MoneyTalks41890 wrote:jbk1234 wrote:Billl wrote:I’m terms of value, the nuggets did great here. An unprotected pick for a role player? Sure it’s 4 years out, but that’s actually better than a guaranteed late first next year.
Unfortunately, they backed themselves into a position where they are shedding talent for future assets during the prime of a MVP player. The level of cap mismanagement here is just awful.
The problem with contending for a half decade or longer is that it's all but inevitable that you're going to run into cap issues and be depleted of assets. The Murray extension is the one where you didn't need the benefit of hindsight, but if Braun doesn't have a bad seasons immediately coming of his extension, things could have played out very differently.
The Nuggets didn’t have to trade their 2027 and 2029 1sts to OKC for late firsts and salary relief. I’d argue those were two large tax related moves that caused the depletion and weren’t primarily about getting better. And yes the tax issues matter, but it’s not being smart about when to pay it, they just refused to pay it.
If you exclude the flexibility benefit from lowering the tax bill, yes, but there comes a point where if you don't make those moves, you can end up spending yourself into less attractive choices later. The entire reason we have aprons is that teams didn't want to have to emulate the Warriors model where they were spending twice the cap for a half decade or more. The Murray extension was the original sin here, but I don't fault tax teams from moving on from guys who aren't worth their contracts.
