Nuggets' Kroenke Talks NBA's 2nd Apron, Worry Injury Could Lead to Nikola Jokic Trade

Denver Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke offered an interesting take on the organization's reluctance to go into the second apron.

"For us, going into that second apron is not necessarily something that we're scared of," Kroenke told reporters on Tuesday. "I think that there are rules around it that we needed to be very careful of with our injury history. The wrong person gets injured and very quickly you're in a scenario that I never want to have to contemplate, which is trading [Nikola Jokić]. We're very conscious of that, pushing forward, and providing the resources we can when the moment arrives. That second apron, is it a hard cap? I'm not 100 percent sure, but it's something that teams are obviously very aware of going forward."

That quote will surely raise a few eyebrows in Denver—and perhaps in Jokić's camp as well—though the scenario is undoubtedly one that teams have to consider when making determinations about how far they want to push into the luxury tax.

Teams that enter the second apron must send out 100 percent of the salaries they receive in trades, for instance, compared to being permitted to take in up to 125 percent of the salaries they send out as first-apron teams. They also are prohibited from combining the salaries of multiple players for matching purposes (i.e. trying to acquire a player on a $40 million salary by trading away two players on $20 million salaries). And second-apron teams can't utilize trade exceptions or send out cash as a part of deals.

It gets even more prohibitive from there.

Second-apron teams lose access to their mid-level exception—which allows teams in the tax to sign an external free agent for more than a minimum salary—and can't trade their first-round pick seven years in advance. Staying in the second apron for two of the four seasons into the future will both freeze that pick seven years out, but also automatically move it to 30th overall.

So, if you happen to be a contending team who suddenly loses a star player for the season to an injury and is in the second apron, your avenues for quickly retooling are dramatically reduced. And what happens if you have a superstar player, in his prime, who doesn't want to waste an entire season on a roster that no longer has the goods to win a title?

Not to mention a team governor who might not be thrilled about being taxed additionally on the team's payroll without a short-term pathway to a title.

There is a reason why the Boston Celtics were always expected to make moves this offseason aimed at getting themselves out of the second apron, even before Jayson Tatum's Achilles tear likely ruled him out for all of the 2025-26 campaign.

The Milwaukee Bucks, meanwhile, are probably feeling very thankful they didn't finish the 2024-25 season as a second apron team as they look to both retool after Damian Lillard's Achilles tear and convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to remain in Milwaukee (which may be contingent on the retooling plan they present to him).

What Kroenke seemed to be alluding to was a doomsday scenario, of course, and perhaps a response to critics of the team who didn't understand why the Nuggets didn't retain Kentavious Caldwell-Pope last summer at the expense of going into the second apron. But realistically, Jokić isn't going anywhere.