The Nuggets Future Is Bright… Right?

The Nuggets Future Is Bright… Right?

so the never nugget season is just over it seemed like partway through game seven against Minnesota that we’ arrived at the correct outcome for this series where Minnesota was really good and Denver just had that that Championship something right like they were able to bring the series back after losing the first two games of the series at home felt like they had figured out Minnesota despite a crushing loss in game six and partway through this game it they I mean they were up a ton they had this huge lead even into the second half and then all of a sudden their season’s just over and through the Brilliance of Anthony Edward to the way that this Minnesota team is constructed now Denver finds themselves looking at an offseason in which they actually have a significant amount of opportunities to try and improve the roster should they choose to now some of you might be watching the video thinking why would they need to improve I mean they they went to seven games with the Minnesota team that’s very good they won the title last year they were one game away for making the Conference Finals and being the favorite to make the finals why does Denver need to make any changes well they might not need to and certainly credit needs to be given to that Minnesota team in many ways a team that was built to try and beat this Denver team and they were fantastic in the series but Denver always needs to continually look at how they can improve the roster and this offseason is an opportunity to do that in terms of the way their salary sheet is set up their core guys are all going to be back next year should they choose to bring them back joic is on a Max extension Murray is a free agent 2025 is extension eligible this off season Porter Junior’s on a Max Aaron Gordon’s on a contract for the next couple of Seasons player option in 2025 kcp player option Reggie Jackson player option for the most part guys are either on big extensions have a player option for this offseason or are on rookie scale contracts which is nice for Denver it provides them this nice stability they can go in next year knowing that even without changes if they bring back some of these guys that might opt out on player options they’re going to be just as good as they were this year assuming that they’re healthy and they are really good they won 57 games they were the favorite to win the title at points during the season and as I said we’re one game away from making the conference final but if you’re looking at points of possible Improvement for Denver on this roster there’s a couple of things I’m paying attention to first and foremost is I think it’s okay to start thinking about what your options are in terms of of a good third scorer that isn’t Michael Porter Jr like Jamal Murray had an up and down postseason was good at times when they needed him at other times was really bad of course joic is who he is Aaron Gordon’s the third best player on the team but the third best scorer on the team is supposed to be Michael Porter Jr and at times in this postseason especially in the first round against the Lakers he was fantastic right but he’s certainly a one-dimensional player and at times a player that doesn’t really fit within the team kind of structure that Denver has put together and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some conversations had in Denver in terms of what does the future of Michael Porter Jr look like are there some teams out there would be willing to give up you know something close to an All-Star in exchange for Porter Jr and some other assets and some picks I’m not saying it’s going to happen I’m not saying that’s the level of value that Porter has throughout the league given the injury history of him as well as the contract that he’s currently on and I’m not even saying that it’s a move that Denver would make or would make sense for them but again it’s all about evaluating the strengths of the team and at certain points in this series when Jamal Murray was struggling and it was just yic out there creating it felt like needed a little bit more of an offensive punch now that could be someone to replace Michael Porter Jr or as we’re going to talk about a little bit later someone to come off the bench a little bit more of a Creator someone that’s a little bit more Dynamic and that of course would not cost them trading away Michael Porter Jr but I do think if you’re looking at improving the roster he is an interesting player to take a look at the other thing that has to be addressed like just 100% they cannot go in the next season in my opinion without at least trying to address this issue and that is the bench their bench this season was basically Reggie Jackson who is very up and down can be explosive at times offensively other times does absolutely nothing for you and a handful of young guys we’re talking about Julian stord we’re talking about pton Watson we’re talking about Christian Brown and like those guys are good at times but it’s hard to rely on those kinds of players in moments that you really really need them and even though Christian Brown at times this postseason at times last postseason was really good it would be nice to have not only uh guys that maybe were on the a little bit more on the veteran side guys you can potentially rely on in some of these big games someone maybe a little bit more like casy although obviously he’s a starter but also that explosive offensive presence Off the Bench like when you look at the shot creators on this Denver roster there is a significant gap between them and a lot of the other top tier teams in the conference of course you have jokic you have Jamal Murray and that’s basically it like if Reggie Jackson’s not playing well they’ve got two creators and in today’s NBA that’s just not good enough even with the Brilliance of yic and at times the Brilliance of Jamaal Murray so if I’m them I’m certainly looking at addressing not only the bench as a whole but as I mentioned in the first section as well trying to add a more explosive scoring punch to this team whether that be a Jordan Clarkson whether it be a variety of different players around the league as long as it fits within the team structure they want they need like a like a Jamal maray light off the bench and they need a little bit more of a veteran presence overall Off the Bench another point of improvement for me absolutely for Denver they I need to take a look at is they need a legitimate backup five I understand that they’re never going to get someone that’s going to play the way that joic does and it can be difficult to adjust things one way or the