Denver has the best player in basketball and a roster that keeps coming up short.
Nikola Jokic just finished another season that pushed the limits of what a center is supposed to do, and the Denver Nuggets still went out in the first round.
Denver went 54-28, grabbed the third seed in the West, then ran into the Minnesota Timberwolves for the third time in four years and lost in six games.
A center this good does not come along often, and wasting his prime is the danger, so the front office faces real work this summer that decides whether Denver chases a title or settles in as a good team bowing out early.
Why the First Round Got Away
Injuries gutted a shallow roster, with Peyton Watson out the entire series with a hamstring strain and Aaron Gordon hobbled, leaving Denver without two of its best defenders against a long, athletic Minnesota team.
Jamal Murray, fresh off his first All-Star nod while averaging 25.4 points and 7.1 assists over 75 games, never found his shot against a defense built to swarm him, staying under 36 percent for the series.
Denver got hammered on the glass and could not buy a stop late, sinking them even with Jokic at an MVP level.
The Big Swing
The smart move keeps the core together and fixes the edges, starting with Watson, a 23-year-old who guards multiple positions and is worth more than some older, pricier veteran, the call the front office weighs as it decides how to keep Watson without wrecking the books.
The cleanest upgrade runs through Cameron Johnson's expiring $23.1 million deal, the most movable money Denver has, which it can flip for a backup center and a wing who defends and shoots.
The riskier version dangles Gordon, who has missed time in each of the last two postseasons, if the return brings back someone healthier and more reliable.
The Money Squeeze
Every one of those moves runs into the same problem, because Denver has about $212 million committed next season and sits above the luxury tax, the first apron, and right at the second apron, which is why the front office spent the spring hunting for cost-cutting moves.
Jokic and Murray alone eat up $109 million, Gordon sits past $32 million, Braun's $125 million extension kicks in this year, and Jokic is expected to sign a four-year deal worth $278 million himself.
The apron rules pile on, since Denver can trade only its 26th overall pick and has to match salary in any deal it makes.
None of this means breaking up the core, because Jokic, the first player in league history to lead a season in both rebounds and assists, is a foundation any contender wants, and Denver has already sketched out a blueprint for getting back to contention built on keeping Watson and adding shooting and defense.
Running the same group into Minnesota a fourth time is the one thing Denver cannot afford, so the bet has to be tinkering at the margins and trusting that a healthier cast pushes a player this rare back to the conference finals.
