Bruce Brown has been an integral part of the Denver Nuggets. But his contract situation is complicated and the Nuggets may not be able to keep him.
While the Nuggets and their fans will be celebrating their first title in franchise history, the front office will have to get straight back to work preparing for next season. One of the biggest questions will be if they can keep Brown this season and how they can replace him if they can’t.
according to Tim McMahon The Nuggets may have a hard time keeping the Browns next season. He has a player option for next season which he is likely to turn down. If he chooses to, Denver can re-sign, but it will be tough—they can only offer him a first-year salary of $7.8 million, but they can extend that contract with a five percent raise.
Aaron Gordon said of his teammate: “He finna get paid.” Bobby Marks said Brown would look “less” In the amount of 12.2 million dollars annually (which is a mid-level non-tax exception). That would put it outside the Nuggets’ price range but Brown said he wanted to stay and “Money is not everything”.
How can the Nuggets replace Bruce Brown if he leaves?
If the Denver Nuggets are unable to keep him in the off-season, they can trade him in with a rookie — they have two second-round picks in this draft. They can look for a replacement in free agency but they will be working with the same financial constraints and are unlikely to find something better. Along with Brown, the Nuggets will be able to bring him back with all his key pieces intact for next season.
With the way the CBA is designed, the Nuggets are expected to not trade a veteran player but instead find someone they can develop. While Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke has shown he would pay for a championship team (as evidenced by the Rams), if Denver heads into the second tax arena, it will force the Nuggets to work with mid-level exceptions or already have a limited capital project.
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