Nuggets fans are being asked to evaluate the summer.
Is this summer better than last summer? Is this team more equipped to win a title, or not? Could they have kept Peyton Watson? Did Watson betray the team by not playing in last season’s playoffs when he was healthy enough to? Should we be scared that Nikola Jokic won’t be with the team long-term after this season?
What IS happening?
Keeping a championship window open is arguably the most difficult thing an organization has to do. Once you win a title, can you do it twice? Will the collective bargaining agreement rules allow you to keep the team intact? Will you, the organization, pull the right levers to maintain a place among the league’s best teams?
This has been the Nuggets’ summer of at least some discontent. Unless, of course, they win another title in the upcoming season — or get themselves into the NBA Finals. Then, the moves made will be correctly hailed as shrewd.
But that remains to be seen.
Watson was traded as arguably the most athletic player on the team. Also a player that helped enhance the Nuggets defensive profile. And at a time when the consensus going into the offseason was the Nuggets needed to add more athletic and defensive players. So is there anyone to blame?
My belief is this: I’m not mad at the fact that Watson’s agent, Rich Paul, basically instructed his client to sit out of the playoffs to preserve his market value. He wasn’t wrong. Paul secured a $22 million per year contract for Watson. The Nuggets reportedly offered a contract in the $17 million range.
I also believe that the Nuggets would have offered a contract similar to what Cleveland signed Watson for if they could. They did want him back, and I’m certain they will say so when team executives are asked by media prior to the opening of training camp. I think they also valued him in the range that he was ultimately signed for.
But the circumstances wouldn’t allow them to sign him for it. They were already in the second apron after having matched the offer sheet Oklahoma City gave to Spencer Jones, and tacking on the Watson salary would have put them in a situation where they couldn’t get out of it, plus having to pay an exhorbiant luxury tax bill.
If you think that Watson should have defied the advice of an agent who has procured hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients and just played in the playoffs, then okay, but that’s not how it works. If you think the contract the Nuggets awarded Christian Braun is the sole reason why they are in this space, then okay. I would just disagree with that.
Sometimes, there is no one to blame. But if we are assigning values to it I would say this: The Nuggets’ previous business protocol of signing players early to big-dollar contracts, going back multiple years, ultimately resulted in this situation. Watson and his agent wanting security and financial gain made it impossible for the Nuggets to retain him.
The Nuggets will take the lesson and learn from it. Watson will do his best to make an impact with his new team.
And no one will forget this moment.