The Denver Nuggets had their final press conference of the season. KSE Vice Chairman, Josh Kroenke, Nuggets GM, Calvin Booth, and Head Coach, Michael Malone, addressed reporters about the 2023-24 season and a crucial summer ahead.
"As a coach, I'm thinking how do we win the next game? That's my job," Malone said about the dynamics of the Nuggets braintrust. "Calvin, as a GM, is thinking about how do we win the next couple of years? That's his job. Josh is overseeing all that and understanding how to piece all that together. That's what I love about being a part of this team—we're all working together."
Denver entered the 2023-24 season as defending champions after bringing the first-ever championship home last June. They came close but did not quite repeat, losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in seven hard-fought games of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.
"I think you always want to take time to let everything sink in and go back and take a quality look at everything that happened during the season and then make decisions from that point," Booth said on Thursday.
Over the next couple of weeks leading up to the NBA Draft in late June and free agency at the start of July, the Nuggets front office will develop a game plan for the 2024-25 season. One that puts the team in the best place possible to capture a second championship.
"That's something that we always do, win or lose, after each season. How can we be a better team next year from within, from a coaching standpoint, from a player development standpoint, from a draft standpoint? Whatever it may be. So, it wasn't the outcome that we all wanted, we realize that, but I still have a tremendous amount of confidence and faith in the group across the board. To sit up here with Josh and Calvin, and for us to be united and on the same page, that is really all that matters," Malone said.
The franchise is optimistic about their chances despite the second-round loss. Malone told reporters that trying to win a second consecutive championship was "hard." Fatigue was a major component in the follow-up season, but a summer of rest should do the core some good.
"We're going to put our heads together and figure out how we can keep improving. We have the best player in the world. We think we still have the best starting five in basketball," Kroenke said. "So, we don't think we're far off."
In short: don't expect any huge, wholesale changes to Denver's championship core.
"Maybe in our top seven, we can use a little bit more talent. Maybe there's a way to upgrade one or two positions and get a more accomplished NBA player for whatever slot they're taking," Booth said. "But I don't see anything crazy out of sorts for our roster."
The new CBA, or Collective Bargaining Agreement, will continue to inform the front office's decisions. As we wrote about in our sitdown with Nuggets Assistant GM, Tommy Balcetis, the CBA establishes two tax-paying tiers, the second of which is especially punitive. Being a second-tier tax team negates the ability to use certain team-building tactics, such as the Mid-Level Exception. Thus, teams have to get creative and build cost-controlled teams with these restrictions in mind.
Knowing this, Booth and the front office constructed a depth chart largely comprised of younger players on cheaper rookie-scale deals. In his eyes, this is the best way to retain talent; developing from within. It's too risky to build a team around veterans on cheaper deals, Booth explained. If they play well and succeed, they're likely to bolt in free agency in search of a larger payday.
"You can go one or two avenues," Booth said. "You can go get minimum [salaried] guys [worth $1-3 million] and try to get what you can out of them. And if you have tax issues, those guys, if they have good seasons, they're not going to be on your team next year. Or, you could try to draft and develop guys that you can have in your system for a number of years. And me personally, I believe a lot in continuity."
Booth stressed the importance of the 2K25 Las Vegas Summer League, among other things, when it came to developing the sea of prospects on the Nuggets roster.
"I think more than anything, they need more seasoning," Booth said. "They need to get in the gym and need to play Summer League. They need to get stronger."
A couple of players received major shoutouts for their contributions in the 2023-24 season. Starting small forward, Micheal Porter Jr., was one of them. He played in 81 out of 82 regular season games and had maybe his best playoff series to date in the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers.
"Michael has been a huge part of winning a championship and everything we accomplished this year. I love the arc that he's on because he continued, he's not flattening out, there are no plateaus, and he's getting better. Offensive discipline, defensive awareness," said Malone. "As a coach, that's all I can ever ask for. You're willing to buy into and commit to everything I'm asking you to do."
Christian Braun also earned praise from Malone and Booth. In fact, the Nuggets general manager called him a starting-caliber second-year player.
"He obviously has the intangibles, the physical strength, athleticism, and defense. He's gonna have to make some improvements, as he has, shooting the ball. I don't know how you can see a player in his second year who's done what he's done and not think he has a chance to start," Booth said. "He's ahead of schedule in that regard."
One of the biggest questions for the Nuggets heading into the summer is starting shooting guard, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The 31-year-old has a player option on his two-year contract, meaning that he could test free agency. Regardless of what happens, it appears the Nuggets will do what they can to retain him. They'd love to have him back should he test the market.
"KCP has been a great addition the last couple of years. We obviously would love to have him back. We're going to take a hard look at what that looks like," Booth said.
Vice Chairman Kroenke also mentioned the importance of trying to build as good of a team as possible around Nikola Jokić, who he dubbed the best player in the world.
"When Nikola Jokić is on your roster, you're going for it. He’s the best player in the world, and you have a responsibility to him and the group to try to go for it," Kroenke said. "We're going to be aggressive. We still think we have one of the best teams in the league with a really good chance of winning the next year."
Now the fun part begins. Building the best possible roster around the core five. The Nuggets may not enter next season as defending champions, but they're ready for whatever challenges are ahead. They're ready to get back to work and host another parade down 17th Street to Civic Central Park.
"We're gonna go back to being the hunter. We now have another solid chip on our shoulder," Kroenke said. "I'm excited to see what the group can do to come back with that sort of motivation, with this type of experience underneath them."