Nuggets cherish Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s return to Denver: “We are forever connected”

The basketball skill that Denver misses most about Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was a subject of banter between him and DeAndre Jordan when they encountered each other as teammates for the first time.

They work out at the same Los Angeles area gym during the summers. When they showed up in 2022, they were both new Nuggets — Caldwell-Pope via trade, Jordan via free agency.

“He brought it up to me,” Jordan remembered, grinning. “Us being competitors throughout the course of our careers, and me illegally screening him a ton.”

Jordan appreciates nothing more than verbal jousting, and Caldwell-Pope was always game. In teaming up, they discovered a stronger rapport that persists today, seven months after Caldwell-Pope signed with the Orlando Magic and moved on from Denver.

“That’s my brother for life,” Jordan said. “Our families grew close. Our children play and our wives are close. We are forever connected now.”

“He came out every night and he did his job,” said Peyton Watson, one of the young players who saw Caldwell-Pope as a mentor. “That’s something I took from him.”

The kinship Jordan felt with Caldwell-Pope is shared throughout Denver’s locker room, which welcomed him back with warm greetings Thursday night after the Nuggets defeated the Magic. Known for his indefatigable mastery of screen navigation, general defensive acumen and wise locker room presence, “KCP” became three of the most significant initials in franchise history despite only a two-year stay.

He was the player who dribbled out the clock in Game 5 of the 2023 NBA Finals, cementing the franchise’s first championship.

“The fans out here are great,” Caldwell-Pope reminisced before his Ball Arena return. “I came here, put in a lot of hard work and got a lot of fan love as well.”

Those fans saluted him with a standing ovation Thursday, accompanied by a jumbotron tribute video despite Jordan’s tongue-in-cheek insistence that Caldwell-Pope should be treated with hostility. “(Bleep) KCP,” he told The Denver Post when initially asked for comment.

But when confronted by their old friend in the heat of competition, the Nuggets couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces. Denver power forward Aaron Gordon and Caldwell-Pope both started laughing when Gordon caught the ball in the post during the third quarter, defended by the smaller guard. In Orlando last month, when the Nuggets first matched up against him, Caldwell-Pope struggled to keep a straight face after Jordan dunked on him and screamed over-dramatically.

The 36-year-old big man was following through on a pregame promise.

“I told him I was gonna try to dunk on his (butt),” Jordan said. “He was like, ‘Hell nah. You’ll never get me.’ And I got him. McKenzie, his wife, had some choice words for me after the game.”

“I called him afterward,” Caldwell-Pope said. “I was like, ‘I let you have that dunk.’ ”

The Magic’s season has ventured into troubled waters recently. They’ve lost 12 of 15, sliding from fourth to eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Caldwell-Pope’s three-year, $66 million contract has been the focus of much retrospective examination back in Denver, where the Nuggets declined to fully match Orlando’s offer last summer. Confronted by the second luxury tax apron, they chose to sacrifice depth and wager on the development of Christian Braun.

“I left it up to my agent,” Caldwell-Pope said, referring to Klutch Sports Group founder Rich Paul. “I let him handle that situation, and here we are. I don’t get much details. Just, do I want to go here? Do I want to go there? Other than that, he for me did a tremendous job to get me here, and I’m excited to be here in this organization.”

Braun has outpaced expectations. He contributed 16 points, eight boards, four assists and three steals in the win against Orlando. In the last 13 games, he’s averaging 18.1 points and 5.8 rebounds, shooting 62% from the field and 41.7% from 3-point range. He recently passed Giannis Antetokounmpo for the league lead in fast break points per game.

Caldwell-Pope’s production has dropped with the offensively challenged Magic. His 10.6 points per 36 minutes are a career-low; his 31.4% outside shooting clip is the lowest in nine years.

Do the individual stats justify Denver’s decision? There are other nuances to consider. Caldwell-Pope still represents one less reliable player in the rotation. And the Nuggets have regressed from eighth to 17th in defensive rating without their former lead defensive guard. Caldwell-Pope was intuitive and alert. He was quick and crafty when fighting over screens, even bending whistles to his will. Jordan knows this all too well. It’s a trait Braun is still developing.

“He was really good at screen navigation,” Braun told The Post. “He got away with a lot of stuff. Obviously, he’s an older player, but he was really good at drawing offensive fouls, running into screens, falling down. We know that if he got screened pretty hard, the next one he was gonna get an illegal screen (call).”

Still, Caldwell-Pope is getting paid 3-and-D money on his new deal, and his 3-pointer hasn’t been falling. Would $22 million per year have been worth it for the Nuggets to retain his defensive talent?

Caldwell-Pope’s former teammates aren’t worried about litigating that. His brief return was used as a moment for nostalgia and appreciation. Even Braun, whose opportunity has increased since the veteran’s departure, looks back on KCP’s time in Denver with fondness.

“If he saw (you do something wrong), he would tell you, ‘Hey, do this.’ But he wasn’t ever a guy that was going to yell at you or try to embarrass you or single you out,” Braun said. “He was going to come to you and grab you in a timeout, come to you and grab you off the court. … He was always willing to teach.”

From a personal life standpoint, Caldwell-Pope loves his new home. He and his wife are raising four children, the youngest of whom they welcomed three months after the Nuggets won the 2023 title.