From Nikola Jokić to Christian Braun and beyond, Calvin Booth’s vision for a Nuggets dynasty

DENVER — Bruce Brown was a key contributor to the Denver Nuggets’ championship run and is a very good NBA player.

There’s no debating that much. But when the 27-year-old swingman made a liar out of Michael Malone in late June, signing with the Indiana Pacers less than three weeks after the Nuggets coach swore (literally) that they were “running this s— back” during his championship parade performance for the ages, the Nuggets saw the widespread doubt sparked by Brown’s departure as disproportionate. Disrespectful, even.

To some, including on-court foes like the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell, it was as if the Nuggets had already fallen short in their attempt to defend the title before the next training camp had even arrived. And before long, the spotlight that they’d earned en route to winning it all would shift back to teams such as Phoenix, Milwaukee and Boston that were loading up with stars by way of blockbuster moves.

Yet as Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth saw it, this offseason was a chance to take the long view even more than before. To lean into the ethos that got them to the top in the first place. If they were going to build the kind of program that has serious staying power, maximizing the primes of Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray while having the kind of sustained success the Warriors and Spurs teams of the past pulled off, then short-term solutions were no longer the way to go.

Enter Christian Braun, the unofficial poster child for Phase II of the Nuggets’ dynasty plan.

No one within the organization is anointing the 22-year-old guard who was taken 21st in the 2022 draft out of Kansas as some kind of post-Brown savior, though Booth has been known to compare him to the early (and underrated) version of Jimmy Butler. The internal enthusiasm about his ceiling is, well, through the roof. And when it comes to the bigger picture at play here, this much is evident: their choice to protect the ascent of a promising second-year player has everything to do with the larger strategy that’s unfolding.

“Considering our injuries and everything (to key players in recent years), we probably won the title before anybody had us winning a title,” Booth told The Athletic at Ball Arena recently while standing near the same Nuggets locker room where they’d all been soaked in champagne just three and a half months before. “So take a breath, take inventory of where you’re at and (realize that) the goal shouldn’t be to win two (titles). It should be to win three or four or however many you can win in this window when we have this player (in Jokić) who seems to be transcendent and another guy (in Murray) who’s still coming and who looks like he’s going to be solidly in the Hall of Fame conversation. That was our thought process.”

In today’s NBA, where the exorbitant cost of having multiple star players means it’s harder than ever to find free-agency money for a top-tier supporting cast, the draft is vitally important to the Nuggets’ plans for longevity. Considering the history of their core, with Jokić, Murray and Michael Porter Jr. all coming to Denver by way of the draft, it’s both a fitting approach and one that runs counter to how the basketball business is done in so much of the Association.

But the hardest part is already done. They have the core that has already proven to be worthy of title contention — “the best starting five in basketball,” as Booth put it — and the annual challenge now is to scout well enough to pick the right young players who fit the basketball needs of their best players. Booth points to the Spurs of old as evidence, noting how R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich almost always found a productive player late in the draft during all those years when Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were winning championships.

Of all the historical blueprints out there, this mid-market map is the one they hold most dear. The approach comes with short-term risk, as young players typically struggle to make a consistent impact on elite teams. The possible reward, though, is the chance to have a long runway and the kind of roster continuity that is so rare these days. And Booth, the 47-year-old former player who joined the Nuggets’ front office in 2017 and became general manager last season after Tim Connelly’s departure to Minnesota, is convinced they can do it.

“I do a lot of studying of past trends and history, so how do you try to do what San Antonio did?” Booth said. “We have a window where you can maybe give yourself a chance at making the Finals. And if you make the Finals a number of times and you win half of those times, how many trophies is that? So my mind goes to that kind of thing. How do we optimize this?

“We’re going to have to learn to block the outside noise. Like, ‘Why didn’t you put a veteran team together and try to repeat?’ You have to be willing to take all that criticism, because I don’t think it’s the right thing — especially for this team and the developmental stage we’re at — to go quote-unquote all-in on a repeat. So we don’t get the repeat. Then what? What if we won one out of the next two? What if we won two out of the next four?”

Role player rebuild, from Brown to Braun on down

In case anyone forgot, the notion of Brown returning to Denver in free agency never made sense. The Nuggets could only pay him a starting salary of $7.8 million — or, to put it another way, approximately 35 percent of what the Pacers would ultimately give him when he signed a two-year, $45 million deal to come their way (team option in the second season). Still, the combination of championship vibes and champagne (or copious amounts of parade day beer, in Malone’s case) made you wonder if he might actually think about running it back.

“Is Brucie B going anywhere?” Malone, sporting shades and a necklace as big as a belt, shouted to the Nuggets masses in downtown Denver on that June 15 day. “Hell no. Hellll no. Hell no. Hey, we’re running this s— back. We’re running this s— back.”

