The five brutal moves Calvin Booth made that resulted in Nuggets firing

Calvin Booth had been with the Denver Nuggets since 2017, taking over the general manager gig in 2020 and becoming the lead voice of management in the summer of 2022. Booth was fired on Tuesday, as was his team’s coach Michael Malone, as the two’s stalemate was broken by a sour stretch of play that hinted at doom ahead.

There are plenty of reasons for the current Nuggets skid, which comes on the eve of playoffs while the team has had bad vibes much of the season. First and foremost may be the roster around Nikola Jokic taking significant step-backs since Booth and Malone led the team to a title in 2023. A series of decisions and mistakes has ultimately led to the undoing of the team’s lone GM and coach who have ever won a title.

Here are the five major moves Calvin Booth made while leading the Nuggets that were mistakes:

Extending Zeke Nnaji

The Nuggets’ biggest financial commitment the summer after winning a championship was to sign Nnaji to a four-year deal for $32 million. Under the old collective bargaining agreement, a player making $8 million made for a valuable trade chip. But a new CBA penalizing pricey teams went into place just before this deal got signed, and it shook up the way teams thought. On top of it, why were there so many years on this deal for the former first-round pick who had, and still has, only scored over 20 points in an NBA game once? This is the lone outright bad contract on the Nuggets’ books, and the playing or not-playing of Nnaji became a flashpoint for Booth and Malone. Meanwhile, it was unclear what position the 6-foot-11 player should even be, with answers ranging from small forward to center. To this day, Nnaji struggles to get on the floor, and he still has two years and a player option for a third year left on the deal Booth inked him to. Saying Nnaji has negative value on the trade market is kind, and his existence prevented the Nuggets from several deals since.

Offering guaranteed contracts to rookies who rarely played

Drafting Peyton Watson at the end of the first round in the summer of 2022 was strange at the time because it was clear the Nuggets were on the verge of a title, and Watson wasn’t close to ready for NBA action. Watson has since developed into a decent NBA player role player with some strong upside, but his status as one of the 15 players on the roster being unusable kept the bench one player shorter than it needed to be. One NBA Draft later and Booth added another first-rounder who was more ready to play in Julian Strawther, but he also selected Hunter Tyson and Jalen Pickett. The two were both given guaranteed contracts, shortening the Nuggets’ bench further. Tyson has yet to have a real impact in the NBA, getting some minutes here and there. Pickett has just started to find his groove at the tail end of his second season in the pros, as each has spent most of their first two years in the G League. Not only were these players not helpful for the Nuggets, who got tired in the 2024 playoffs, but they held roster spots that could have gone to veterans who may have helped the team.

Everything with Reggie Jackson after the title

The Nuggets added veteran and Colorado prep legend Reggie Jackson off the scrap heap for the 2023 title run. Jackson didn’t play much, but was a decent safety blanket to have. A few weeks later, Bruce Brown was gone, and Jackson was signed to a one-year deal with a player option for a second season using Denver’s Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception. Jackson was mostly fine but inconsistent and ran out of gas late as the Nuggets relied on him with injuries to Jamal Murray. Both Murray and Jackson were banged up in the playoffs in 2024, leading to Denver’s demise. A few weeks later, Jackson picked up his option, and Booth shipped him out of town with three second-round picks. It’s unclear who the Nuggets were even bidding against for Jackson in the summer of 2023 to give him $5 million or a player option for a second year. It’s also not obvious why Jackon’s salary dump cost so much draft capital when other players making more money were exchanged for fewer picks the same offseason. Those picks were nearly the last Denver had and would’ve been huge in helping them add a player at the deadline. In fact, a bunch of those picks actually did help get a much-needed center moved at the deadline, just not to Denver.

Paying too much for DaRon Holmes II

The Nuggets then used the final three second-round picks in their war chest to move up six picks in the 2024 NBA Draft to get Holmes. While it’s unknown if this pick was good or not because the young big was lost for the season due to an injury in Summer League, the entire NBA knew Denver wanted Holmes. This likely increased the price the Nuggets had to pay more. There’s actually a video of the Suns front office holding the Nuggets to the fire to up their ask in the deal from an exchange of firsts and two second-rounders to a third. And, of course, Holmes ended up being dead weight on a roster that is in a championship window—though this time, it was just bad luck.

Signing Dario Saric to the Taxpayer Mid-level Exception

The last big move the Nuggets could make this past summer was utilizing their one exception to become a needed rotation player after the departure of three of the team’s top eight from their title team. They went with Dario Saric, who hasn’t played more than nine minutes in a game since Jan. 15. Saric actually has 56 points and 50 rebounds on the entire season. But wait, it gets worse, he has a $5.5 million player option for next season. Booth lit $11 million, a roster spot, and his lone true way to make the 2024-25 team better via free agency on fire.