After enjoying off Nikola Jokic and having the time of his life, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is leaving the Denver Nuggets to signal with the Orlando Magic, as first reported by USA Right now’s Jeff Zillgitt. The deal is price $66 million over three years, as first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, and it’ll have a participant possibility on 12 months 3, as first reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Caldwell-Pope, 31, was an important a part of the Nuggets’ 2023 championship run, however the entrance workplace despatched clear alerts forward of free company that it was not keen to pay what it might take to re-sign him. “I feel we’ll be OK if KCP would not return,” normal supervisor Calvin Sales space mentioned throughout his post-draft press convention on Wednesday, shortly after referencing Christian Braun’s internet ranking.
For the Magic, Caldwell-Pope fills a obtrusive gap offensively and reinforces their defensive id. Orlando ranked second within the NBA defensively final season, however solely twenty second offensively, largely as a result of it did not have anyone like Caldwell-Pope. It’s a credit score to educate Jamahl Mosley and the group’s collective dedication to protection that it managed to win 47 regular-season video games regardless of being one of many worst 3-point taking pictures groups within the league by way of each quantity and effectivity.
Caldwell-Pope could not get to play the identical fashion of basketball as he did in Denver, however he’ll slot in extraordinarily nicely. A playoff-tested 3-and-D man, he’ll make every thing simpler for Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Magic’s two playmaking forwards. He shot 41.5% from 3-point vary in his two seasons with Denver.
As for the Nuggets: This appears tough. With the plain caveat that free company simply started and Sales space’s entrance workplace deserves an opportunity to make some strikes, it is regarding that Denver could not discover a strategy to convey Caldwell-Pope again. He began 76 video games for the Nuggets in every of the final two seasons, and, across the league, there have been few higher marriages of participant and function. Caldwell-Pope feasted on layups and 3s, and he had a knack for chopping and simply the fitting time. He was the group’s finest point-of-attack defender, and, whereas he was higher suited to defend smaller gamers than larger ones, he was keen to do each.
Caldwell-Pope’s departure is an even bigger blow than shedding Bruce Brown and Jeff Inexperienced was final summer season. When Sales space advised The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor earlier than final season began that Denver was making an attempt to win “three out of six, three out of seven, 4 out of eight” fairly than making an attempt to maximise its probabilities of profitable back-to-back championships, it was not clear that this was coming. Are the Nuggets assured that Braun will grow to be an environment friendly, high-volume 3-point shooter? Do they assume Peyton Watson can maintain up within the playoffs subsequent time round? Is there one thing else up Sales space’s sleeves?
Had Denver paid Caldwell-Pope precisely what the Magic paid him, it might have been up in opposition to the second apron, pending different roster strikes. The roster-building restrictions that groups with payrolls that prime are actual, and, in that Ringer story, Sales space mentioned that considered one of his largest fears is the Nuggets turning into a group with “no outs.”
This isn’t the one group that’s making a tough, decidedly unpopular transfer within the title of sustaining monetary flexibility — Klay Thompson’s future with the Golden State Warriors seems nonexistent, and, as this story was being filed, the Los Angeles Clippers put out a assertion saying Paul George wouldn’t return. It’s tough, nevertheless, to reconcile Denver’s hopes for one more championship with this continued expertise drain. The Nuggets’ depth was an issue with Caldwell-Pope on the group; it would in all probability be a a lot larger one going ahead.