Nuggets free agency notebook: Nikola Jokic’s support of Russell Westbrook, Jamal Murray contract extension update and more

One week after NBA free agency negotiations opened, the Nuggets have made one notable addition, two notable subtractions and dozens of Russ-themed headlines.

Even during a relatively quiet offseason, there’s plenty to sift through.

Why hasn’t Jamal Murray’s extension happened yet?

With one year remaining on his current contract, Nuggets guard Jamal Murray is eligible for up to a four-year, $208.5 million extension this summer, and The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported in June that the two sides are expected to agree to a max deal this offseason. So why hasn’t that extension been signed yet?

Extension talks are on the back-burner right now, but the delay is no reason to sound any alarms. Murray and the Nuggets will likely come to an agreement after the Olympics are done, according to a league source.

Murray has been at national team training camp this week to prepare for the Paris Olympics, a career milestone that he’s been eyeing for years. Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the leaders of a Canadian squad that will face the U.S. in an exhibition game Wednesday in Las Vegas. Murray’s Olympic debut will be July 27 in Lille, France, where Canada faces Greece in a marquee group stage opener. Giannis Antetokounmpo and company officially punched their ticket on Sunday by defeating Croatia.

There’s natural injury risk associated with competing at a high level during the offseason, and Murray was already hindered by a season’s worth of various leg injuries during the NBA playoffs. Staying healthy during international competition will obviously be important for him, with the likely max extension waiting back in Denver.

Murray is a championship-caliber star when he’s at his best. In the 2020 and 2023 playoffs combined, he averaged 26.3 points and 6.9 assists per game on 48.8% shooting (42.3% from three). His ability to elevate his game has been an essential aspect of Denver’s two deepest playoff runs in the Nikola Jokic era. When he wasn’t healthy in 2021 and 2022, the Nuggets didn’t make it past the second round either year.

But the 2024 postseason was easily the worst of Murray’s career when he’s been available — his first time averaging fewer points in the playoffs than in the regular season. He shot 40% from the field and made only 31.5% of his 3s as Denver was eliminated in the second round. As the offseason began, Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth challenged Murray to “do some investigating on what (it) looks like, to make it through a season after playing all the way into June.”

Nikola Jokic’s involvement in consideration of Russell Westbrook

Assuming the Nuggets re-sign DeAndre Jordan, they’ll have one roster spot remaining and still a shortage of ball-handling guards behind Murray. Russell Westbrook remains a target for that role, and Denver is widely seen as the most plausible destination for the future Hall of Famer, who picked up a $4 million player option with the Clippers at the end of June.

Nikola Jokic has indeed endorsed the idea of acquiring Westbrook, according to a league source, but he hasn’t approached the front office demanding or pressuring Denver to make a move. The Nuggets value the opinion of their superstar and take it into account when assessing potential roster moves, like most teams do. In this case? Jokic has spent time around Westbrook at multiple All-Star Games and has always admired his competitiveness and intensity, one source said, making Westbrook an appealing teammate.

The 2016-17 league MVP averaged 11.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists last season, mostly coming off the bench in Los Angeles. He also had one of his best defensive seasons en route to a seventh-place finish in NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting. He struggled, however, in the Clippers’ first-round playoff series against Dallas.

KCP’s first comments in Orlando

The Orlando Magic made their acquisition of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope official over the weekend. Caldwell-Pope, who signed a three-year, $66 million contract ending his two-year Nuggets stint, spoke to reporters in Orlando on Saturday.

“I’m always chasing a championship. But that was one of my ideas, just seeing their progress,” KCP said. “Them making it to the playoffs, taking Cleveland to a Game 7, that was enough for me. They got a little bit of a taste of that pressure, what it takes to get past the first round.”

As for leaving Denver? Caldwell-Pope paused for a moment when asked about the difficulty of his decision to move on.

“It took a while to think about it, I would say, to make my decision on if I’m gonna leave or not. But there was no sense in me waiting to see if (Denver) was going to come back with an offer,” he said. “But my first priority is my family and (to) make sure we’re good at any point. And just being able to be a part of this organization, they wanted me just as much as I wanted to be on this squad as well. That made it much easier to sign here, too.”

State of the roster

Fans understandably grew confused and impatient as nearly a week passed without Denver making a single move in free agency. But the slow pace of this offseason shouldn’t be misinterpreted as lack of effort or vision. Booth traveled to Greece for a reason. Two, actually. Croatian big man Dario Saric was deliberate in his decision-making process, but he was always a top target, one the Nuggets deemed worthy of their taxpayer mid-level exception. They couldn’t have signed him without losing Caldwell-Pope.

And if Denver ends up obtaining Westbrook, he’ll represent a potential two-way upgrade from Jackson at a more affordable price.

What would be the sum of those moves? Will the acquisitions turn out to be worth the sacrifices? Fair questions. On paper, Denver’s starting lineup is still about to get worse without Caldwell-Pope. But the Nuggets are taking a chance on their four-man core being good enough to contend for a championship regardless of who the fifth starter is. This offseason is a bet on Christian Braun, but also an educated guess that whoever the fifth man is will always benefit from playing alongside the other four.

If that’s Jokic’s true superpower, then maybe it’s more prudent to focus on improving a shaky bench by adding players whose skillsets allow Michael Malone to be more malleable with his lineups.

Saric supplies that, in theory. He has a chance to be Jokic’s best backup center in years, but he can also play the four with Jokic, or even space the floor next to two other bigs. Draft pick DaRon Holmes II is similarly versatile. And if Westbrook becomes a Nugget, his shooting limitations would be tricky to navigate, but he also might mesh with Jokic smoothly enough for Denver to feel more comfortable staggering Murray. Maybe Murray and Westbrook would be able to play together in certain configurations. Or maybe Westbrook would be just what the second unit needs, an authoritative floor general.

Whatever the case, Denver was pretty rigid in its reliance on one five-man unit last season after losing Bruce Brown. It was with good reason: Everyone in and around the Nuggets loved being able to tout the best starting five in the NBA.

But not only did that limit younger players’ opportunities to share minutes with multiple starters throughout the regular season; in the end, even the best starting five in the NBA was insufficient against Minnesota.

That leads us to the central question of this offseason: Is breaking up that five-man unit worth the trade-off for better depth?

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