NBA Insider Compares Nuggets’ Jamal Murray Trade Dilemma To Jaylen Brown – Is A Blockbuster Deal Coming?

The current NBA offseason has already seen a range of blockbuster moves, and Jaylen Brown’s trade to the Philadelphia 76ers ranks high on that list. One of the biggest reasons why the Boston Celtics decided to make the trade was salary cap constraints, and it now seems a similar situation may be developing with Jamal Murray at the Denver Nuggets.

Per Heavy’s Sean Deveney, Denver’s difficult financial situation means that they may also end up trading their own All-Star in the form of Murray.

“Maybe? It’s not likely to happen now, but the finances in Denver are grim. It’s not hard to see a Jaylen Brown situation here,” he wrote.

Jaylen Brown was occupying close to 35% of the Celtics’ salary cap and his supermax contract extends for three more seasons with rapidly escalating salaries of $57 million, $61 million, and $64.9 million. Considering Jayson Tatum commands a similar salary, the Celtics avoided lengthy salary-cap trouble when they took on Paul George despite the salary-matching.

Now, the Nuggets are in a similar situation. They are also squeezed by the NBA’s second apron rules and have already waived and stretched Jonas Valanciunas’ contract this offseason to free up around $9 million off their tax bill.

Meanwhile, Aaron Gordon has also attracted trade interest and may be another move Denver ends up making due to salary cap constraints. Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray alone account for about $109 million in salary, and Denver compounded that by locking up Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon.

Further, the Nuggets have paid the luxury tax in three of the last four seasons, putting the franchise on the brink of the repeater tax. Considering they have already been forced into making multiple moves due to salary cap restrictions, including Peyton Watson’s sign-and-trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers, there is little doubt that a Murray exit may as well end up being on the cards.