Michael Malone: "Is Brucey B going anywhere? Hell no! We're running this shit back!" pic.twitter.com/TGd7nNZklU

— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) June 15, 2023

But once everyone sobered up and realized Brown would be gone, Booth explained, the Nuggets had to decide whether to put their full faith in Braun or opt for the best veteran player they could afford on the open market. Of all the names they seriously pondered, 32-year-old Torrey Craig was on the top the list.

“We looked at Torrey pretty hard,” Booth said of the former Nugget who ultimately signed with the Bulls. “We went pretty far down that road and just decided that the development of Christian Braun, and to a lesser extent Peyton Watson (a 21-year-old swingman who was taken 30th overall out of UCLA in 2022), was absolutely necessary. You don’t want to get on this hamster wheel of Torrey coming in on a minimum (salary deal) or whatever we would have given him, playing for one year, and then doing (like) Bruce and going somewhere else. And now you’ve got to find another Torrey or another Bruce.

“You don’t have continuity. It’s an unknown. You don’t know who’s gonna be in the market in that (financial) territory. So I felt like trying to develop from within and keeping our playoff minutes in the building (was important). This summer, they left the building with Bruce Brown and Jeff Green (who signed with the Rockets). …But it’s hard to sustain a program when you have playoff minutes that leave the building every single year.”

Of all the playoff outings that gave the Nuggets faith in Braun, none were better than the Game 3 Finals outing against Miami in which he had 15 points (7-of-8 shooting) and four rebounds in 19 minutes while the Nuggets won 109-94 to take a 2-1 series lead. The third-quarter sequence shown below — a layup off a perfect cut toward the passing Jokić, a steal on the other end and the above-the-rim finish — featured the best of what Braun can offer. It was, as the Nuggets saw it, a sign of things to come.

But it was also an outlier. Braun, who had his $3.1 million club option for 2024-25 picked up this summer, averaged just 3.2 points in the playoffs while scoring in double digits just that once and averaging 12.9 minutes (including a combined 20 minutes in three games against the Lakers in the West finals). Brown, meanwhile, averaged 12 points, four rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 26.6 minutes while proving to be one of the Nuggets’ most vital defenders.

As Booth is well aware, this strong belief that they can find the solutions in-house will likely be met with, well, continued skepticism from most observers on the outside. He doesn’t seem to care much, though. And make no mistake: His bullishness on the Nuggets’ role players doesn’t stop with Braun.

Take his view on veteran guard Reggie Jackson, for example. After signing with the Nuggets in February and making minimal impact in 16 regular-season games, he played just 18 combined minutes in six playoff games. But to hear Booth tell it, the 32-year-old has impressed during offseason workouts and looks primed for quite the comeback year — again.

“I kind of have a book on Reggie where people think he’s done and then he comes back,” Booth said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he won Sixth Man of the Year. That’s just who the guy is. He was dead and buried in Detroit, and then he averaged 19 points two years ago (in actuality, it was 16.8 points for the Clippers in the 2021-22 season). The guy’s resilient.”

As is always the case, the results will ultimately speak for themselves. But Booth’s extreme confidence in what they have extends from Braun to Jackson and beyond. If Booth has his way, he and his staff will go five-for-five, so to speak, on the draft picks they’ve brought in these past two years. And with this group needing role player support sooner rather than later, the choice to target older prospects is clearly by design.

Julian Strawther, a 21-year-old, 6-foot-7 guard who played three seasons at Gonzaga and averaged 15.2 points as a junior, was taken with the 29th pick. Jalen Pickett, the 23-year-old, 6-4 guard who was Penn State’s first All-American since 1955 last season after averaging  17.7 points per game, was their pick at No. 32. Hunter Tyson, a 23-year-old, 6-8 forward who averaged 15.3 points and 9.6 for Clemson last season, was taken at No. 37. Pickett, above the rest, looks to have the best chance to earn rotation minutes from the start.

“We drafted Jalen Pickett, who took Penn State into territories they haven’t been in before,” Booth said of Pickett’s Nittany Lions team that won its first NCAA Tournament game (over Texas A&M) in more than 20 years before falling to Texas in the second round. “It was basically him. And these (older) guards that proved to be NBA players, they have an impact quick, right? Jalen Brunson, Austin Reaves. (Fred) VanVleet spent a year in the G League, but the following year he had a big impact. So here’s a guy who’s turning 24 in October, and if we need him, he can play and he can have an impact. He’ll show very early on whether he is or isn’t an NBA player. I think the former will be true, but it remains to be seen.”

And so it goes with this imperfect draft process that will be crucial to the Nuggets’ long-term plan.

“The way the CBA is set up, you’re not going to be able to find a direct replacement for Bruce out in the market,” Booth said. “And we still have to build this team out. So the vision I see the team (executing), with coach and ownership, is where we have positional size and skill and athleticism, character and motor and all those things. (But) you put a few of those things together, and that’s a $20 million (a year) player, right? You know how you can get a discount? You get them when they’re young, right out of the draft or maybe when they haven’t done much in the league yet.”

