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A message from the Colorado Department of Transportation. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] What is up everybody? Thank you all for joining me on the latest broadcast part of the CSG Network. I'm of course your host, Jeff Morton. Today is going to be a bit of a history lesson/ kind of a breakdown of where the nuggets are at well into the free agency period. And how they're in such a weird position right now. The nuggets position right now is very unsettling. It is at, you can argue at a pivot point and the nuggets really do need to kind of look at where the direction they're going. And I'll talk about choice. But first, I need to talk to you about bed online, bed online is your number one source for all your sports betting needs this season from baseball to golf to soccer. Right to all the top fights in UFC, MMA, and boxing. Every step, every matchup, and even live odds and spreads while the games are being played. When the game's over, head on over to the online casino and get in on the game of blackjack or poker. Unwind in one of their 150 slots games. As I said before, one stop shop. I myself don't gamble, but if I did, I would use some way place like bed online because I would want the security and knowledge to know that where I'm going is got everything I need in my fingertips and I don't need to go to a million places. Head to the website today and get in and on the action. Use promo code BLEAV all caps for your 50% free bet credit on your first deposit up to $250. That is promo code BLEAV for your 50% free bet credit on your first deposit up to $250. I can't believe people forgot this. I'm going to be honest with you. Stan Kronke has been a big, big, big advocate of the salary cap, the hard salary cap since he came into sports ownership. Obviously the NFL already had one when he joined in with Georgia Frontier in the mid 90s and obviously that was part of the deal. But when he bought into hockey and into the NBA, his pursuit of a hard cap in both sports was not exactly subtle. And it was achieved in 2004 in the NHL. In a hard cap and a reduction of the hockey related income, it was really a hard line stance that almost destroyed a season of hockey and all that stuff. In the NBA it's been different because the NBA players union is a lot stronger. And due to a massive, massive, and I do mean massive cell phone, the players subjugated themselves to a pseudo hard cap. It's not a hard cap, but it's as close as the NBA is probably ever going to get. And that's just fine for Stan Kronke. Flashback to 2011 in the last lockout that now nearly canceled the 2011-12 NBA season. Then Stan Kronke was one of the hardliners. Kronke and Dane Gilbert and a few others were heavily pushing for an NFL style hard cap with franchise tag and all that stuff. So it loved really copying the NFL when it comes to that sort of thing. This was largely with Stan in response to Carmelo Anthony and what happened with Carmelo Anthony. And it was very, very vigorous that Stan was urging the ownership to adopt the NFL style thing. Because he was already owning the Rams. And the interesting, complicating thing at this point is that Kronke wasn't supposed to have any direct involvement with Denver Nuggets at this point. Because he was fully in control of the Rams and because of the NFL's agreements that you can't have cross NBA teams and the NFL teams in the same, not NFL. But you can't own different sports franchises in the same city. So Stan had to give up, pseudo give up ownership to his wife and leave it in a trust run by Josh Kronke. It was a revocable trust and you've seen it since with Stan Kronke officially back in charge of the Denver Nuggets. So Stan was behind scenes urging the owners to adopt a hard cap and it didn't work. The most they got was increased penalties for different levels of going into the tax. And they also changed the sign and trade rules, which was the Carmelo Anthony thing. It was Stan Kronke, Dan Gilbert, some of these small market owners really trying to get their ways. Hard caps don't necessarily favor small markets. And I think people misunderstand what a hard cap is. The hard cap doesn't make small market teams better. It makes rich teams worse. The full intent of a salary cap is not to make people better. It is to make people worse. And if you notice in the NFL, it is a narrow band of mediocre to all kind of good. There's not really excellent teams in the NFL. It is variations of mediocre to good. There's the great teams ended in the 90s, essentially. Because the Boston Celtics, not the Boston Celtics, the New England Patriots juice. The New England Patriots didn't, aren't really a dynasty in the truest sense. But they were able to massage things and make it to where Tom Brady, they had a transient, you know, a once in a generation kind of player and they were able to win six, seven Super Bowls because Tom Brady was that good and they were able to do it intermittently and sometimes consecutively. But, you know, that's the myth of parity. True parity isn't necessarily a thing. The people who has the best players generally wins. So you've got Patrick Mahomes on the Kansas City Chiefs. They've won, you know, three of the last four Super Bowls. You have Tom Brady, of course. And you had Eli Manning and you had Peyton Manning. Really, the parity in itself as NFL style parity is a myth. Really, it just is trying to prevent consecutive winners and do all that stuff that you get. You don't see consecutive, generally you don't see dynasties in hockey or anything like that. And people always point to baseball, but baseball has more parity than people think it does. It's just the teams that don't spend anything don't tend to win anything unless they start to spend. So all that to say that's what Stan's model has always been. If you talk to anyone in the league, they will tell you Stan Crunkie was a big fan of the salary cap. And this is as close to Zen, NBA is going to get to a salary cap. The salary cap is here to stay. It was a cell phone by the players. They didn't