Nuggets take big tumble on ESPN’s future power rankings

Everyone in Denver knows the Nuggets championship window is closing or maybe it’s already shut — and ESPN’s future power ranking released on Wednesday should alarm NBA fans in Colorado about how bleak the future is, according to the national eye.

The Nuggets fell nine spots from last year’s ninth-best future rating down to 18 in this year’s preseason poll aimed at assesing the three-year outlook of the league’s 30 teams. ESPN analysts Ben Golliver, Zach Kram, Bobby Marks and Dean Oliver rated teams across five categories and put them up against each other using the team’s current roster as 60% of the formula while tossing in the other categories of: front office and coaching staff (management; 11.67%), future draft assets (draft; 11.67), a team’s spending habits and cap situation (money; 11.67%) and the reputation of the city and franchise (market; 5%)

Nuggets score: 53 (18)
Players: 71 (7)
Management: 36 (24)
Draft: 22 (24)
Money: 11 (30)
Market: 46 (18)

The Nuggets money situation has been the top story all summer as ownership has cut a ton of money and talent and the team remains the only franchise in the second apron, let alone above the luxury tax, which they might want to get under, too. Aside from Nikola Jokic and Cameron Johnson’s expiring deals the Nuggets have a ton of money tied up in Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun.

They’ve used some draft picks to get out of other contracts (Michael Porter Jr.) which has fallen the Nuggets to 24th in draft assets, the same spot they occupy for their relatively young front office, despite them getting two votes for NBA Executive of the Year in the form of ownership voice Josh Kroenke.

“The Nuggets took one of the largest tumbles in these rankings after a disappointing first-round loss last spring,” Kram writes. “Denver still boasts one of the league’s best rosters but now ranks last in the money category because it’s the only team currently in the second apron, with plenty of large long-term contracts already on the books even before Jokic presumably signs a new contract next summer.”

Marks points out Jokic’s contract next summer as the biggest looming issue and Golliver wonders if this is the final year in the long-running pairing of the Serbia big and the Canadian point guard, who have defined the most-sucsefful era of Nuggets hoops.

None of what has been written here is a surprise and given the playoff flameout and bummer of an offseason it’s no surprise that the Nuggets have fallen even past where their aging would take them.

Top of the list by the way is Oklahoma City and San Antonio, who Denver figures to be chasing for the rest of the decade — both for Jokic’s legacy and in the standings.

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