The Nuggets Future is Now
Every franchise in the NBA faces a tough decision when it has a collection of young talent assembled. The question is whether it’s enough to go all-in on and try to compete for the playoffs and further, or to continue tanking to try and gather more young assets. This summer, the Denver Nuggets are pushing all their chips to the center of the table.
After unloading the Brinks truck in July to sign Paul Millsap (to the tune of 3 years/$90 million dollars), the Nuggets carved out their future. Signing Millsap gives the Nuggets a versatile Power Forward to put next to franchise centerpiece and Serbian sensation, Nikola Jokic. As far as big men go in 2017, this could potentially be the most dynamic 4–5 combo in the league. Both of their games are inside-out, feature high passing ability, and the ability to create opportunities galore on offense for the entire team. Where Millsap perhaps is deficient (rebounding average of 7.7 last year), Jokic will accordingly balance (rebounding average of 9.8 last year) and where Jokic is deficient (defensive rating of 109 last year), Millsap will equally balance (defensive rating of 104 last year).
The Nuggets made perhaps one of the most questionable moves of the summer by signing RFA Mason Plumlee to a 3 year/$41 million dollar contract. They effectively outbid themselves in an effort to keep Plumlee for the immediate future. One of the new problems Head Coach Mike Malone will have to deal with is their new logjam in their frontcourt. In the present small-ball era of the NBA, many 3s and 4s have to shift up a position. By investing in an old school player like Plumlee, it takes away much of your positional flexibility to size down, as he can only play the 5. This means that Mike Malone will likely have to stagger the minutes of Millsap and Jokic in order to accommodate Plumlee’s playing time, and also effectively relegates Kenneth Faried into a bench role (as a former 4 who can really only play effective minutes at the 5 now).
Many of the Nuggets’ best lineups last year included shooting wings such as Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler at the forward spots with Jokic manning the middle. Gallinari has now left to the Clippers, and presumably his minutes will get eaten up by Chandler (a consistent player while healthy) and Will Barton (a nice shooter for the bigs to find in the open floor). The key will be finding which shooters can be most consistent and forming chemistry with the newcomer Millsap.
Defensively, the Nuggets will still be atrocious on the perimeter. Emmanuel Mudiay still hasn’t been able to live up to his potential (the #7 overall pick from 2015) or play any defense, despite his athletic ability and size. While Jamal Murray and Gary Harris have both shown promise on offense, they still get beat far too often defensively for there to be any consistency on that side of the ball.
Gary Harris, fresh off signing a 4 year/$84 million dollar ($74 million guaranteed and $10 million in potential bonuses) contract, will look to steadily continue improving on defense to become the solid two-way player Denver believes he can be. Being 23 and shooting 42% from 3 is remarkably impressive. If he keeps that efficiency up, he will truly earn a reputation as a sharpshooter around the league.
The youth movement is in full effect though and Denver has to find out what it truly has and how the team gels. The West is truly top heavy and making a legitimate run at it’s supremacy will not be quick nor easy. While there is no clear path to the top with their roster currently constructed, maybe Jamal Murray or Gary Harris pop and become superstar level players similarly to how Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson developed for the Warriors. Perhaps another superstar caliber player becomes available and Denver jumps at the opportunity to make a trade, given their surplus of young prospects. All the keys to success are there in the Mile-High City, its on them to open the doors with them going forward.
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