasons, the last of which is a player option worth $37 million. In this scenario, Watson replaces Johnson in the starting lineup, and Denver needs to replace Tim Hardaway Jr., who significantly outplayed his minimum contract. The veteran who finished third in the Sixth Man of the Year race priced himself out of the Nuggets’ future unless he believes Denver is his best bet to win a championship and turns down better offers from other teams. The easiest way to shed salary is waiving Jonas Valanciunas, who’s on a mostly non-guaranteed $10 million contract for next season, but some of that money would be needed to take another swing at a backup center who’s capable of being in the playoff rotation. Denver has the 26th pick to try and fill one of those holes.
The only other real shakeup comes in the form of moving on from David Adelman after one season. That probably doesn’t happen unless Jokic asks for it, and it didn’t sound like that was going to be the case.
“It’s not his fault that we couldn’t rebound. It’s not his fault that we could not catch the ball,” Jokic said. “There is nothing to blame David Adelman (for). It was all us.”
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) is congratulated by teammates Aaron Gordon, left, and Nikola Jokic (15) after hitting a 3-point basket at the buzzer to end the first half against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series Monday, April 20, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
Route 3
Running it back with the same rotation would be a big change of direction. Doing so would have the Nuggets deep in the second apron after extending Watson and retaining another restricted free agent in Spencer Jones, who increased his value after being elevated into the playoff rotation. This would be the Nuggets’ way of saying health was the only thing standing in their way, which is a tough sell after that series. If that’s the case, the team should seriously examine the way injuries and the return-to-play processes are handled. Even if this is the best route to a title, there’s no evidence that ownership is willing to incur the penalties associated with the second apron, especially after a disappointing season.
Jokic didn’t sound like running it back was an appealing option when asked how close the team was to title contention.
“We just lost in the first round,” Jokic said. “So, I think we are far away.”