(Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)
It’s hard to win an NBA championship, but it’s even more difficult to keep a championship-caliber team together for the long run.
That’s particularly true under the new CBA, as it hampers teams’ abilities to keep multiple stars together and stack up talent to prevent superteams and keep the competitive balance around the league.
Notably, the Denver Nuggets already found that out the hard way ahead of their season as defending champions, as they had no choice but to let Bruce Brown go in free agency because they couldn’t match the big-money offers he got somewhere else.
Now, they could go through the very same thing again, this time with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
According to a report by Mike Scotto of HoopsHype, the Nuggets are currently very concerned with the fact that teams with cap space could offer Caldwell-Pope an offer similar to what Brown got, as he could get over $20 million per season (via Evan Sidery).
The Nuggets have concerns Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could earn a deal in free agency similar to Bruce Brown, per @MikeAScotto (https://t.co/c7wZcnqt1v).
A team flush with cap space could offer Caldwell-Pope well over $20 million annually to price out Denver. pic.twitter.com/rY4brySnEy
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) June 15, 2024
Needless to say, that would pretty much mean the Nuggets would be outbid and priced out of the race for his services.
Of course, we’ve seen players take pay cuts to stay with their current teams in the past, but that’s rarely the case with role players, especially those who could be looking at a big payday.
Caldwell-Pope is a streaky scorer, but he’s proven that he can shoot the ball from all three levels and knock down timely shots, not to mention his solid and pesky backcourt defense, so multiple teams could definitely use his services.
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