Friday Faceoff: What grade do the Nuggets receive for their offseason moves?

Mark Kiszla, sports columnist

Grade: D+

The Nuggets are trying to get by on a DeRozan and a prayer. At age 37, DeMar DeRozan is supposed to be the savior of a former NBA champion in steep decline. Well, isn’t that special?

I’m not exactly sure how to react to the Nuggets’ offseason moves (or lack thereof). Should I laugh derisively at the front office’s ineptitude? Should I blame Peyton Watson and his agents for deciding not to give his ailing hamstring a go while teammates got the boot from the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first round of the playoffs? Should I shake an angry fist at the basketball gods for allowing the NBA to adopt a nonsensical collective bargaining agreement that penalizes teams for building something beautiful?

All the above.

Regardless of where the blame lies, I’m ordering a Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon on the rocks and will give a sentimental toast to the way the Nuggets were. Champions in 2023. Headed to Chumpsville in 2026.

Life comes at you fast. And the Nuggets weren’t ready for it.

So while I can feel compassion for the tough spot over the salary cap that the Nuggets found themselves in, it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I hope Nikola Jokic means every word when he professes a desire to play his entire career in a Nuggets uniform. But if Joker wants to win another championship and give himself a chance to be considered among the top 10 basketball players of all time?

He needs to get out of Denver, baby.

Vinny Benedetto, Nuggets writer

Grade: C

To throw it all the way back to my favorite college mantra: C’s get degrees.

No one is claiming this Nuggets offseason was wildly impressive, but it was good enough to get a few credits.

Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon are more valuable to Denver than they are to other teams. Trading either one of them for a lesser player or draft picks that are years away from contributing would’ve been an overreaction that could’ve slammed the championship window shut. Keeping the starting five together means the Nuggets are going to be in the race to have home-court advantage in the first round.

The Peyton Watson pursuit could have gone a variety of different ways, from losing him for nothing to a team that had cap space to having to dump a significant salary — likely Cam Johnson’s — to keep Watson and not pay a historic tax bill. Getting an unprotected first-round pick from Cleveland and a Sacramento second-rounder, which looks like it will be a pick in the 30s, was an average move. The same goes for trading out of the first round to recoup some needed draft capital.

Keeping Tim Hardaway Jr. wasn’t going to happen. Replacing him with DeMar DeRozan as the bench’s leading scorer was a solid but not spectacular move, as was replacing Jonas Valanciunas with Marvin Bagley III. Noticing a trend?

Sometimes survival is all that matters. Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer did that in a tough session of summer school. They’ll just need to get better grades in the future.