Nuggets. Atleast Bucks tried with Dame

Not saying the Bucks didn’t make mistakes but a lot of their downfall was injury related. Middleton hurt in the ‘22 playoffs, Giannis hurt in ‘23 and ‘24 (and Middleton’s career slipping away), Dame hurt in 25.

Bucks never cheaper out and were incredibly active in the post-chip years. So much of the Nuggets downfall is because the ownership cheaped out on spending deep into the aprons and they gave horrible contracts out (Murray, Nnaji, Braun)

Nuggets

Lopez and Middleton got washed. Not the Bucks fault

Jimmy averaged 37 ppg against Jrue in his last playoff series as a Buck, Dame had a 70 point game 6 months prior to the Dame for Jrue trade. The Bucks do that trade 100 time out of 100

Nuggets overpaid Nnaji, Murray, MPJ, and Braun. Traded a first in 2 consecutive offseasons to OKC to get late firsts and some seconds. Traded a first to get off the MPJ contract

until ANY team wins more than 1 chip in the “Apron Era” this is just silly, we measure success based on how many rings a team has. But now a team is lucky to win twice in the same decade

Nuggets have been consistently 2-4 seeds.

Until they fall off a cliff and become a play in team, they didn’t fumble anything.

The Bucks got unlucky more then anything. Khris Middleton was a stud then age and injury caught up and they didn’t get ahead of it. Brook got old.

Anyone would’ve thought the Bucks with Dame Khris Brook and Giannis was better than the previous team that finished 22-23 with the 1 seed.

The Dame thing didn’t gel, then he got injured so there was never even a pay off and honestly the last couple years are whatever. I’m not going to blame a team for trying to keep Giannis.

Denver has traded out of the first round multiple times and dodged money in ways that are much less defensible. Like Zeke Nnjaji making 8M a year feels like it’s crippling the franchise lol

I don’t think either of them really fumbled.

Milwaukee was old as fuck when they won other than Giannis.

Nuggets missed two years of their window to Murray/Gordon injuries.

Booth was an atrocious GM. Like horrifically bad.

What fucked us was trying to be loyal and pay our homegrown talent. Our timeline overlapped with the new CBA. Which people conveniently forget

Lots of y’all are forgetting the nuggets lost two years of their window to a Jamal Murray acl tear

I think hindsight will be kinder to these teams because sustained success has proven to be extremely difficult/impossible.

That said, the Nuggets are/were consistently at the top of the West every season and have mostly just gotten unlucky with matchups and injuries. The Bucks just got old and had no way out.

the comments here are not giving Denver the benefit of hindsight that they are giving to the Bucks.

The dame trade really did not work – the duo didnt click, their bench and surrounding pieces were bad, and they handed Jrue to the Celtics who immediately won a chip – but we still agree that the decision to trade was sound in principle.

Well with that same logic, from Denver’s PoV,
it wasn’t a bad strategy to operpay your core guys when you have a system that’s working. It limited their flexibility, but it gave them multiple bites at the apple – denver made deep runs and lost in 7 games in 2024 and 2025 largely because 4 out of their starting 5 players had good chemistry and the playoff experience to keep pulling it off in the clutch.

I think there are a definitely potential timelines where some of those denver contracts work out better than they did, and there are also timelines where they decide to trade murray / Ag for a big name and it backfires like the dame trade.

The Bucks didn’t do anything that bad, they just had injuries and got old. Took a big swing with Dame and he got hurt.

The Doc hire was the only really dumb move and it’s not like that made the difference.

i think 21 playoffs took 10 years off khris Middleton dude was balling out

Man we’re gonna be making posts like this about the Knicks in a couple years aren’t we?

Kind of a push. The Bucks tried making moves but they were the wrong ones and the Nuggets thought they had the right players but they weren’t. Think both front offices fucked up with their player evaluation.

Giannis’s health was a factor in the Bucks failure to repeat, so it’s harder for me to blame them than the Nuggets.

I don’t get how they are comparable. Milwaukee let Tucker walk due to not wanting to pay him. The Nuggets could only give Bruce Brown 7 million a year lol. 

Like what truly bad roster moves did the Nuggets make. They lost guys cause their starting 5 is insanely expensive and has continued to be insanely expensive. Calvin Booth was correct to predict that they could only continue sustaining success by hitting on rookie contract guys. Guess what, they did, they got two starters at the end of the first in the same draft in Watson and Braun. 

