The Denver Nuggets most notable trade of the past 2 seasons was dumping Reggie Jackson - a player Calvin Booth was dismayed Coach Malone did not play more the year they won the championship

It cannot be understated how flatout negligent Denver's front office under Calvin Booth. Aside from executing the Aaron Gordon trade, his most notable moves have involved underwhelming free agency signings like Reggie Jackson (whom the Nuggets would end up dumping on the Hornets for 3 of the remaining second round picks Denver had), failing to re-sign KCP (Bruce Brown was somewhat understandable since they did not possess his Bird Rights), poor contract extensions with MPJ's restricted free agency overpay being the most notable example and in general failing to make moves to replenish a team that, even during their championship year, had questionable depth.

Say what you will about the Suns and Bucks respective futures: They were proactive despite some notable mistakes (Trading Camara and Ayton for Nurkic and the corpse of Grayson Allen for the Suns as well as trading for Bradley Beal, bringing in a domestic abuser in KPJ for the Bucks) and at least in the case of Milwaukee, their moves did lead to a championship in 2021 via the Jrue Holiday trade.

The Nuggets aren't in as bad a position as those two teams but that's mostly due to protections on their 2025 first and a future swap with the Thunder limiting their ability to trade future draft capital.