Denver reporter: Nuggets may need to break up the team

[Moahst]

Classic overreaction. I'd trade MPJr for two more balanced wings or a young PG prospect.

[Celts17Pride]

Talking basketball heads. Always talking and saying nothing.

[itrsteve]

Seems like a wee bit of an overreaction for a team who is currently one of the last 8 standing, a 2nd seed in the cutthroat west and defending champion.

[basketballRob]

Classic overreaction. I'd trade MPJr for two more balanced wings or a young PG prospect.

MPJ has one of the worst max contracts in the NBA. I'm not sure what team would give you 2 young wings.

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[GeorgeSears]

The problem with Mares is that he embodies this doomer mentality that Nuggets fans have had for 3-4 years now. We were hearing calls to get rid of Murray and MPJ two years ago because of their health problems. I'm glad that didn't happen.

The reality is that obviously the team's going to have to make some uncomfortable choices if they get swept. That's what happens in professional sports. You can't run everything back. They may need to look for a better bench, but that means the FO is going to have to be willing to spend (something they haven't done a whole lot of). It might mean moving one starter to deepen the bench. There are options here.

But blowing it all up because you can't beat one team that was specifically designed to beat you, and who will also have difficult financial choices to make after next season, is just funny to me.

[BarbaGrizz]

They need to get rid of MPJ.

Does this has some leg?

Denver sends MPJ + 2nd round pick

Chicago sends Caruso + Ball´s corpse + Patrick Williams

[TheCage4]

Champions last year to blowing it up this year? Seriously?

While losing to the T'Wolves would be a bummer for Nugget fans, it certainly does not signal that a major change needs to happen.

[GeorgeSears]

This sounds like a panic move by some bloggers.

Blow it up? Are they crazy??

This guy has covered the team for years. He's solid.

If you can't beat Minny, there are no more rings.

And Minny was built to beat the current Nuggets.

I think the guy is right.

The Wolves are about to hit the 2nd apron themselves unless they want to let SloMo walk. Like Denver they have no picks, and also rely heavily on a 37 year old Mike Conley to steer the ship. Things can change fast.

A lot of people don't realize this, but this TWolves team that was built to beat the Nuggets was done so by big spending. Overpaying for McDaniels and the Gobert contract, in particular. On top of maxing KAT and Ant. They're going to be facing difficult financial choices after next season. There's a chance they don't get to keep all 3 of their centers. Their window to win is this season and next season.

[bstein14]

Would Portland trade Jerami Grant for MPJ? That would be one thing to help IMO because Grant is a two way player.
They would need to resign KCP and then add another guy with the MLE who can shoot and is young and athletic perhaps like an Obi Toppin.

[Chuck Everett]

Would Portland trade Jerami Grant for MPJ? That would be one thing to help IMO because Grant is a two way player.
They would need to resign KCP and then add another guy with the MLE who can shoot and is young and athletic perhaps like an Obi Toppin.

They already have a better version of Grant in Aaron Gordon. Trade Porter to make the offense worse? What are we doing here?

[Rafael122]

They have to add talent to their current roster, not break up their current roster.

The thing is, this goes hand in hand. Their starting 5 each make at least $15 million. Nnaji's new contract starts next year and for a team that is in contention, $9 million per year for him is a cap crusher. Not to mention I believe Gordon is in the last year of his deal next year and is going to get a bump. Realistically, they should look into probably trading one of Porter/Murray and perhaps go from being top heavy to maybe being a little bit more balanced.

[Lalouie]

as a ring team denver only has to TWEAK

breaking up the team is an overreaction
breaking up the team is a typical modern day ROTE knee-jerk call

[Woodsanity]

We will take Jokic.

[celtxman]

Insane garbage. Denver made the mistake a lot of teams do after a title -- they didn't try hard to get better the next season and go 'all in' now. GMs assume they have a title team, they don't need to change much (or in more insane cases like Cuban, they give up on the team). They assume they can tweak the team or let go of ancillary players and it'll be fine.

2022, GSW won and it was clear the Warriors needed to be better next year to win -- aging players. Warriors did nothing.
2020, Lakers jettisoned important pieces after and are still looking for the right combo and it's now too late with LeBron's age.

But the Nuggets still have a good core -- they just need to make some win-now moves now that they've had the league's target on their backs.

You can add 2010 Celtics. Championship in 2008, they lose Posey. 2009 Garnett injured - out for the playoffs. 2010 still no Posey replacement lose to Lakers in Finals in 7 games with Pierce and Allen playing 45 minutes each.
This was a little harder for the Nuggets. They were not able to give Brown the salary he could get on the market.

[HotRocks34]

They have to add talent to their current roster, not break up their current roster.

The thing is, this goes hand in hand. Their starting 5 each make at least $15 million. Nnaji's new contract starts next year and for a team that is in contention, $9 million per year for him is a cap crusher. Not to mention I believe Gordon is in the last year of his deal next year and is going to get a bump. Realistically, they should look into probably trading one of Porter/Murray and perhaps go from being top heavy to maybe being a little bit more balanced.

Some tough choices are coming up.

[LeBronSpaghetti]

Their depth is total shite and they’ve bet the house on a guy who is healthy about 50% of the time at best (Murray). This makes things difficult.

When you look at the Minnesota series and compare it to the team from last season, should we really be surprised? I mean if you asked someone last year right after the Nuggets won: “Would they have won the title if they didn’t have Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and Jamal Murray wasn’t healthy?” The answer would be… wtf kind of question is that? Of course they wouldn’t have won in those circumstances. So why do we now assume they should still win with that handicap?

[cgf]

We will take Jokic.

Yeah. Caruso is my #1 target but I guess I'd settle for the Joker instead...I suppose...

[life_saver]

I think there are 2 options - either Gordon needs to develop a reliable 3 pt shot or need to trade for a 4 that can shoot even if he is not as good as a defender as Gordon. I feel like former has very less chance to happen at this point...so you need to look at the latter option

[Special_Puppy]

What would a trade package for Jokic even look like?

[AleksandarN]

The problem with Mares is that he embodies this doomer mentality that Nuggets fans have had for 3-4 years now. We were hearing calls to get rid of Murray and MPJ two years ago because of their health problems. I'm glad that didn't happen.

The reality is that obviously the team's going to have to make some uncomfortable choices if they get swept. That's what happens in professional sports. You can't run everything back. They may need to look for a better bench, but that means the FO is going to have to be willing to spend (something they haven't done a whole lot of). It might mean moving one starter to deepen the bench. There are options here.

But blowing it all up because you can't beat one team that was specifically designed to beat you, and who will also have difficult financial choices to make after next season, is just funny to me.

Mares doesn’t have this “doomer mentality “. I have followed Mares even before DNVR. Also he didn’t say break this team up. He said adjustments will need to be made if they lose. More of a retool. He doesn’t think the team is doomed. There are weaknesses that need to addressed.