He was the starter that was basically the odd man out. Jokic and Murray were not moving, AG is the fulcrum of the defense and CB was a young building block. Trading MPJ got them below the luxury tax, no doubt about it, but that freed them up to sign much needed depth that everyone said was necessary by just seeing how gassed the starters were by the playoffs. Was Cam MPJ? No, but it wasn’t just Cam they were getting.

Well isn’t it convenient that they fell below the tax

Exactly.

He wasn’t just expensive, they had mostly concluded that they couldn’t really rely on him being healthy when it matters.

It may have helped them cut costs, but it wasn’t an unreasonable calculation to make that Cam Johnson would be a better fit for their needs than a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ shot of MPJ being healthy, or being a complete zero because he’s hurt again.

It was the same thing as the KAT trade.

Na, everything they did this season was to duck the tax. Which they successfully did. So I guess the season was a success for Stan.

Much like Braun’s contract the MPJ/CJ trade was applauded on here when it happened. The sub is just fickled and likes kicking teams when they’re down. That being said the Kroenkes are cheap owners that meddle in the team while refusing to pay the tax or invest in facilities/staff

Cam Johnson has played more than 60 games exactly one time in his career and it was 4 years ago lol what are you talking about

Meanwhile MPJ only missed a total of 6 games combined in the 2 seasons before he was traded

They kicked him and Russ to the curb due to them having bad performances even tho they were playing with one hand

Exactly. The Nuggets got off Jamychal Green’s contract AND got #30, which they used on Peyton Watson.

Milwaukee made gambles that didn’t pay off. Other than firing Bud, most can be defended.

I don’t think they’re necessarily terrible.

I think they are pretty smart, but just constrained by ownership spending.

Kroenke clearly had an order offseason to get under the tax. And they did just about the best you could have done with that constraint.

I mean it’s also just hard to maintain a playoff team without lottery picks for that long

Let’s not act like the bucks and nuggets don’t have the 5th and 6th longest playoff streaks of the 30 team era (Current Celtics (bolstered by the nets picks), 2008-2017 hawks (never won anything), 2004-2013 nuggets (never won anything), 2001-2012 mavs, 2016-2025 bucks and 2018-Present nuggets) yes the teams are struggling to build around their stars but that’s because they are the only teams who have not had a lottery pick and have made the playoffs every year since 2019.

The Bucks had to spend a lot to get Jrue and had little flexibility after Khris destroyed his ankles, and they still tried everything possible to contend. Very different situation

Not OP, but this was an almost perfect ‘social’ experiment. You take two good players and directly swap their environments.

Does the high ceiling/low floor guy get better or worse when you put him on a tanking team? How does the solid role player do with contender-level teammates?

Its just like that 1980s documentary Trading Places.

In another thread, I was making the argument for how good Jokic is.

And I realized a key part of why people underrate Jokic so much is that they haven’t priced in that he plays for a clown show of an organization.

For fucks sake, their practice facility has only 1 court.

Mariah Carey voice

Nuggets live rent free in Laker fans heads

Watson had a 2nd round draft grade. They almost certainly could have gotten him in the 2nd round.

It’s sad that Connelly making that trade for Gobert right away immediately took all the narrative and got him wrongfully criticized. Even at the time, I knew it was a good trade, but now everyone knows. If not for that, we all would’ve been talking way more about the Nuggets letting Connelly leave as one of the worst owner decisions.

Nikola Jokic has an extension to sign. So now is a pretty relevant time to evaluate the Kroenke ownership group.

I mean timberwolves were also missing:
Anthony Edwards (Left Knee Bone Bruise), Donte DiVincenzo (Torn Achilles), Ayo Dosunmu (Calf Soreness) and Kyle Anderson (Illness)
Oh also Bones Hyland only played 9mins. game 6 due to Left Knee Soreness sustained game 5 and was listed as questionable game 6.

Nuggets lost cuz they got outplayed

Yes. It turns out when you kill your team’s depth, it makes it more difficult to deal with injuries. 

I thought only picks like 45 or worse were being sold for cash. The CBA shouldn’t even allow that kind of cheap move, anyway.

27 for 46 (Erick Green who never played a single minute) and cash. You can’t sell a 1st for cash only, but this is the next closest thing, Sarver used to do it all the time.

KCP over Westbrook might have swung the OKC series in 2025

It was clearly at least heavily motivated by tax costs.

That 2032 unprotected Nuggets pick is extremely valuable. That was their only asset, and they didn’t use it to get meaningfully better.

Conveniently, they did get below the tax line though.

There is no logical argument against the idea that the MPJ trade was motivated by avoiding his contract. I supported the trade and still do but it was 100% motivated by a desire to get off his contract

He probably a joker fan trying to make excuses for why he’s sitting at home watching the playoffs like us. 

That’s what every nuggets fan says it was

Why do you feel a sense of solidarity with a cheap owner ? I feel like Nuggets fans should be in the frontrow of the hate train.

I mean you could say that OP’s take about JaMychal Green and MPJ is wrong.
but mman that Rudy Gobert pick and swap in 2013 is soooo ironic (maybe lil bit funny) to think about it lol. Especially since the dude is responsible for eliminating Nuggets in 2 different seasons