Keeler: Nuggets matched Rockets for ‘best summer’ of any NBA team, Charles Barkley says

Charles Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer and analyst, stated that the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets had the best summers in the NBA. Speaking at the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy (PBLA) Gala in Denver, Barkley emphasized that the Nuggets still have the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, but needed more depth after breaking up the team following their 2023 championship win. He believes they addressed this need effectively.

Barkley visited Denver to serve as the keynote speaker for the PBLA Gala. The weekend trip also allowed him to visit his friend Chauncey Billups (co-executive director of the PBLA), play golf at altitude, and support the PBLA's cause of providing academic and leadership training to underserved Denver students.

When asked about the Nuggets' chances against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the future, Barkley noted that the Nuggets were likely the team best positioned to beat OKC in the recent playoffs. He reiterated that the Nuggets, Rockets, and Atlanta Hawks were the three teams that had the best offseasons, though results will only be clear once the season starts.

The article concludes by contrasting the current optimism with the previous Nuggets front office strategy under former GM Calvin Booth. Booth had gambled on young players developing into a cost-effective supporting unit around the high-priced contracts of core players Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Jokic.