Bruce Brown was a key piece of this Denver Nuggets championship run. But his contract situation is complicated and the Nuggets might 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 head right back to work preparing for next season. One of the biggest questions will be if they can keep Brown this offseason and how might they replace him if they can't.
According to Tim MacMahon, the Nuggets may have a hard time keeping Brown next season. He has a player option for next season that he will most likely decline. If he opts out, Denver can re-sign but it will be tricky — they can only offer him a salary of $7.8 million in the first year but they can scale this contract with five percent raises.
Aaron Gordon said about his teammate: "he finna get paid". Bobby Marks said that Brown will be looking at the very "least" at $12.2 million per year (which is the non-tax mid-level exception). That would put him out of the Nuggets' price range but Brown has said that he wants 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 this off-season they could replace him with a rookie — they have two second-round picks in this draft. They could look for a replacement in free agency but will be working with the same financial restrictions and are unlikely to find something better. Besides Brown, the Nuggets will be able to run it back with all of their key pieces intact for next season.
With the way the CBA is designed, it would expected for the Nuggets to not trade for a veteran player but rather find someone that they can develop. While Nuggets' owner, Stan Kroenke has shown that he will pay for a championship team (as evidenced with the Rams), If Denver were to head into the second tax apron it would force the Nuggets to work with their mid-level exceptions or already limited draft capital.
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