What did the Nuggets achieve in the first round of the draft to help Nikola Jokic return to legitimate NBA Finals contention?

Absolutely nothing. Zip. Nada.

Who’s in charge of this hot mess?

Nobody.

Come back, Masai Ujiri.

We miss you, Tim Connelly.

Is this the result of a brain drain in the Nuggets front office?

Is this what happens when Nuggets president Josh Kroenke complains of complacency on a team that has regressed since winning the NBA championship three years ago?

Well, you can’t get much more complacent than the giant nothing burger served by Kroenke and at least a dozen knuckleheads in the team’s war room on draft night.

And with the 26th overall selection Tuesday night, the Nuggets …

Punted.

Or did a favor to San Antonio, which is already ahead of Denver in the Western Conference pecking order.

Take your pick.

A slipping contender needed to make a bold, imaginative move.

Instead of playing 4-D chess, the Nuggets played Chutes and Ladders.

Denver slid right out of the first round, sending their first-round pick to help the Spurs get bigger and put more bruises on Jokic.

While waiting for the trade to receive an official stamp of approval from the league office, the Nuggets had no comment from either executive vice presidents Ben Tenzer or Jon Wallace, freeing them up to do something more important, like taking Kroenke’s shirts to the dry cleaners.

Maybe this is what happens when you have no future assets available to improve your team.

Or even worse? Too many members of Denver’s starting five are either injury prone (Aaron Gordon), afraid to shoot (Christian Braun) or a salary dump waiting to happen (Cam Johnson).

So the Nuggets took their first-round pick and sent it to San Antonio, who acquired 6-foot-11, 265-pound UConn center Tarris Reed Jr., best known for his take-no-prisoners ruggedness.

Please tell me: How did that phone call with San Antonio management go, when the Spurs asked to trade up for a player they felt could help them win a championship?

It should’ve been a short conversation. Two words. At most:

Get lost.

Actually, I might’ve used two spicier words (but that’s just me).

Your beloved Denver basketball franchise is stuck between the Rocky Mountains and a hard place.

The Nuggets have given away their future by relentlessly trading away future draft capital and forgetting how they became a force in the playoffs.

The lone NBA championship in franchise history was built through the draft, starting with the selection of Jokic during the now infamous Taco Bell commercial in 2014, scoring big with the acquisition of Jamal Murray in 2016, ignoring the injury red flags related to Michael Porter Jr. in 2018 and landing a fourth starter by selecting Braun in 2022.

While former coach Michael Malone was oft-criticized for giving playing time to veterans at the expense of developing young role players, is there a basketball guru on the planet who could figure out how to make Zeke Nnaji or Jalen Pickett a key contributor off the bench?

While the Nuggets play a game of hope and pray, which is the only way they will get any team to give them something of significant worth to take Johnson off their hands, Oklahoma City reloaded, getting younger with two picks in the top 16, landing Michigan center Aday Mara and Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz, whose skill sets would be very useful in Denver.

Rather than spending their way out of this mess, the Nuggets avoided spending money on a first-round pick.

Kroenke let it be known after an embarrassingly noncompetitive playoff exit that everybody on the roster outside of Jokic was possible trade bait.

But he also warned that running it back was a possibility.

Well, if the Nuggets run it back, they are running in place.

Going nowhere fast. Wasting what’s left of Jokic’s prime.

Is acquiring San Antonio’s pick early in the second round Wednesday, as well as future second-round picks in 2028 and 2031 what it will take to finally erase the mistake of Nnaji’s contract?

Don’t bet on it.

If I can put my limited math skills to good use while looking ahead on the calendar, the hoops phenom that the Nuggets will take in the ‘31 draft is currently a middle-schooler with braces on his teeth.

If Jokic agrees to a three-year extension this summer, he will be committed to wearing a Nuggets uniform until that current eighth-grade hooper becomes draft eligible.

So what Denver did Tuesday was start building for life after Joker.

WTF. 

Well, that’s fabulous.