DENVER — Josh Kroenke spent a good chunk of Friday’s end-of-season presser showering Aaron Gordon with praise. Gordon is one of his favorite human beings across the entire Kroenke sports empire. What he’s gone through personally since the 2023 championship is tragic. The organization needs to rally around him, help him get right, figure this out together. He loves the guy. All of Nuggets nation does.
And then, Kroenke alluded to where his club is heading.
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I asked whether the team would consider trading the player fans call “Mr. Nugget.” Kroenke told me he doesn’t deal with nicknames. He talked about “some things that we’re going to have to look at” and “challenging conversations” ahead. He repeated twice — for emphasis — that “everything is on the table outside of trading Nikola,” and notably did not extend that same protection to Gordon or anyone else on the roster.
Kroenke knew questions about Gordon were coming. He answered mine with warmth and empathy and respect, and then he focused on the business.
As I wrote days ago, Gordon’s name is already circulating in trade discussions. The Lakers, Suns and Celtics are among realistic suitors, per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints. The Nuggets aren’t treating him as a salary dump — they want real assets back, a starter and draft capital — but the conversations are happening. Friday’s presser didn’t shut that door. It opened it further, despite talks throughout the availability that running it back is also an option.
The case for trading Gordon has never been about his talent. It’s always been about availability and money, and those two things are now conspiring against keeping Mr. Nugget in Denver. Gordon played in just 36 games this season. He’s appeared in less than half of Denver’s regular-season games over the past two years. He missed the final two games of the first-round loss to Minnesota with a calf injury — the same series where the Nuggets needed his physicality, his ball-handling, his ability to guard Jaden McDaniels. He wasn’t there, and neither was his backup at power forward, Peyton Watson.
Gordon’s four-year, $133 million extension kicks in next season at roughly $32 million per year. The Nuggets already have more than $203 million in guaranteed money on their books for just eight players. Watson hits restricted free agency this summer, and both co-GMs said Friday they hope he’s “a Nugget for a very long time.” Something — or someone — is likely to give. Running it back in full would push the team’s total salary near $250 million and trigger an additional $200 million in luxury tax penalties.
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“If we deem running it back the most competitive thing that we can do for the roster, that’s probably what we’re going to be doing,” Kroenke said.
But Kroenke’s words on Friday don’t match the club’s history or the likely outcome. And it wasn’t just the boss’ comments about Gordon that carried weight. It was what David Adelman said about what happened to the team when Gordon came back.
He explained candidly that during the long stretches without Gordon, the Nuggets were “forced to be something completely different” offensively — a spread-out, three-point-heavy attack built around Jokic as a hub with shooters spaced around him. It worked. Denver led the NBA in 3-point percentage at 39.6% and scored the most points in the league. The offense hummed. Adelman said if you had Cameron Johnson at the four, “you should be shooting 40-plus threes a game. That’s how you’re going to win games.”
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Then Gordon returned, and Adelman said the team “tried to revert back to a different style.” The spacing changed. The shot diet changed. And the messaging, in Adelman’s own words, became “very inconsistent because of the roster we had at different weeks.” That’s the head coach telling you — publicly, at the podium, with the owner sitting next to him — that integrating Gordon back into the offense was a problem he couldn’t cleanly solve.
That doesn’t mean Gordon was the problem. There’s a reason he dominated Friday’s presser more than any player not named Nikola Jokic. When he played, Denver outscored opponents by 13.8 points per 100 possessions
Gordon remains one of the most unique players in the league — a 6-foot-9 forward who can guard nearly everybody, handle the ball against pressure, finish above the rim, shoot at a high clip and connect every action in Denver’s offense. Adelman said as much: “Aaron is such a unique player in our league. There’s guys similar to him in certain attributes, but I think he’s unique to himself.”
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The problem is that the Nuggets had to keep changing identities this year and Gordon was in the middle of that. Adelman was one of many voices on Friday who echoed something plainly obvious as it was happening: the Nuggets just couldn’t find a rhythm this year because of the constant hits to their roster.
So when it came time to play the playoffs, Minnesota could once again weaponize ball pressure and athleticism in ways that overwhelmed Denver.
“That’s the new NBA,” he said. “These teams have athletes. They pick you up. It’s hard to find a good matchup.”
Adelman’s solution moving forward: more ball-handlers, more guys who can bring it up the floor, more resilience against pressure by committee.
Kroenke used the word “complacency” multiple times Friday. He said he saw it “in some areas, in some people this year.”
Kroenke wouldn’t name names. But when he was asked specifically about Gordon and whether the missed games factor into the evaluation, he pivoted to “we have to have some challenging conversations about getting better” and “we have to all look in the mirror, saying how can we help AG?”
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Read that however you want, but when an owner starts publicly saying a big-name player needs help getting healthy, the next conversation is usually about whether somebody else is better suited for the job.
The Nuggets may not even be here without getting Gordon in the first place, his acquisition was the trade that first stamped them as a real title threat. He’s done everything anyone’s ever asked and he’s given back by parading through the streets to connect with the community. Recently, Gordon did the team-friendly thing and picked up his player option last summer. He played in a Game 7 with a severe injury. He’s been through genuine personal tragedy since the championship with the death of his brother that Kroenke alluded to with visible emotion. The fans love him in a way that transcends basketball. He earned the “Mr. Nugget” nickname — even if Kroenke apparently doesn’t care for it.
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But the Nuggets are staring down a financial cliff with Jokic, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun, while Watson is in need of a new deal, and ownership has consistently signaled it wants flexibility. The team is already scouting players at the position — St. John’s Zuby Ejiofor has a post-combine workout scheduled with Denver, a switchable, defensive-minded big who profiles as exactly the kind of cost-controlled frontcourt piece you’d draft at No. 26 if you were planning for life after Gordon.
“Everything has to be on the table, including running it back,” Kroenke said. “I really do believe in the group of people that were assembled.”
He does believe in them. He also believes in financial flexibility and has proven that consistently including at this past trade deadline. The repeater tax clock is ticking, and not paying deep into the second apron for a first-round exit team seems more on brand for KSE.
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Josh the emotional fan and Josh the son of one of the richest men in the world, tasked with running a team at a profit, are going to collide this summer. And when they do, the player perhaps most likely to be caught in the middle is the one Josh spent Friday praising as a wonderful human being before explaining, in the gentlest possible terms, why wonderful might not be enough.