DENVER _ The Nuggets are wheeling and dealing in big bucks.
Some of the cheese was shipped out with mainstays Kenneth "The Manimal" Faried and Wilson Chandler. Some was served up in-house, with Nikola "Big Honey" Jokic and Will Barton scoring dream paydays. We're talking big, big bucks, too: over $200 million dished out to Jokic and Barton alone. If anyone asks, those guys are buying.
But the currency upon which the Nuggets are operating is trust. And that's been true in every decision they've made during this all-timer of an offseason conducted by president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and his merry band of evaluators: while critics count the number of zeroes on the contracts, the Nuggets are busy weighing the intensity of the handshakes.
It's a trust that extends in every direction: from franchise-to-player (believing that Jokic will continue a shooting-star trajectory that would make him the greatest Nugget ever); from player-to-franchise (Will Barton telling me the Indiana Pacers offered him more money, but "Coach (Michael) Malone lets me be me"); and finally, from player-to-player. That's the biggie.
And that brings us to combustible talent Isaiah Thomas.
The decision to bring in "I.T." on a one-year contract was based on trust and little more. At $2 million it's not a financial risk. But it's risking the very foundation of what the Nuggets have built over time, a locker room that believes it will accomplish things here that never have been accomplished before. And the Nuggets are trusting their guys.
Thomas is their smallest player. He's listed at 5-foot-9, but Thomas was on my Seattle-to-Denver flight on Sunday, and I'm telling you he's not that tall. He's shattered physics by becoming the NBA player he is _ or was, depending on his recovery from a recent hip surgery. He also carries the tallest risk. That's a mouthful, too, since they just drafted a guy, Michael Porter Jr., whose sore back prevented him from even getting out of bed for a predraft workout a couple of months ago.
But the Nuggets trust Malone, and so does Thomas. It was Malone who coached Thomas with the Kings and into his first major contract, a $27 million deal with the Suns. Never mind the Suns promptly shipped him out the following season; we never forget our first (contract).
Thomas is the kind of move that could put the Nuggets in the 2019 Western Conference Finals. Yes, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. But I'm not driving anywhere before witnessing the effects. It's also the kind of move that could time travel them back to 2014. Having lived through the Nate Robinson era at Pepsi Center, I don't trust moody point guards from the University of Washington. Sorry, not sorry. It was that bad here. Now there's Thomas, on his third team in a calendar year and seventh team in eight years. At some point it stops being the team's fault.
There are reasons for all that. There's a reason so many teams coveted his scoring talents, and a reason so many teams couldn't deal with his shenanigans. There's a reason it took the Nuggets a week of heartfelt conversation before leaping into the I.T. pool with eyes wide open.
The 29-year-old Thomas is a fearless competitor who finished fifth in MVP voting just one year ago. When he's on one, the I.T. fourth quarter is among the best things in sports. If the Nuggets get that I.T., they will be in contention with the Rockets, Jazz, Thunder and Spurs for the right to lose to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. If the Nuggets got the other one, well, just hope the ramifications don't negatively impact Jamal Murray's career in Colorado. His own circle of trust is watching.
So shout this from the mountaintops: Murray is the starting point guard for the Nuggets. There are no ifs, ands or I.T.'s about it. Thomas should aspire to be the first under-6-foot NBA Sixth Man of the Year. That's the best-case scenario for player and team, financially and otherwise.
Back to the trust factor. What I trust most about this offseason is how it has been based in the team's culture. It's a culture that had Jokic and Murray walking down the aisle of the team plane after a crushing loss at Minnesota in Game 82, simply to thank everyone involved for the season that was. It's a culture that had veterans Jokic, Murray, Paul Millsap, Trey Lyles and Gary Harris _ the ringleader in the locker room _ sitting in courtside seats at the NBA summer league in Las Vegas. Their only teammate playing in summer league was Malik Beasley. Yet there they were, courtside, and up for 7 a.m. workouts the next day. OK, not all of the workouts. But most of the workouts. Hey, it's Vegas. You hit the snooze.
I trust what the Nuggets are doing here.
From Jokic to Porter to Thomas, the Nuggets are trusting their relationships. They've banked on handshakes as much as analytics. Bring I.T. on.
