Denver Nuggets: A Look At The Salary Cap Situation

Salary cap space is one way to rebuild or add to a team looking to take the next big step in the league.

For the Denver Nuggets, a summer that stirred up the team outlook may force the team to look at all options for improving the overall talent of the team. The thing is, the cap space for Denver is already in place for the next few years.

The amount of money the salary cap has been $58 million over the past three years and increased to $58.679 million this summer. Most key players on the Nuggets have guaranteed contracts for the next couple of years and the next time a chunk of the salary cap is cleared of salaries is after the 2015 season, when they will sit at approximately $41.5 million with the current roster.

However, it’s unreasonable that there will be no additions or subtractions for the next two years. There’s still the NBA draft that brings along guaranteed contracts and a free agency period with the mid-level exception to think about.

While these draft picks and free agents will eat at the salary cap, it’s possible that Denver decides to trade one of their bigger contracts in our to get cap room sooner rather than later. It may be easier if the changes this summer don’t please the highly paid players on the roster.

Currently, the three biggest contracts on the team are Ty Lawson ($10.78 million next season), JaVale McGee ($10.75 million next season) and Danilo Gallinari ($10.14 million next season). If the Nuggets really want to commit to a rebuilding phase, it wouldn’t be too hard to find a buyer for Lawson, while some may be turned away from McGee because of low basketball IQ and Gallinari because of his recent ACL injury.

How much will the team’s success next season affect the core players’, like Ty Lawson, desire to stay long term? (Photo by Keith Allison/Flickr.com)

Since the team’s overall level of talent will be much lower to begin the season than it was last year, Denver will also be in position for a higher pick in next year’s draft, which is often mentioned as one of the deepest classes since 2003. Theoretically, Denver can trade one of their expensive players for assets and gain a higher pick with a temporarily worse team and more cap flexibility sooner.

Committing to a rebuilding period is a huge pill to swallow though, especially coming off the most successful regular season in team history. It must be very difficult for the Nuggets to come forward and push the reset button when they were close to getting out of the first round in a blood bath of a Western Conference race, even with an injury to one of their best players.

The last time the team came to realization that they needed a new direction, they traded Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks and have had much more success than expected, arguably winning that trade. Albeit they no longer have general manager Masai Ujiri, they still have great-value players that can return a good package.

Can the Nuggets have the same success if they give it another try? Are they even that much interested in going down that road again?

It’ll be awhile, probably mid-season, until we see what kind of direction Denver is interested in taking. Nonetheless, there a lot of questions about the future of the team, and we should start seeing some answers this upcoming year.

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