People are insane to write off Denver this year like they suck

Milwaukee simply drafted like dogshit cause they have always drafted like dogshit

Calvin Booth. Next question

2021 Lakers blowing up the best team and defending champion roster after AD gets hurt

The Bucks took a desperate swing for Dame. Nuggets have not done a move that desperate yet, their belief is Murray is that co star already.

You can debate whether that’s good or bad process.

Nuggets still have a title window open. Regardless of how small those odds are, this is still a good team and things could break right. If that happens, the perception of the FO changes completely.

Bucks will never win with Giannis again. So tentatively, I’m saying Bucks fumbled it worse but if things continue as they are, I’d change my answer.

Yes

Both very similar in that they traded most of their future first round picks to win now.

After Giannis injured Kyrie in game 4 it gave the Bucks a lifeline. If no injury the Nets win the championship that season. They beat the Bucks by 39 in game 2 and were 2-0 up.

Jokic ran the gauntlet in the western conference where it is a bloodbath to get out of the first round.

Well the bucks was a bit of trying to keep 34 happy

Bucks. At least Denver stayed competitive and relevant. The Buck fell of immediately fired good coach then struggled to make the playoffs off and eventually didn’t. At least the nuggets were still to be considered a contender. If it wasn’t for a couple blown leads in the OKC series, the Nugget’s would have had another one. The Bucks were never considered a contender after that ring.

The Bucks where derailed by injuries, every year since the championship 1 core player missed multiple playoff games. Now that they have embraced a youth movement I pray we stay healthy.

The Nuggies

The bucks feel like the late 2000s Cavs trying to keep LeBron happy and never getting a good shot at meaningful players.

The nuggets feel like a cheap owner.

Bucks still had an amazing cast in 2022 but lost middleton their 2nd star. With him they win the east.

Bucks took good chances and tbh had a fantastic cast that just got hurt. Giannis dame pairing never got a real chance outside e afew reg season months.

It is us, and it is not even close. The Bucks did their absolute best to build around Giannis, it just didn’t work out. Otoh the Kroenkes (our ownership group) have always prioritised cost cutting over Jokic’s prime. Everything they’ve done since 2023, from letting championship rotation pieces to walk to hiring the most incompetent GM outside of Nico, has always been in the name of preserving their tax bill. They’ve taken full advantage of the fact that Jokic is a low maintenance superstar.

Honestly, I don’t think the Nuggets were in a position to make poor roster moves for most of their time. They had one choke to the Wolves in 24 running the same roster as 23, 25 multiple players were injured and took the Champs to game 7, 26 multiple players were injured and lost to the Wolves again. Their non-stars could’ve been better but that wouldn’t be enough to overcome injuries and the cap left them with little choice in what to do.

The Bucks got old and injured, but in retrospect the Damian Lillard trade was a much worse move than anything the Nuggets ever did. The injuries, how him and Giannis didn’t really vibe even when healthy, what they had to give up to get him and get rid of him, all of this severely hurt the Bucks. That and getting rid of multiple coaches really puts them over the Nuggets in terms of bad moves.

Idc what the question is the only answer is Kings

Bucks tried a lot until they had to lose giannis before sinking further. Basically handicapped themselves with getting dame too

Definitely the Nuggets. The Bucks made a lot of moves to support Giannis, but injuries just kept getting in the way, including to Giannis. In contrast, the Nuggets made very few significant moves while having the healthiest superstar in the league.

IMO, the Bucks held onto Kris Middleton too long– they should’ve traded him away instead of Jrue Holiday, and they should’ve done it much earlier. Middleton’s injuries were pervasive; if they got somebody 75% as good as him, but available for most of the season, the Bucks would’ve stayed contenders. But even then, Giannis got hurt for the playoffs too many times.

The Nuggets had a bevy of good players they could’ve traded. Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr could’ve been traded at various points for quality options, and even Aaron Gordon at some point could’ve been flipped. They spent a bunch of time trimming the edges in a way that never moved the needle. Jokic was only getting better there, too. They just shouldn’t have stood pat, IMO.

Somehow the answer is the Kings.

Feelsbadman

Bucks never seemed unstoppable. Nuggets looked like they’d dominate for a decade then got worse each year 

post 2022 Warriors.

