Michael Porter Jr. thinks that he knows where his former team went wrong.
The Brooklyn Nets forward Porter spoke this week on the latest edition of his “Curious Mike” podcast. During the episode, Porter touched on the Denver Nuggets (his former team) and said that one move doomed them after their 2023 NBA championship victory.
Porter believes that Denver’s decision to not to bring back veteran guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2024 led to their ultimate downfall.
“I don’t know why they let [Caldwell-Pope go],” Porter said. “That was the beginning of our downfall … We had some camaraderie.”
The Nuggets’ 2023 championship team was built around a starting five of Porter, Caldwell-Pope, Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, and Jamal Murray. But after Denver lost in the second round of the 2024 NBA playoffs to the Minnesota Timberwolves, they let Caldwell-Pope walk in free agency, banking that young bench wing Christian Braun would be able to replicate Caldwell-Pope’s production.
Denver eventually ended up giving Braun a five-year, $125 million extension but quickly came to regret it as Braun regressed badly last year with just 12.0 points per game in a mere 44 appearances due to injury. With a ton of money already committed to their core trio of Jokic, Gordon, and Murray, the Nuggets had to cut costs in other areas too by first trading Porter to the Nets and now sending Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers via sign-and-trade.
Now Denver is coming off a first-round exit in the 2026 playoffs and will be entering next season with arguably their worst roster of the Jokic era. That said, the Nuggets did just make a desperation move for a six-time All-Star scorer a few days ago.