need to do this. It probably would have protracted things. And I bet there were uncomfortableness behind the scenes during the negotiations of this thing. And as I explained in a few podcasts ago, this was largely done for the preparation for expansion. Expansion is going to be money that the owners don't have to split with the players. And these teams will disperse the talent in the league, which has been needed for years now. And it will cap these, you know, that cap will be there in place to prevent, you know, an exceedingly rich owner from coming in and doing what they need to do. However, this is not a hard cap, but this is about as close as we're going to get. And the caveat there is the key because you've seen what the Boston Celtics have done. What they have done is just made the calculation that this roster is they've got to get while the getting's good. So they've locked in everyone with the knowledge that eventually, you know, these cap restrictions of the second apron are going to have to cause them to disperse this talent. But for right now, they're willing to bike the bullet in order to keep a championship roster together. That is a very notable difference from the Denver Nuggets. Now, the Nuggets couldn't have paid Bruce Brown what he got on the market. There was no way, there was no functional way the Nuggets could have paid him $23 million or something like that per year, two years, $46 million I think is what he got. And honestly, there's no way the Nuggets could have done that because they could literally, they only could offer him like $6 million. So, because they didn't have his bird rights. So this was obviously something that complicated. And no one blames the Nuggets for losing Bruce Brown. There's just no functional way they could have matched what the market gave him. And that was the first year of the new big, I mean, penalties for the salary floor, which I've talked about. And that is what basically what caused the Indiana Pacers to overpay Bruce Brown. Because if there was not the, you lose your revenue share penalty for the salary floor, I doubt they would have signed Bruce Brown. And the Nuggets would have probably had a punchless chance to keep him. Fast forward to later after they lost Bruce Brown and the choices that were made were very curious and it pointed to the weirdness that we've experienced this year. It was everything after that, after, well, it's actually before that when they drafted three players. But it was shortly after that where they signed all three players to guarantee contracts, including two second round picks where they didn't have to. And I pointed this out last year, how unusual this is because they had already the previous year drafted two players and it's very, very, very unusual for teams that are trying to contend to load up on youth. It is just odd. So you come to 2023, after they lose Bruce Brown, essentially what they did was lock up Reggie Jackson signed Justin Holiday and signed three rookies. Essentially, they already had Reggie Jackson on the roster, obviously, but essentially what they did was replace Bruce Brown and Jeff Green with three rookies and Justin Holiday. And that set in motion, which you've seen this year. The Nuggets have lost, salary dumped, Reggie Jackson lost, continues called, well, Pope, and I'll get to that in just a second. And then they're left with a roster that is half full of rookies who are not rookies, but players on rookie contracts. You have, fully, the Nuggets have 12 players under contract. Six of them, and when they signed their own homes, will be players on rookie contracts. Six. Think about that. Half the roster will be players on rookie contracts. So the Nuggets made a choice, and they made a choice on several different levels. And I do believe you saw a fissure appear. You saw a crack appear in the Nuggets' harmony this offseason. Starting with Michael Malone and Calvin Booth, but extending even farther in that. And in the second half of the podcast, I'm going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about philosophical differences, and I'm going to talk about how the Nuggets kind of exposed themselves due to a series of choices made from ownership down that has left them in the weirdest possible place they could be. But first, I want to talk to you about Belanger Family Wines, located between 18th and 19th, and Blake and Wuzzy in beautiful lower downtown Denver, Colorado, just a couple blocks away from course field. Right in the middle of the area block, they're always online at bfwcolorado.com, they're on Facebook and Instagram, Blanchard Family Wines. All of their wines are good if you like whites, reds, raisins, or russets, anything you like. They really have everything you need in one stop shop. If you want to go to their lower downtown location in the dairy block, but they also have a location in four Collins, and they have one in Golden, and they have, of course, their original location tasting room out there in Sonoma County. I would suggest trying the Pinot, it's really good. Also, the cab's very, very, very nice, but really go down for the vibes. The vibes in the dairy block are great, one of my favorite places to visit. If you're stopping there for a drink before dinner, or if you're just going down for a nice night, Blanchard Family Wines is your place right there in the dairy block. Once again, they're located between 18th and 19th in Blake and Wuzzy in beautiful lower downtown Denver, Colorado, just a couple of blocks away from Coorsfield, or in the middle of the dairy block, they're always online at bfwcolorado.com. They're on Facebook and Instagram, and they're Blanchard Family Wines. When you go in, or you talk to them, tell them Jeff Morton from CSG podcast, send you. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your rider die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one rider die, you're always fined exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need, at the prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your rider die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply, see ebaymotors.com. