Denver Nuggets proprietor Josh Kroenke on Tuesday raised the chance that the staff may need to commerce Nikola Jokic in a nasty state of affairs.
Kroenke was talking with the media and answering numerous questions. One factor he mentioned was that the Nuggets, that are projected to have $220 million in salary-cap allocations, are leery about going into the second tax apron. Kroenke mentioned that such ranges of spending might put them into a nasty place that might result in conversations of buying and selling Jokic.
“For us, as a corporation, going into that second apron shouldn’t be essentially one thing that we’re frightened of. I feel there are guidelines round it that we should be very cautious of with our damage historical past. The fallacious particular person will get injured, and really shortly you’re right into a state of affairs that I by no means need to should ponder — and that’s buying and selling [Nikola Jokic],” Kroenke mentioned.
“We’re very acutely aware of that pushing ahead and offering the assets that we are able to when the second arrives. However that second apron — is it a tough cap? I’m not one hundred pc positive, however it’s one thing that groups are clearly very conscious of going ahead.”
The second apron is projected to be at $207.8 million for subsequent season. Groups that spend past that quantity develop into restricted of their roster flexibility. There are a number of restrictions positioned on groups’ potential to make trades, equivalent to salary-matching limits. They will’t use the complete midlevel exception to signal gamers, and there are important luxury-tax penalties, the place the quantity a participant indicators for can price the staff way more in penalties.
The Nuggets confronted the challenges of the second apron after they had been attempting to exchange Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who signed with Orlando final 12 months. Denver has some gamers like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. who’ve damage histories that possible raised these considerations for Kroenke.
Jokic is signed for 2 extra seasons and has a $62.8 million participant choice for the 2027-2028 season. He can think about signing an extension with the Nuggets this offseason or subsequent. Jokic made clear final month he feels like the Nuggets need to improve.
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