The Denver Nuggets won their first-ever NBA championship just about 14 months ago. In NBA years, that is a lifetime. So many things can change in just 14 months in the NBA. One thing that changes easily is perception. The Nuggets have gone from being the team to beat in the league to a team whose title credentials are being doubted. Well, they are trying to do a difficult thing. The Nuggets are attempting to do the two-timeline approach the Warriors couldn’t do.
Nuggets Attempting to Do Two-Timeline Approach Warriors Couldn’t Do
When the Nuggets won a championship for the first time in their 40-year history, the world was their oyster. Nikola Jokić was (and still is) the best player in the world. Their core of Jokić, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon were either tied up to long-term contracts or had some agreement in place. They brushed aside the opposition easily, ending up with a 16-4 postseason record—so easily that people began to try to diminish it.
The sky was the limit. The stage was set for a title repeat. Well, it was all set until free agency came around. Then the Nuggets suffered two significant blows, losing Bruce Brown and Jeff Green to the Pacers and Rockets, respectively. In Brown’s case, he outplayed his contract with the Nuggets. Initially on a two-year, $13 million contract, he became an impact player for the Nuggets off the bench. Teams in the 2023 off-season were willing to pay Brown the full mid-level exception. The Nuggets, being capped out and not having his Bird rights, couldn’t compete with those offers. He eventually signed with the Pacers on a one-plus-one $45 million contract. Similarly, Jeff Green got a pay raise, agreeing to a two-year, $16 million deal with the Rockets.
Rotation Getting Worse?
After getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Timberwolves in the second round, the Nuggets faced a familiar battle in the 2024 off-season trying to hold onto a key free agent of theirs. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the free agent of interest this time. They lost their best guard defender, who also doubled as an important off-the-catch shooter. They also lost one of the few veterans they had off the bench in Reggie Jackson—a guy whose value to the team grew from year one to year two of his stay in Mile High. Perhaps his increased usage was a telling sign of how much the Nuggets’ bench had changed. They had to depend on someone who barely saw minutes during their charmed playoff run.
Throughout the 2024 season, the Nuggets’ bench was the aspect most analysts kept pointing to as the chink in the Nuggets’ armor. As we attested earlier, it got significantly weaker the previous offseason. The West got stronger. That weaker bench affected their team in more ways than one. It led to a tired team that faced two bruising opponents in the Playoffs—the Lakers and Timberwolves.
That tough route could have been avoided if the Nuggets had finished the job against the Spurs. In the penultimate game of the season, the Spurs staged a 23-point comeback behind some Victor Wembanyama heroics. A different path in the playoffs could have been more fruitful if they had a bench to stop the bleeding in that game. It’s really no surprise that they were tied for the third-most comeback victories last season. The Nuggets have chosen the two-timeline approach to solve their bench.
The Nuggets Young Players
As a result of losing KCP this year and Bruce Brown last year the Nuggets’ young players will now have more significant roles. Third-year guard Christian Braun, second-year guard Julian Strawther, and versatile third-year forward Peyton Watson will all have to step up. All of these players have the potential however, balancing developing young players with trying to compete for a title is a difficult task. Additionally, Braun is the only player to ever averaged 20 or more minutes.
Two-Timeline Thing the Warriors Failed to Do?
Necessity is the mother of innovation. The Warriors happened upon the two-timeline approach. This was a team that had been perennial contenders for five years, making five straight NBA finals and winning three championships.
Their 2019-20 season was wrecked by injuries to their stars. They finished with the league’s worst 15-50 record, which gave them the second overall pick, which they used to draft James Wiseman.
Still, it’s important to remember that this is what Joe Lacob wanted all along: “a two-tiered plan” for his team. The Warriors had plans to contend for championships behind the core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson while developing players for the future.
In addition to Wiseman, they drafted Jordan Poole in 2019, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody in 2021, and Brandin Podziemski in 2023, all in the first round. To be fair to the Warriors, they did achieve some success with this two-timeline plan: they won a championship in 2022. Poole carved out an important role in their playoff rotation, ultimately finishing the season averaging 18.5 points and four assists.
Where It Went Wrong for the Warriors
The 2022-23 season started off with the Warriors gambling on youth, letting Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II walk in free agency. Eventually, things took a turn for the worse after that infamous punch by Draymond on Poole. That punch set them up for an awkward and challenging 2022-23 season.
Poole, to his credit, increased his points output (20.4 PPG), though his efficiency took a dip. A player who usually likes to avoid the spotlight was put in the center of it after the incident with Draymond. Having to deal with constant questions and media attention, it was no surprise to see his efficiency suffer. He was eventually traded to the Wizards for Chris Paul in the 2023 off-season.
Wiseman never panned out despite the high expectations the Warriors organization had for him as their dream big man. He was traded for Payton, who the Warriors had lost in free agency. That move was made to save a season that was teetering on the brink. Perhaps we can’t hold that failed pick too much against the Warriors; that draft was such a strange one, with COVID affecting how teams evaluated talent.
Kuminga, Moody, and Podziemski are still on the team. Kuminga has been asking for a bigger role for years now, even ‘leaking info’ to the media to force something to happen. Moody is still struggling to get a consistent role in Steve Kerr‘s rotations. Podz is perhaps a shining light in the Warriors’ two-timeline approach. In his rookie season, he has gained Steve Kerr’s trust. By contrast, it took Kuminga three years to gain Kerr’s trust.
In Article II, we will go deeper into how the Nuggets are trying to implement the two-timeline approach.
