How Kentavious Caldwell-Pope upgrades Nuggets' offense and defense

Calvin Booth always had his vision for how the Nuggets needed to tweak their roster this summer to chase an NBA championship next season. Once Tim Connelly left for Minnesota and Booth assumed the role as Denver’s lead decision-maker, he has wasted no time in turning that vision into reality.

Denver agreed to trade Will Barton and Monte Morris to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith in a trade that broke Wednesday morning via Shams Charania. Expect the deal to officially be announced at a later date.

This trade is not about saving money, which quickly became the national narrative after the deal broke since Denver saved around $4.5 million total. Booth has continually said that ownership gave him the green light to go into the luxury tax. He has a sizeable budget to work with. Josh Kroenke also said on record earlier this month that the Nuggets are ready to pay the tax.

The feeling around the team right now is that the Kroenke’s are hungrier than ever after winning a Super Bowl and Stanley Cup in the last four months. Their teams (Rams, Avs, Nuggets) winning three championships in a row and completing the Kroenke Slam would be the culmination of one of the greatest 12-month runs in sports ownership history. Of course that’s something this ownership is thinking about.

This trade is about improving the Nuggets’ defense and grabbing a role player who Denver identified as an ideal fit with its starting five. Caldwell-Pope is an immediate defensive upgrade over Will Barton, who it felt like lost two steps on defense last season. He’s disciplined and sound on that end of the floor. Caldwell-Pope is not a top-tier, A+ defender, but he’s a clear step above Barton and isn’t a guy who will get targeted or played off the floor in the playoffs. He’s also switchable and active on the ball. He can be pesky when he wants to be.

Denver saw up close how locked in Caldwell-Pope can be defensively in the 2020 bubble playoffs when the Nuggets lost to the Lakers in the five games. That’s another aspect that Caldwell-Pope brings to Denver. Championship pedigree.

This is from 2021, but you can tell the type of defender that Caldwell-Pope is off this highlight reel vs. James Harden.

Caldwell-Pope is also a slight shooting upgrade from Barton, who shot just 36.5% from 3 last year in what was his worst 3-point shooting season since 2019. Caldwell-Pope hit 39% of his 3s last season on 5.3 attempts per game, a number that should go up playing alongside upgraded offensive talent Denver. He also shot an average of 39.5% from 3 over his last three seasons. From the corners where he could be spending a lot of time in the Nuggets’ offense, Caldwell-Pope hit 45% of his triples. He sunk 42% of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season too. That’s an elite number.

Imagine this is a Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic pick-and-roll with Caldwell-Pope spacing to the far corner and Michael Porter Jr. on the strong side. He’s going to get this shot a ton in Denver.

Caldwell-Pope is a confident rise-and-fire shooter too. He doesn’t hesitate if has any airspace coming off a dribble hand-off.

If Jokic is double-teamed, he’ll be ready to send it. Overall, Caldwell-Pope was in the 72nd percentile in spot-ups last season. Barton was in the 38th.

He’s also a vet that can play within a read-and-react offense. This is an easy read off a split action. Caldwell-Pope identifies the coverage and gets an easy lay-in.

One sneaky part about Caldwell Pope’s floor game — and something he may have to tweak a bit in Denver — is that he loves the mid-range. He relies on it more than Barton did. Thirty-seven percent of Caldwell-Pope’s field goal attempts last season came in the mid-range, which slotted in the 86th percentile among all wings league-wide. He’s smooth from that zone and shot 41% from mid-range last year. Denver will want him to turn some of those looks into better-quality shots.

Like Barton, Caldwell-Pope is just a well-rounded offensive player. He’s not the natural playmaker and doesn’t have the point-guard chops of Barton, but he should be less mistake-prone. He’s more of a natural fit as the fifth option in Denver’s starting lineup. Caldwell-Pope likes to get out on the break too and loves the pull-up 3 in transition. He’s durable and has never played less than 67 games in a season. He averaged 30.2 minutes across 77 games for the Wizards last year.

There are other pieces to this deal. Losing Morris hurts, and the Nuggets did not want to let a core piece of their culture go unless they were going to be able to upgrade their roster. Denver obviously feels like this move does that. There’s also confidence that Bones Hyland is ready to be the full-time backup point guard next season.

The Nuggets also got Smith in the deal from Washington too. I could see a scenario where he plays in the backcourt with Hyland off the bench. That duo would be potent on offense but a negative defensively. Smith also gives Denver insurance at point guard if Murray needs to ease back into next season coming off his ACL tear.

But this trade was about Caldwell-Pope. He’s a player the Nuggets identified, targeted and got at a fair price. Booth’s vision of defensive-minded role players around the Nuggets’ big 3 began on draft night. It continued today by acquiring Denver’s starting shooting guard next season.