BREAKING: Nuggets owner's stunning admission just left Nikola Jokic with only one option
Denver Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke made truly bizarre comments about the future of the team, its willingness to pay the second apron, and how the wrong move or injury could force the franchise to trade Nikola Jokic. The monologue remains equal parts pointless and concerning, and it should prompt the three-time MVP to take matters into his own hands...by rejecting the extension he's about to be offered.
Jokic is eligible to sign a three-year, $212.5 million deal this summer that would keep him on the Mile High's books through the 2029-30 season. Kroenke alluded to the extension during his whatever-the-heck-that-was press conference, and why Denver's big man may not sign it.
Under normal circumstances, Jokic might pass on putting pen to paper so that he could land a longer, more lucrative deal next summer, to the tune of four years and an estimated $293.4 million. And relative to how the 30-year-old has handled his future in the past, even rejecting an extension with the intention to ink one later would be a dramatic move.
For Nuggets fans' sakes, not to mention his own, Jokic officially needs to step outside his comfort zone. And it has virtually nothing to do with securing himself more long-term money.
Josh Kroenke is hiding behind the second apron
Bemoaning the challenges and dangers of the second apron is next-level cringey. The entire scope of Kroenke’s comments covers more ground than the snippets floating around, but full context doesn’t change the underlying message: Denver will not continue to spend and take risks without weighing the consequences of the second apron, and its team-building restrictions.
That is all understandable, and should go without saying. Verbalizing it, though, proves yet again the Nuggets are preparing to run back the same product that wasn’t good enough this past season, and likely won’t be good enough as a result next year, either.
This complacency will persist under the guise of inflexibility, and of the dreaded second apron. That is first-rate nonsense. Denver may not be flush with assets, but it has cards to play—names and future draft picks it can still peddle in trade talks, as well as the mini mid-level exception of $5.7 million.
Moreover, the team’s difficult-to-navigate situation isn’t Jokic’s problem. And Kroenke using the second apron as cover for relative inaction is inane.
The NBA’s owners supported the second apron for this very reason: so they could have excuses not to spend or take risks, and to whine about how it’s tantamount to a hard cap. The second apron is a convenient patsy of their own creation, a way of covering up for their commitment to self-interest (i.e. their wallets).
Here's how Jokic can flip the script
It should not be on Jokic to shower the Nuggets with a cold dose of reality. But he called for improvements, for actual depth, at the end of their playoff run. It’s becoming increasingly clear he won’t get it unless he leverages Denver’s C-Suite into doing its job.
Rejecting the extension should create the unrest necessary for Kroenke and his minions to reconsider their scaredy-cat tactics. Jokic may not actually want to leave the Nuggets, but even the faintest possibility of his being unhappy should have the suits turning over every rock on the trade and free-agency markets to field a better and deeper team than last year.
Signing the extension simply lets Denver off the hook. The Nuggets no longer deserve that luxury. They haven’t earned it. The Nuggets have the best player in the world on their roster. It’s time they started acting like it. Jokic has the power to make sure they do, and as out of character as it may be, he needs to exert it—now more than ever.