Troy Renck: No Russellmania over Westbrook. Nuggets' offseason reveals Calvin Booth's margin for error has vanished.

DENVER — The Nuggets’ offseason is not sexy, their path forward now defined by efficiency.

That is the reality clobbering this franchise over the head as an expensive team dealing with a suffocating new collective bargaining agreement.

It sounds like an excuse to return to a time when Denver was always a free agent’s second choice. It is becoming a reason for what is happening at Ball Arena.

So as Paul George heads to the 76ers and Klay Thompson joins the Mavericks, the Nuggets are left to sell the idea that adding a former most valuable player and backup center can keep their championship window cracked before Boston, Oklahoma City or Minnesota slams it on their fingers.

The Nuggets are taking a long, hard look at Clippers guard Russell Westbrook and will likely sign a backup for Nikola Jokic. I can hear eyes rolling when that sentence is read aloud. Westbrook is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, who has mercifully accepted life as a role player, caffeinating a second unit with his drives to the basket and energy. He is also someone who doesn’t space the floor because he is a dreadful 3-point shooter — yet somehow attempted 154 last year.

My conclusion when watching the last few days unfold is that the Nuggets’ margin for error is gone. Poof.

For Denver to have any chance to return to the NBA Finals, general manager Calvin Booth and coach Michael Malone better be in lockstep like the guards at Buckingham Palace. And no player should be off-limits in trade talks, save for Jokic.

This feels more like a wish than an expected result. And hope, as the Rockies show us six days a week, is not a strategy.

A cascade of criticism is raining down on the Nuggets, namely Booth, for letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope defect to Orlando for a three-year, $66 million contract. I respect this decision. The Nuggets don’t win a ring without Caldwell-Pope, but at 31, he is not a player worth triggering the financial ramifications of crossing the luxury tax’s second apron.

Losing him, no matter how hard they tried, was a likely outcome. What wasn’t anticipated is the emerging picture of the roster. The Nuggets are top-heavy, while simultaneously stacked with enough youth to start a boy band. It is proof the new salary cap is punitive.

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