other depending on which unit is out there and that’s one of the reasons that they like to try and play Aon Gordon at the five is because they can try and run a little bit offense through them have them be a little bit of a facilitator I understand all those things but you need to have some kind of other option here in a series in which like against Minnesota you need another guy that maybe isn’t the size of joic but someone similar to that right like DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Jackson can’t be your backup one and your backup five next year that just that just can’t be a thing right because there are going to be times they going to be series that you match up against a team like Minnesota that just kind of overwhelms you with size and as we saw in game seven joic this isn’t the only reason the lack of size not the only reason this was the case but it was a significant reason he played all but one minute in the game and partially because Denver is just terrible in all the non yage minutes which goes back to some of the other issues we’ve already talked about but also they don’t really have a replacement for him just from a size perspective unless it’s literally DeAndre Jordan and I understand what Denver has tried to do over the last couple of Seasons with Reggie Jackson with DeAndre Jordan with some of these young younger wings that I talked about earlier Christian Brown guys like that they’re trying to be efficient they’re trying to have some of these smaller contracts to make up for the fact that they do have a handful of bigger contracts at the top of the roster all of that’s fine all that makes sense but it’s also it also makes sense to point out that now those options are not what you’re going to need as you go through the entirety of the postseason you deal with some teams um that have a significant amount of depth and I think that one of the things that we’re going to start to learn a little bit about Denver uh over the next year or two is that yes they’re really good but they arguably rely more on their best player than any other team in the entire league to reach the level of good that they are like joic as is of course obvious in the name of MVP most valuable players as valuable to his team as any other team in the entire league but it’s not just the value that he brings it’s how much this team relies on him for everything especially of course offensively and there just needs to be a little bit more versatility there needs to be a few other options there needs to be a guy that could randomly drop 25 in a playoff game even though I guess you could say Reggie Jackson’s that guy there needs to be someone other than Reggie Jackson that can also do that and I think it’s okay for a couple of different things to be true it’s okay to say that last year’s Denver team was really good and going 16 and four in the postseason is incredible on your way to a title and it’s also okay to admit that there were holes in the roster last season and holes in the roster this season that could have been addressed that weren’t and largely got covered up by the absolute Brilliance of Nicole yic it’s okay for multiple things to be true it’s okay for them to be a championship level team this season had they won game seven against Minnesota potentially made the finals potentially won the title it’s okay for that to be true and it’s also okay for it to be true that they can and should make improvements this off season which leads me to to Really my my final Point here I think Aaron Gordon’s safe I think Jamal Murray is safe I think Nicole yic is safe everybody else on the roster I’m not it’s it’s obviously not a complete tear down it’s worth at least looking at the value and how you could change things up for everyone else and I understand the overall team success that they’ve had specifically the last two seasons but are significant issues with the roster that I think they could take a really hard Lookout now the issue for Denver is they owe multiple future first round picks um they owe 2025 first to Orlando as a result of the Aaron Gordon trade and they owe a 27 and a 29 first round pick to Oklahoma City so their options in terms of adding future picks to trades should they choose to make that decision obviously aren’t fantastic uh and then in terms of salary caps basis off season they don’t have any right so they might have you know a little bit of an exception here they might be to sign a minimum guy here but for the most part their options for improvement and trying to get a good player in the draft and then potentially moving some pieces around and making some moves this a team that has not been afraid in the past to make some significant changes to the roster by bringing in Aaron Gordon by letting Jeremy Grant go uh by bringing in kcp and shaking up the roster by getting rid of Monty Morris like this is a team that is okay making significant changes and obviously at the end of the day they’re still very good and the sky is absolutely not falling in Denver but once you win a title once you establish yourselves as the best team in the league other teams are going to start coming after you they’re going to start looking at how can we beat this team and I think specifically Minnesota as well as other teams in the conference have really targeted the weaknesses of this Denver roster namely no backup five namely no bench namely no other offensive scores off explosive offensive scores I should say other than joic and marur and at times Porter Jr and they’ve started to identify those weaknesses and it’s time for Denver to also identify those weaknesses and potentially make some changes so at the end of the day Sky not falling for Denver they certainly have plenty of options to try and maneuver things uh you know around with the roster via trade if they choose to and even if they don’t even if they add a couple of guys along the edges bring back everybody next year they’re absolutely going to be a force to be reckoned with but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if any offseason there’s some Rumblings about hey maybe kcp Ops into his player option and we try and move him hey maybe we we explore the value of Michael Porter Jr with some of these other guys around the league that could be available those are all going to be conversations had in Denver and I think it makes total sense even with as good of a regular season and as it’s promising of a postseason they potentially could have had

The Denver Nuggets head into the offseason after a game 7 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and their future is bright, right?

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