No, the Denver Nuggets didn’t land Dwyane Wade, but as owner Josh Kroenke told Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post, “D-Wade was worth the chase.”
From the start, pulling the 12-time All Star away from his NBA home in Miami or his childhood home in Chicago was a long shot, but Tim Connelly and the Nuggets organization were right to go after him with everything they had.
“We made it as difficult as decision as we could, and he struggled with it,” Kroenke said. “My understanding is (Wade) felt the pull of where he grew up.”
And that’s fair. Wade has the right to go home. And his decision is no indictment on the franchise or their recruiting efforts. He simply chose another option, and the Nuggets now have to move forward.
It stings, but when one door closes, another one opens.
“We’re bummed we didn’t get him, but I’m fired up about us headed into the future,” Kroenke said.
The most important step, though, is that the Nuggets begin looking for that open door, even if the opening isn’t much more than a sliver. According to reports, the Nuggets have contacted the Hawks about Paul Millsap, they attempted to get a meeting with Kevin Durant and we all know about D-Wade.
Connelly has big fish on his mind. But do the Nuggets have a big enough boat to reel them in?
Maybe not. But one thing is for sure: The mere fact that they had a meeting with Dwyane Wade has added a few extra square feet to that boat, and that’s why he was “worth the chase.”