Without a doubt Nuggets. Thought they had solid chance to win 2 in a row even 3. Gutting bench was just…

Nuggets for sure. All their problems stem from them overpaying all their secondary players. The Bucks just sort of aged out and got shit injury luck. Barring the yearly Gordon injury in the playoffs, none of the other Nuggets issues were due to health. It was overpaying MPJ, Braun, Nnaji, and arguably, Murray, while the Kroenkes also kept being cheap.

Nuggets.

Even in bucks title defense the loss was because of freak injury to khris middleton and he was never the same player after.

I believe if he was never injured they win back to back in 2022.

The post 2011 mavericks! They let Tyson chandler walk, and prioritized having cap space to sign Dwight Howard and Deron williams to make a new big three with Dirk. Of course, they signed neither of those players.

They made the playoffs in 2012 but were swept by the thunder in first round and then didn’t make the playoffs in 2013 only two years after they won the title

Bucks. Since the signing of Middleton for 3yr $93m. They were doomed after that.

Post ‘24 C’s.

8years with a different champion in a row, back 2 back is just impossible during that era.

Nuggets and it is not even remotely close. The Bucks several years in the span 2023-2026 made the choices the Nuggets didn’t had the guts to do, and before considering the weirdest things Bucks did, I basically just refers to sign some good and useful Vet Min guys…

Bucks went all in to get their title. They traded 2 first rounders and 2 pick swaps for Jrue, and it worked. But then Middleton got hurt, and the Dame trade killed all their resources. They at least really tried.

Denver has been letting key players leave for nothing every year since they won, and now traded Watson for a pick that isn’t gonna matter in Jokic’s prime.

I’d be more angry as a Nuggets fan

Nuggets

this is an incomplete story tbh. the bucks are done bc they have nothing left from 2021, but the nuggets still have their core trio. i don’t think they’re gonna win again or anything but if they keep making playoff runs in the future i’m not ready to say how this era went just yet

Bucks tried. They shouldnt be in this convo

At least the nuggets still have Jokic

2021 suns

I really believe to this day. That had Luka been known to be available. The nuggets would have probably offered Jamal Murray aaron Gordon and like 5 firsts for him to be paired with Jokic.

Would it have been enough? Idk. But I truly saw that happening as their big swing. Once he went to the lakers I think they had only soft swings at big players.

I’d say Nuggets easily. The Bucks took big swings and missed. The Nuggets did nothing and just let the roster get older and worse gradually, while trying to build the future with late 1st round and 2nd round draft picks.

I’d much rather have the team that tried to do something than the one that just didn’t try shit.

The Nuggets are lucky that Jokic seems to have absolutely no desire to leave Denver, because if he was almost any other superstar in the NBA, alarm bells would be ringing right now for a Jokic trade demand.

The post 2024 Celtics 

The Bucks FO hired Doc Rivers. They fumbled harder, by far. Last year’s Nuggets weren’t even badly constructed, they just had so many injuries.

Nuggets also let go of Russ, which yea was a hight risk player but also high reward. He had a good chemistry with Jokic and had the grit that that team much needed. I believe he enjoyed being on that team too and this kinda disappointment set him down a path that eventually led to his retirement this year

Nuggets overpaying Braun was the death nail

Bucks. At least the Nuggets still have Jokic

The nuggets have stayed having a pretty damn good roster, they just haven’t got it done.

Personally I thought he dame trade was terrible trade , getting rid of a younger player who helped you win a title for a scorer who doesn’t play defense and needs the ball in his hands when you have Giannis is just bad roster management. Even if dame was healthy, he and Giannis aren’t winning a title. They should have been looking for high quality 3nD types not a high usage guard with no defense.

I think the bucks fumbled much harder.

Bucks made mistakes but they also have missed at least 1 of their top 2 players every playoffs since the title

Nuggets just put together bad rosters

Bucks at least tried with the Dame trade.

Denver for sure. They created one of the most vulnerable champions in history, running a historically weak gauntlet to win the chip, and instead of seeing what we all saw, they just… rested on their laurels.

Milwaukee actually made some moves, and while they didn’t work out, they didn’t take their ring for granted in the way Denver did.

The nuggets are responsible for the biggest waste of a generational player who stayed healthy. Ever. Period.