I’m old enough to remember when Hollinger considered KCP a salary dump.
Just remember that the KCP and Bruce signings were not receiving universal praise two years ago. Jokic just gets everyone paid and there are more diamonds in the rough out there.
Rare miss by Hollinger, he’s one of the best analysts out there
DirkolaJokictzki
Doomers are always gonna doom because they don’t know ball
El-_-Jay
Nuggs fans were so happy to get rid of Barton at the time. The rest of the league just never watched Denver games so they thought it was a downgrade. The fanbase was hyped
Visible_Heart_7932
Be that as it may… Denver will not be a contender with a roster full of rookies.
LamboJoeRecs
Front office got nearly universally slandered by “analysts” for this move. Now look. Just like everything in this league, let it play out.
BTSuppa
NBA diamond shaper Nikola Jokic
DosZappos
The Jokic bit can’t be understated. Look at Bruce on every other team he’s been on, pretty average. KCP is going to be on his fifth team in 10 years. Both are net positives, obviously, but there are reasons they were both available for cheap, and then turned down options to capitalize on the Jokic bump
cyrusthemarginal
Jokic raises all boats, i think playing with someone that focused on distribution made KCP way better on offense than he would be otherwise.
LotharBot
This take was obvious nonsense even at the time.
Yes, Monte to Ish Smith was a downgrade, no question. But while Barton a few years back was a serviceable player, after his last round of injuries he had nothing left, and KCP was always an elite 3 and D guard. Like you could argue that peak Barton to 2022 KCP could be considered a lateral move, maybe, because (I know this opinion is unpopular) Barton was an adequate secondary creator and a decent rebounder, so the trade was merely for a different skillset. But post-injury Barton to 2022 KCP was so obviously a big upgrade that you had to have just not been paying attention to miss it.
Johnykbr
Nuggets fans were thrilled with the haul but hated losing Monte. There were very few naysayers.
10 Comments
Rare miss by Hollinger, he’s one of the best analysts out there
Doomers are always gonna doom because they don’t know ball
Nuggs fans were so happy to get rid of Barton at the time. The rest of the league just never watched Denver games so they thought it was a downgrade. The fanbase was hyped
Be that as it may… Denver will not be a contender with a roster full of rookies.
Front office got nearly universally slandered by “analysts” for this move. Now look. Just like everything in this league, let it play out.
NBA diamond shaper Nikola Jokic
The Jokic bit can’t be understated. Look at Bruce on every other team he’s been on, pretty average. KCP is going to be on his fifth team in 10 years. Both are net positives, obviously, but there are reasons they were both available for cheap, and then turned down options to capitalize on the Jokic bump
Jokic raises all boats, i think playing with someone that focused on distribution made KCP way better on offense than he would be otherwise.
This take was obvious nonsense even at the time.
Yes, Monte to Ish Smith was a downgrade, no question. But while Barton a few years back was a serviceable player, after his last round of injuries he had nothing left, and KCP was always an elite 3 and D guard. Like you could argue that peak Barton to 2022 KCP could be considered a lateral move, maybe, because (I know this opinion is unpopular) Barton was an adequate secondary creator and a decent rebounder, so the trade was merely for a different skillset. But post-injury Barton to 2022 KCP was so obviously a big upgrade that you had to have just not been paying attention to miss it.
Nuggets fans were thrilled with the haul but hated losing Monte. There were very few naysayers.