NBADraft.net weighs in on Nuggets

Every offseason NBADraft.net weighs in on the status of every team and recently they talked about the Denver Nuggets in their State of the Cap piece. 

They put the Nuggets down as roughly $25.2 million under the cap and the two players that talked about in their highlights were Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson. Here is what they said about the two:

"Gallinari is just 23 and shouldn’t reach his peak for a few more years. He may not become the next Nowitzki but he has the tools to be a really dangerous player down the road, hence the reason Denver wanted him included in the Anthony deal.He (Lawson) has been a pleasant surprise since coming to town in a seemingly innocent trade with the Wolves on draft night in 2009. In each of his two seasons, Lawson has shot over 50% from the field and 40% from the three point line, which is excellent efficiency for a young point guard. His assist-to-turnover ratio is quite good as well."

Another thing that was listed as a highlight was the Nuggets financial flexibility, with loads of money to spend when the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Some of the lowlights that they discussed was:

• Replacing Raymond Felton with Andre Miller. NBADraft.net felt that the Nuggets should have kept Felton because he was younger. and to their credit they correct. Miller is seven years older than Felton, however, they must have not realized that Felton wanted to start – something he couldn’t do in Denver.
• The contracts of Al Harrington and Chris Andersen: Ugh…the two biggest thorns in the Nuggets side is these two very length and quite overpaid contracts. Harrington was brought in to help Carmelo Anthony and when Anthony was traded, Harrington wasn’t much of an asset for the Nuggets. Andersen looked like a bargain in the 2008-09 season and has looked more like a bust after getting his contract. While he is a fan-favorite, he is 33 and isn’t going to get better and at the same time come down with nagging injuries due to his age.

NBADraft finished up by talking about the Nuggets future. And nobody can discuss the Nuggets future without saying it is going to be strange, especially with the list of free agents the team has and without a star player. Denver does have some good building blocks, Gallinari, Lawson, Miller, Arron Afflalo (restricted free agent), Jordan Hamilton, Timofey Mozgov and Kenneth Faried.