Motivation (and supermax money?) for Murray

Role players aside, the Nuggets’ core is what makes them so special. Jokić and Murray are officially an all-time duo at this point. Aaron Gordon has been an elite addition since coming their way via trade from Orlando in March 2021. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, acquired from Washington in a three-team deal in the summer of 2022, has fit in wonderfully as well.

But as Malone made clear to the masses at the team’s recent media day, he believes they all need to be dominant during the regular season if they’re going to up the odds of repeating.

“If we’re serious about being a team that can repeat, if we’re serious about trying to be a team that can be a dynasty, we have to bring our best every single day,” Malone said.

And Murray, as Malone sees it, perhaps more than anyone. Especially considering the massive financial incentive he has to do just that.

After playing the best basketball of his life in the title run, when he averaged 26.1 points, 7.1 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 20 playoff games after missing the previous season because of his torn ACL, Murray has made it clear that he’s gunning for a supermax extension next summer (five years, $303 million) rather than the three-year, $144 million deal that he is eligible to sign now. But to be eligible for the supermax, Murray must do something he has never done before: Make an All-NBA team.

“I want Jamal Murray to be an All-NBA player,” Malone said. “And to do that … what’s he have to do? He’s got to do it in October. He’s got to do it in November. He can’t be the slow starter. The guys that are on top of their game, they bring it every single night. And I think if Jamal can kind of continue to play the way he played during those playoffs and get off to that kind of start, that’ll be so impactful for our group. But also, I think, it will continue to showcase his ability and the fact that he is an All-Star and all NBA talent.”

From a motivational standpoint, Malone knows exactly what he’s doing here. While Murray has never been an All-NBA player or an All-Star, he is clearly capable of being in that elite group. Last season, when even Murray admitted that his slow start meant he wasn’t worthy of a spot on the West All-Star team, he shared his truth on this topic when we chatted in mid-January.

“I know that I’m better than some of the All-Stars that are in there,” he said then.

And he was right. The challenge now is to prove it — again — in the kind of way that lifts the Nuggets even more in the regular season while leading to the massive payday that Booth would be overjoyed to facilitate. Per the NBA’s new player participation policy, that means he’d have to play in at least 65 games to qualify for the honor (or any other) as well.

“I think (Murray) is just trying to maximize his earnings,” Booth told The Athletic about Murray’s decision to bypass an extension this summer. “Look, he’s an All-NBA talent. I think he knows what the benchmark is, what he needs to achieve. I mean, obviously, at the end of the day, it’s in the voters’ hands, not his. But whatever is in his control to make that team, we fully expect him to do it this year. We’re moving forward as if he’s going to be a supermax guy because I know when Jamal sets his mind to something it usually happens.”

Jamal Murray fires a pass against the Suns on Tuesday in Phoenix. (Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

The Jokić factor

Oh, yeah, the big fella.

It’s not that I forgot about him. It’s that there’s not much to discuss about the massive part he will play yet again in this Nuggets’ operation.

After all these years of debate about whether Jokić was truly a championship-level star, and if his unique brand of basketball (magic) would work when it mattered most, he ended the discussion emphatically with his dominant play in the title run. By averaging 30 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists in 20 playoff games, he joined Oscar Robertson as the only other player to hit those 30-13-9 marks in the postseason. Add in the fact that he shot 54.8 percent overall, had a true shooting mark of 63.1 and averaged 1.1 steals and one block per game, and the questioning about his greatness came to an impressive end.

At this point, you know what you’re getting from a healthy Jokić. No matter the time of year.

But in today’s NBA, the franchise must always make sure it’s in lock-step with the franchise player. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s choice to apply all that public pressure on the Bucks this summer, which then led to Milwaukee pairing him with Damian Lillard, reminded us of that much.

So, I asked Booth, was Jokić comfortable with the way this offseason was handled?

“He trusts the front office and ownership and coaches to do the right thing,” Booth said. “He was definitely involved and in the conversation about where we were going, and his brothers are a big influence in his life. We always stay friendly with those guys and want to know what their thought process is, or are pitching them on the idea of, ‘Hey, (how) should we be trying to maximize (his prime)?’ Honestly, I think Joker thought about (their offseason strategy) for a second and then went back to dancing. But he was fine with it. And that’s something you want to do.”

So Booth showed him that respect by way of phone conversations and sometimes via text. His summer in Serbia (and beyond) was full of so much fun that it often went viral on social media, but Booth said there was basketball business to be done as well.

“I think he’d be fine without that phone call, but I’ve been in the locker room and I know what kind of respect you’ve got to show that (level of star player),” said Booth, who logged 10 seasons in the Association. “He deserves to know what direction we’re going in and why we’re doing what we’re doing. And so do some of the other guys on the team. But I felt like him not demanding that we have five vets was important, because if he demands that, then you have to take that into consideration. We’re not saying that’s going to be the final decision, but it’s going to heavily impact how we’re going to construct the roster.”

The demanding part now, though, is the repeat mission that lies ahead.

(Top photo of Calvin Booth: AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post)