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance. Uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Why wear a seatbelt? The math speaks for itself. You have a 1 in 40 chance of being in a crash this year. But wearing a seatbelt reduces your risk of serious harm by 50%. The rollover crash, more than three out of five deaths, are from those who weren't wearing theirs. Seatbelts save lives. Over 370,000 in fact, most passengers killed in crashes weren't buckled up. Nobody is above the laws of physics. Buckled up and shifting to safe. A message from the Colorado Department of Transportation. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers, where you'll find over 30,000 mouth-watering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices, plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. You can also save up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with fuel points. More savings and more inspiring flavors make shopping king supers worth it every time. King supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. Life is all about choices. And the nuggets have made some choices the last two years. And when you have the parameter set that your owner will not go into the second apron, you are left with the plan, and it's whether you agree with that plan or not, whether you agree with a choice is made or not. And this is an important distinction, and this is an important thing for people to internalize as you go forward with the choices the Denver nuggets have made. They've made a choice to not trade Michael Porter Jr. They've made a choice not to keep continuous Caldwell Pope. They made a choice to go all in on low first round pick, second round pick rookies. Those are three choices they've made. No one forced them to do it. And it was put into stark relief by the Boston Celtics choosing to keep a very expensive court together, knowing that they'd have to pay the piper. And this is a choice the Boston Celtics made. The Boston Celtics made a choice to keep that roster together. The Denver nuggets chose a different path. And nothing was more clear about that than the uninability to keep contagious Caldwell Pope. The nuggets put out shortly after Pope left. They put out a very terse statement saying that they made a competitive similar offer to contagious Caldwell Pope. This is not true. He didn't come close to contagious Caldwell Pope. Just get that out of your head. Multiple, multiple sources have told me that that's not true. And the nuggets made a choice to not make a similar offer, which was three years, sixty six million to KCP. That was a choice. The nuggets are in a position right now because Stan Cronke probably, I'm not going to call him cheap when it comes to players. But I'm going to say that second flaper, it is a very convenient excuse to not to be capped. Stan's wanted a hard cap for a long time and I would be relatively certain in saying that Stan would like other owners to adhere to this. But the fly in the ointment was Wick Growsbeck and the Boston Celtics who went all in on their championship roster. Honestly, there's a ton of teams in the NBA who won't go into the second apron. They just won't do it. Look at the Clippers. Now the Clippers are kind of weird because if Paul George would have signed the contract they extended, they would have been in the second apron. So it was more of a years thing and I'll be honest with you. I don't think that their statements struck me as genuine. But there is just a feeling throughout the league that if you go into the second apron you're fucked. Pardon my language. So under that circumstance, Stan Cronke who is the owner of the Denver Nuggets would prefer teams adhered to that. But the Boston Celtics basically thumbing their nose at the second apron signing their championship core and saying fuck it, we're going to let it arrive for another couple years is a fly in the ointment of this thing. Both are choices because there is no hard cap in the NBA. Functionally, owners would like to say that there is one, but in reality, there's not. You can go into the second apron. You just are kind of frozen with your roster. But if you're going to like a Boston Celtics are doing, keep your roster together, then you can do it. But I'm not going to describe this as cheap by Stan. Stan will pay for players who won't pay for other things like practice facility, but he'll pay for players. So I'm not going to call Stan cheap when it comes to this, but he does like a cap. And he would like other owners to stick to that cap and I don't think that's going to happen. There was a pivot point this offseason that is so fascinating to me that I don't think people have really begun to sink in. You got another factor here, which is something that I don't think people like to talk about because everyone likes to think the nuggets are in lockstep and in harmony at all times. That's, you know, no team is like that. You got personalities on a team, including up to the front office. When I found notable, and this is just an observation on my part, when I found notable is shortly after the KCP leaving thing happened in the first day of free agency. You heard the rumors of the nuggets and what Russell Westbrook being interested had mutual interest. I am fairly certain that if Nicole Yochich didn't say anything that this wouldn't be something that's floating around right now. Just from an outside observer, I do think that Yochich is like, we can't do this again with the young players, which is just my interpretation, but it just seems from an outside perspective that Yochich and maybe even all the veterans aren't 100% on the team. I'm 100% on board with this. I mean, I don't know for certain, but look, it was Yochich's text that said, like, let's put pedal to the metal and win after the All-Star outbreak. And that came at the exclusion of playing Julian Strathar, who was back healthy. That meant that there would be no Jalen Pickett, that meant there would be no Hunter Tyson. And this was a, if we want to win, this means we can't develop these young