The offseason is a battleground between team management, who need to make decisions that are as beneficial to the team as possible, especially those who are aiming for a championship, and any choice they make can affect the team's competitiveness in the new season. The Thunder, who fell in the semifinals in this year's playoffs, have long since run out of patience, so we saw them trade Giddey for the better Caruso who has better defense and shooting.
Although the Warriors have failed to make the playoffs this season, management will still try to help the team get back on track, considering that Curry is still at the end of his prime. However, at present, the prospects of the Warriors are not too optimistic, the team's four-time meritorious scorer Thompson and the Warriors' negotiations are deadlocked, because he still wants to ask for a big contract with an annual salary of 3 or 40 million, the Warriors are likely to give up renewing his contract, after all, he is 33 years old, plus the reason for a major injury, his current state is obviously not worth the price.
If Thompson's strength can be compared to Maxey, Siakam and other free agents, then there is no need for him to say more, the Warriors will definitely give him a salary cap, and with his current strength, it will be weighed to provide him with a contract with an annual salary of 20 million. And Thompson is not the only player who "does not measure himself", such as Thomas Jr., Wall and other players were ruined by overconfidence, and finally only ended up being eliminated by the NBA.
According to recent reports, the Nuggets and Murray are also ready to renew their contracts in advance, and Murray, who will become a free agent next year, is now discussing with the team to sign a 4-year 209 million contract in advance. The Nuggets seem to have forgotten why they lost to the Timberwolves in this year's playoffs, and in that series, Murray's performance can be said to be quite dismal, with only 2 of his seven games combined for 20+, and in G2 he played 3-of-18 shooting to score only 8 points.
Throughout the playoffs, Murray averaged only 20.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, shooting 40.2% from the field and 31.5% from three-point range. Although the Nuggets eliminated the Lakers 4-1 in the first round, he personally had a very bright performance at critical moments, but in fact, his shooting rate in this round of the series was also only 40%, and the three-point shooting rate was less than 30%.
Murray has played eight seasons in the league since he entered the league in 2017, but he has never been named to the All-Star or All-Star team during that time. Since Murray suffered a major cruciate ligament rupture injury in the 2020-2021 season, his physical condition has become worse and worse, he only played 65 games in the regular season last season, and only 59 games in the regular season this season, but you must know that he is also 27 years old, and in two or three years, whether his attendance can maintain the current level is two or two words.
So far, Murray hasn't played at an All-Star level from start to finish in a season, and that's when he plays around a supergiant like Jokic, who has a huge bonus to his teammates. In the past two years, Murray not only did not help Jokic share the burden in the regular season, but the team could only rely on Jokic's full attendance in the regular season to retain the top two positions in the West, thanks to his real "durability".
Another reason why Murray played so poorly in the playoffs this year is the impact of injuries, but the regular season team has been very careful with his use, not only letting him play 59 games, but also averaging only 31.5 minutes per game, which is not common among other championship teams. Even for a multi-core team like the Celtics, the second-in-command Jaylen Brown plays an average of 33.5 minutes per game, so the Nuggets are really benevolent to Murray.
Even so, if Murray still can't withstand the long season of the NBA, then the Nuggets have no choice, and they can only hope that Murray's attendance will pick up later. In fact, if Murray can stay healthy, he does have a chance to fight in the playoffs, after all, without his outburst last year, the Nuggets would not have won the championship, and it is precisely because of this that the Nuggets are willing to negotiate a contract extension with him.
From a realistic point of view, the 4-year 200 million contract extension of Murray is undoubtedly a fatal blow to the team's championship prospects, and now no one can figure out what kind of strength and attendance he can show in the following seasons, and the Nuggets are betting that he can replicate the performance of last year's playoffs. But in fact, even if Murray can still play his previous state, the Nuggets' lineup is basically hopeless for the championship in a short period of time, and his big contract will completely lock up the team's opportunity to strengthen.
However, for the Nuggets, they don't have any other good way, after all, Jokic is now in his prime, they can't waste time to rebuild the roster, and even if they don't renew Murray early, they don't have the salary space to sign on the free market this year, so it can be said that keeping Murray is already a blessing in misfortune for them.
But judging from the operation of the Nuggets management in the past two years, they did have a lot of "stupid tricks", and last year they used the only middle-class contract to keep Reggie, and the basic salary renewal has basically been unable to play Jordan Jr. This offseason, the general manager openly said: "Even if you lose Pope, the team still has players like Braun who can replace him", not to mention that Braun's strength cannot be compared with Pope at all, this kind of emotionless words actually came out of the mouth of the team management, which inevitably made people question his professionalism, and the result was that Pope no longer showed mercy to the team, and he now chose to jump out of the contract, which means that the Nuggets can only "throw money" if they want to keep him.
There is still a long time to go in the offseason, and we may still see all kinds of "nonsensical" operations of the Nuggets later, although they are aiming to make up for it, but I have to say that every move they make seems to be wasting the pinnacle of the team's core in the end, relying on their own Jokic, the first man in the league today, their decision is still too hasty.