2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Jokic sprinted pretty damn fast to have a word with McDaniels

 

Nuggets will beat Minny. Jokic is about to lock in. No ANT+DVV will be a problem. I don't expect Ayo to carry them again.

 

can the wolves win one more game without edwards?

i doubt it

 

I think we need Austin Reaves back. Bench too thin i think Luke Lebron need and Let Luka rest for OKC

Lu Dort is lowkey a very dirty player.

 

they've got one more home game, so maybe they just have an insane roleplayer shooting night or finch comes up with some funky gameplan, but yeah, jokic is definitely going to go into god mode for 1 or 2 of these games.

 

he is dirty.

 

LoL what a piece of NBA analytics

‘Someone stole my underwear’: Jokić’s bizarre night mirrors Denver’s collapse
Denver's Nikola Jokić looks on during a playoff game versus Minnesota


Jason Quick
By Jason Quick
April 26, 2026Updated 8:43 am PDT



MINNEAPOLIS — The smoke had cleared from the latest — and most painful — loss of the season, 112-96 on Saturday, and back in the Denver Nuggets’ locker room, Nikola Jokić emerged from the showers and had a startling revelation.

The most necessary item he needed to get dressed was missing.

“Someone stole my underwear,’’ Jokić announced, part alarmed, part panicked, part irritated.

He looked up, down, to the left, to the right, bewildered, frustrated and with utter, you’ve-gotta-be-kidding-me disbelief.

The way the Minnesota Timberwolves defense has been this series — so handsy, so brazen, so up-in-your-business — it wouldn’t be shocking to see either Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert or Julius Randle suddenly appear from around the corner holding Jokić’s briefs. Heck, the Timberwolves have stolen everything else from the Nuggets: the series lead, home-court advantage, momentum and a considerable amount of Denver’s pride

 

Yeah, they could chose to operate over the cap. They have to determine what the best option is for them.

Over the cap means Kennard is limited to 13.7 and Smart is limited to the full non-tax-payer MLE of about 15.1 million. But there is no cap on how much you could pay Lebron and Rui, as long as you stay under the first apron (since you are using the MLE). Although, you don't want to pay them too much anyway. This is the best option if you want to try to keep all 4 players, but don't mind if Smart or Kennard end up walking. This is too high risk imo, since both are highly valuable. Go this route if already agreed to by Smart and Kennard, and sign them first.

Using cap-room means you could pay Kennard and Smart a little more than 13.7 and 15.1, if needed. Lebron and Rui would have to split whatever is left. So, there is an overall limit that needs to be divided between the 4 players, unless you chose to let Rui walk. Lets say, Smart get 16 million, and Kennard gets 15.1 million in this example. You would then have 26.7 million to use on Lebron and Rui. If Lebron gets 20 million, then you only have 3.7 million left. Rui gets squeezed, but you at least secured the two valuable players in Smart and Kennard. Lets say Rui passes on the 3.7 million, you then have the 9.3 million room-exception. You could split that 50/50 between Rui and Hayes, where they get about 4.7 million each. You risk loosing these guys, and you might end up having to pick Hayes. With the under the cap option, you cold go over the 1st apron, unless you do a sign and trade or something like that.

Basically, the cap-room option ensures that you have money for the most valuable players, but it jeopardizes letting Rui walk, unless he wants to take a significant pay cut.

Both options have their pros and cons. I would lean towards the cap room option, unless you get some indication from Smart and Kennard that they will sign for those numbers. If Smart and Kennard agree to this, operating over the cap would be ideal. At this point, I would prefer to just sign our own players with bird-rights, because we are likely not going to have enough money for the free agent market anyway, and the free agent market is weak. Also, we might have a better chance signing and trading Rui for somebody. The best path to upgrade 3 and D might be via trade. Weather that trade is using our existing trade ballast, draft picks, sign and trade, etc.

 

Awful- he’s been one of my favorite non-Lakers since he came into the League.

 

I was going to type the exact same thing. Game one against OKC, have Maxi start and injure Dort before he has the chance to injure one of our guys. I would rather not have it this way, but that’s what should happen when you have an impatent Commish.
It’s that simple. If the League isn’t going to do anything…

 

Raptors 38, Cavs 36. Halftime.

 

oops, you and svtzr are right...i thought kennard's contract was an old one, not from last summer. so yeah, only non-bird there.

 

Yeah, that sucks. Which option would you go with? The over the cap option makes it so we could reasonably resign all of Lebron, Smart, Kennard, Rui, and Hayes. But, it caps Kennard at 13.7 and Smart at the 15.1 MLE. Using cap room raises the ceilings for Smart and Kennard, but puts a cap on Lebron, and makes it really hard to retain Rui. Also, Hayes with part of the room ex is good in terms of using the other part for a free agent during the season, but might not be the most efficient use of that tool. As long as we could keep LeBron, Smart, Hayes, and one of Kennard or Rui, I'm good with either option.