Was Andre Miller The Reason Nuggets Passed On Teague?

The Denver Nuggets caught many off-guard when they drafted Evan Fournier with their top pick and Sam Amick of CNNSI.com suggested that the Nuggets planned to re-sign Andre Miller all along and that is the reason they passed on Marquis Teague – who Denver was really high on.

"Sources confirmed that point guard Andre Miller agreed to a three-year deal to return to the Nuggets. Miller was widely expected to head elsewhere, and now it makes some sense as to why the Nuggets passed on Kentucky point guard Marquis Teague in Thursday’s draft. Despite a source close to the Nuggets saying that Teague was high on their radar, they took French shooting guard Evans Fournier with the 20th pick. The potent Ty Lawson-Miller one-two punch, in other words, will remain together after all."

While it is a good theory, it isn’t very likely. Even if the Nuggets drafted Teague they would would have still tried to re-sign Miller or add a veteran point guard. Teague has enormous talent, but he isn’t ready to play in the NBA and would have been relegated to Denver’s bench. If anything the drafting of Teague would mean Julyan Stone would probably be waived. Not to mention Teague isn’t a great passer, which the Nuggets like out of their backup point guard.

The Nuggets obviously saw something in Fournier to draft him with the 20th pick, because they also passed on John Jenkins and Quincy Miller (who fell to the Nuggets with the 37th pick), two other players they were high on.