Spend Later
The most important thing to remember is that the Denver Nuggets do not have to spend another dollar. If they don’t reach the salary floor, they’ll just end up distributing the rest of that space to the players on their roster at the end of the season.
It is also important to note that, in this scenario, not reaching the salary cap ceiling (or even the salary cap floor) does not make the Denver Nuggets cheap; it makes them smart.
Now, I don’t expect the Nuggets to stay put, but they do already have 16 players on their roster, which means that they’d have to cut two of Toupane, Lauvergne or Sampson to make room for any one of the NBA’s not-so-sexy free agents.
So, for me, the question becomes: Is there really an option out there that’s better than a guy like Toupane, and, more importantly, should the Nuggets pay him seven or eight times what Toupane is making just to reach that salary floor?
No!
Here’s the deal: The Denver Nuggets are building towards next offseason, and they’ve outsmarted most everybody in doing so.
While we spent over a year talking about this free agency class and all the money that was set to be handed out, the real prize is the 2017 free agent class, not 2016.
Here’s just a quick list of potential free agents next year:
And that’s only the unrestricted free agents. Yes, we had Kevin Durant this year, but behind him there wasn’t much. Next year will have true star power, and a lot of it. And as of right now, there aren’t many teams that will have the cap flexibility to offer as much as the Denver Nuggets can in 2017, especially with the estimated reduction in next year’s cap.
Today, the Nuggets are projected to have the third-most salary cap space in the NBA next offseason ($22.57 million), but once Danilo Gallinari inevitably opts out, they’ll jump to No. 1 with almost $39 million in space.
That’s almost enough room for two max players, and there will be plenty to choose from.
Now, will those max players choose to come to Denver? That’s a different question entirely, and it’s why it’s so important that the Nuggets have a strong outing this season. They need to show the NBA that they’re on the verge of competing, and they need to show star players that they can win in the Mile High City.
That’s also the reason why getting a seat at the table with Dwyane Wade was so important this offseason. They didn’t get him, but it showed other stars around the league that the Nuggets are an organization worth talking to.
There’s a lot to be excited about with the Denver Nuggets. They’ve placed themselves in an ideal position to succeed in the near future. Now they’ve just got to execute.
We’ll see what they do.
