Denver Nuggets 2022 Off-Seasons Targets
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The Denver Nuggets have hit the 2022 off-season on a note that many don’t really love. They only thing they have done since losing in five games to the NBA Finals participant Warriors, is lose their General Manager to the Timberwolves, over what seems to be strictly financial. The Nuggets have elevated standout assistant to Tim Connelly, Calvin Booth to the General Manager position. Now, I think that Booth is a spectacular option, but when you have his mentor in the GM position, it feels weird to elevate the trainee because you lost the master if that makes sense. I think that Booth has experience, and he will do the job just as well as Connelly did it, but changing horses in the middle of the race, as the saying goes, feels bad.
The Nuggets have a current roster that can win a championship, I fully believe, if they can get and stay healthy through a post season. This is a roster that Tim Connelly built from the ground up and to leave the team when their championship window is as open as it has ever been, over financials, feels bad in my opinion. Connelly’s first draft as a general manager he was hired 10 days before the 2013 NBA draft, so to judge his performance there doesn’t seem fair. He selected Rudy Gobert late in the first round and traded him to the Jazz for Erick Greene and Cash considerations… Who knows if we draft another center in the next draft if we have Gobert, so maybe thing worked out as they were supposed to.
In his second NBA draft, he selected this 7’ center from Serbia in the second round and the rest is history. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Michael Porter Jr, Bones Hyland, Zeke Nnaji. This is a roster that has Connelly’s handprints all over it, and when they win a championship, it will be sad that Connelly won’t get a ring for it.
Now, I do think that Calvin Booth is an excellent protegé and I don’t have any issue with them letting Connelly walk only to hand the reigns over to the next in command. Booth simply has the task of putting a team on the floor that will bring an NBA Championship to Denver for the first time in NBA history. What can he do? In the post season presser, Both Josh Kroenke and head coach Michael Malone were quoted saying something along the lines of this is the most important offseason in Denver Nuggets history. The pressure is on the front office to field a team that can win it all, while in a bit of a salary cap bind, and battling an ACL recovery and a back surgery recovery to two of the three highest paid players on the roster.
Offseason steps
- Pay Nikola Jokic his super max 5-6 year, $500 trillion dollars and let’s move on. He earned it. He’s one of the best players of all time to ever wear a Denver Nuggets jersey. Pay him and get the ball rolling.
- JaMychal Green and Jeff Green need to opt in or opt out, both have player options and the transparency for them to either stick around or allow Booth to work with the additional $12.7 million in salary cap will be nice
- Reports as of this morning were that Monte Morris and Will Barton are both available for trade. Now, I don’t necessarily think that either of those players are going to make other teams drop their best players to get them, but the reality is that Will Barton has a big contract and is routinely one of the fans least favorite players because of his lack of consistency, his tendency to play hero ball, and his propensity to slump at the worst times. I love Monte Morris, so I’d be sad to see him go, I think he is one of the best backup point guards in the NBA and his contract perfectly fits his impact on the team.
- If both players are traded, and both Greens opt out, the Nuggets then have $36 million in cap space (minus the salary of the traded for individual) to build the roster instead of being almost $7 mil over the cap.
- Names I’ve seen flying around as possible free agent / trade options: Gary Harris, Austin Rivers, OG Anunoby, Joe Ingles, Kyle Anderson, blockbuster move could be something like Damien Lillard but that involves a player like Michael Porter Jr to make the salaries match up
- NBA Draft: I’ve had my eyes on fellow Serbian and the guy with nearly the same name as our 2x MVP – Nikola Jović who is rated as the number 21 overall talent, the Nuggets have the #21 overall pick, and he was in Denver this morning doing his pre-draft workout. Also love David Roddy from Colorado State University who is on the Nuggets pre-draft workout schedule!
- Load Management: this is a team full of absolute superstars, but the reality is that Jamal Murray hasn’t play a full 82-game season since his sophomore year in 2017 (he played 81 games). But Murray has played in fewer and fewer games in each of the last five seasons including missing all last year. Michael Porter Jr hasn’t played a full 82-game season in his career. Nikola Jokic is coming off back-to-back seasons of playing every possible game, and he needs to be protected from himself. The term load management is part of the LeBron James era of basketball, and I hate it, but the reality is if you want to win a championship you have to get through the regular season healthy.
- Get this team a proper training facility like fans have been begging for years. Last offseason the Nuggets finally got a G-League affiliate and that was a huge move for the franchise. It is time to get them a state-of-the-art training facility to keep up with the rest of the league.
Let’s go Nuggets!
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