guys. And this is, once again, my interpretation of this. But it seems kind of on the nose to me that you suddenly see this interest from Russell Westbrook coming from all indication, Nicole Yochich. We don't think necessarily that the Russell Westbrook fits into what Calvin Booth wants to do. And I do think this is where the line of demarcation is. There is a ton of, there's a ton of different factors happening right now in the league. There's a ton of different elements that are going together to prevent certain things from happening the way they used to happen. The second apron. And there's also the holding pattern with not having the new media deal in, and then, of course, expansion. A lot of this is conspiring to make it a different atmosphere and a weird free agency period. We can all say that these also due to the fact that they could negotiate for about a week before they actually got to the new league year means that a lot of the deals were kind of already pseudo worked on before they, it teams with their own free agents. I would like to point out something that is, for some reason, people aren't talking about. It was announced via Shams, notably only Shams, that the Nuggets offered Jamal Murray a $209 million extension. Notably, Jamal has not signed that. I don't know what it means, but I do know that that announcement was made on the 27th of June. It is now the 5th of July, and there's been no signing. How do we interpret this? And that's another question. There are such weird things happening right now, and a lot of these, and this weirdness is because of the Nuggets choices they made starting last off season. Those choices have cascaded to where they are now. I don't know necessarily what's in Calvin Booth's mind when it comes to this, but I do know to go have half of your roster beyond rookie contracts was a choice. The Nuggets didn't have to go that direction. This was a choice, and a lot of people are convinced that this is the only way the Nuggets can go, and if you are behind Calvin Booth as far as that goes, then you're behind him. But having rumors out there and having it very obvious that from multiple places that Nicola Yokech is pushing for Russell Westbrook, who is probably no longer good, should make you question of the scenarios that are happening right now within the Nuggets. What is happening at ballerina right now? The Nuggets made a series of choices which resulted in the Nuggets exiting the second round during this last postseason, losing to their former general manager, team president, and coming into a full off season of crisis, which you don't have the coach and GM on the same page. I'm not even sure the players are on the same page as the GM, and are they on the same page as the coach? Everyone seems to be rowing at a different speed, and the Nuggets sit with a roster with 12 people. From all indications, it seems like they want to go after Dario Sarich and Russell Westbrook. Well, that's not going to put them over the hump, necessarily, but it's due to choices they made. The Nuggets made the choice to not trade Mike. They still have him on the roster, and don't miss me with the bullshit about he's untratable. Every contract in the NBA is tradable. Russell Westbrook, on his enormous contract, was traded multiple times. Okay, this has missed me with that. Players are tradable. There's Nuggets made a choice to go in on draft picks like this. Low first, early second round draft picks. The Nuggets made a choice to go here. The Nuggets made a choice to be where they're at right now, and it's really down to whether you believe in Calvin Booth about whether you think this team will be going forward in any sort of great capacity. More importantly, it'll be about whether Nicola Yolkich believes in Calvin Booth. At this point, we're left with wondering what the hell is going on with Denver Nuggets. They're in a very, very weird spot, and I don't know if they are on a solid-of-footing organizationally as they led on. From Stan Cronkey making a choice about the second apron being a hard cap to Calvin Booth going with draft picks and filling half of his roster with rookie contracts to Michael Porter Jr. still being on the roster to the Nuggets going after Russell Westbrook. It is all part and parcel to the confusion and weirdness that has been going on with your Denver Nuggets. And I hate that we're here now because I would rather be covering a team that didn't flame out in the second round. I would rather be covering a team that was repeating, but where we're at right now is completely different. And at this point, we need to acknowledge the weirdness and we need to acknowledge that the weirdness is here because of choice. All right, thank you all for joining me on the latest broadcast. I'm going to be back on, I think, probably Monday with another episode. Goodbye. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Why wear a seatbelt? The math speaks for itself. You have a 1 in 40 chance of being in a crash this year, but wearing a seatbelt reduces your risk of serious harm by 50%. In a rollover crash, more than three out of five deaths are from those who weren't wearing theirs. Seatbelts save lives, over 370,000 in fact. Most passengers killed in crashes weren't buckled up. Nobody is above the laws of physics, buckle up and shift in a safe. A message from the Colorado Department of Transportation. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers, where you'll find over 30,000 mouth-watering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices, plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. You can also save up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with fuel points. More savings and more inspiring flavors make shopping king supers worth it every time. King supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply.
Stan Kroenke has desired a hard cap in the NBA since he purchased the Nuggets in 2000. He's got a pseudo hard cap right now. Also the Nuggets have made 'choices' since the offseason of 2023 and choice is how they got to the weird position they are in right now.
