This front six has started to cost a lot of money.
Between them, Jokic ($51,415,938), Murray ($36,016,200), Michael Porter Jr ($35,859,950) and Aaron Gordon ($23,841,455) already cost a full salary cap. Adding on the salaries of fifth starter Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($15,440,185) and sixth man Reggie Jackson ($5,250,000) has the team already bristling up against the luxury tax threshold, before even so much as suiting up the legal minimum number of players for a game.
Beyond those six, in an act of cost control, the $8,888,889 owed to reserve big Zeke Nnaji is the only non-minimum/non-rookie scale contract on the books. Those rookie scale and minimum-salary contracts pay for young players such as Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Hunter Tyson – the idea is that these players will grow into the new bench stars, alleviating the requirement for external reinforcements.
Even then, though, the Nuggets have a payroll north of $190 million penciled in for 2024-25 without committing so much as a dollar on anyone new. Gone are the days when ownership could just underwrite substantial luxury tax bills. Now, the measures imposed on high payrolls are actively stifling.
