Nuggets: Mike Miller and Jameer Nelson need to stay, no matter what.
By Tim D'Elia
Mike Miller has had an illustrious career, just finishing his 16th season in the NBA, Miller has won two NBA championships with the Miami Heat as well as being named 6th man of the year and obtaining Rookie of the Year honours.
Jameer Nelson was effectively a one-team player, he spent 10 years with the Orlando magic before being traded around in 2014 and subsequently ending up in Denver as a backup to Ty Lawson. Nelson was an all-star in 2009 amongst a deluge of honours he obtained in his four seasons at St Josephs University.
Both men have had very good careers and as their careers begin to wind down they both ended up in Denver. This was no coincidence. The Nuggets are rebuilding, this is a fact and with the rebuild comes young vibrant players. Emmanuel Mudiay, Nikola Jokic, Gary Harris, aand Jusuf Nurkic are all 21 and under, they need experienced players to teach them about life in the NBA.
Mike and Jameer both have something in common that Tim Connelly and the Nuggets wanted, they’re both absolute professionals about the way they go about their basketball. Young players need someone like that to learn how to keep their private life private. The temptations are too great for some, just recently the Nuggets went through this exact situation with Ty Lawson.
Last year the Nuggets didn’t really have an experienced player to settle everyone down and make sure they prepared for the game by having a relaxed night, instead of turning up to shoot around or practice in the morning stinking like alcohol. I think it’s highly under rated how much a veteran professional presence matters to a team, when the lights go out and the stadium is empty the vets are in charge when the players get to the hotel if there on a road trip. They play all sorts of shenanigans on the rookies and give them a hard time, and it all helps build team chemistry.
Last year the Nuggets didn’t have that, they were dysfunctional and couldn’t have cared less about each other. It was well documented that after a time-out the players huddled and they chanted ‘3,2,1 6 weeks!” which made reference to only having six weeks of the season remaining.
The chemistry that the Nuggets have built this season is a good start, Miller and Nelson are both great locker room guys and this is why I think the front office needs to do whatever is in their power to make sure these guys both stay. Miller’s contract expires at the end of the season so the Nuggets should be considering offering him a coaching role, Miller still wants to play on which makes it a tough decision so the Nuggets should find a compromise where we give Mike a coaching role on a players contract.
This would mean he could help with picking plays and running them effectively if he gets onto the court, and if at any point he decides his body isn’t up to it or he picks up an injury, Miller is still locked into a contract and can help coach the players. It’s a similar problem with Jameer Nelson however he still has two years to run on his playing contract, this makes it a sticky situation because if the Nuggets choose to resign DJ Augustin this leaves Nelson as the third PG and probably not in the rotation. Jameer needs to be there for Mudiay especially because Mudiay’s development means so much to the franchise and Nelson is the one who can teach him best about being a floor general.
Whatever happens the crux of the matter is both of these guys need to stay in Denver, they need their leadership and the example they set as players to aspire to. Tim Connelly and the front office should make resigning Mike and keeping Nelson the top of their priorities if they want to successfully rebuild this Nuggets squad.
Credit to the Colorado Sports Guys for the Mike Miller video.