Nuggets Rumors: Denver pursuing George Hill after adding Paul Millsap
By Tom West
After agreeing to a great deal to sign All-Star Paul Millsap, the Denver Nuggets’ next target in NBA free agency is point guard George Hill.
The Denver Nuggets got Paul Millsap. Even better, they agreed to sign him on a three-year, $90 million deal with a team option in the third year, helping their cap flexibility going forward when they need to pay young players. As of right now, though, despite landing an All-Star, the Nuggets aren’t finished with NBA free agency. They’re still aiming high, and have shifted their focus to George Hill, the best point guard left on the market.
As The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor has reported, you can “expect the Nuggets to pursue free agent point guard George Hill, if they can dump salary (like Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur).”
The names O’Connor mentioned are obviously the ideal players for the Nuggets to part with now. Denver has a log jam of power forwards (and small forwards who can play the four) after adding Millsap (and his $30 million salary, if he’s paid at a flat rate for the three years) and need to clear roster room and cap space.
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Dumping Faried’s $12.92 million salary for 2017-18 would be helpful enough, while clearing Arthur’s $7.46 million would go a long way to creating space for Hill, providing Denver receives as little salary as possible back in a trade.
If the Nuggets want Hill, they have a better chance of getting him now that their team is bolstered by the arrival of Paul Millsap and the market for point guards being rather weak. Kyle Lowry, the best at available at the position after Chris Paul went to Houston, couldn’t even get more than three years and $100 million from the Toronto Raptors. Seeing as he was eligible for a full five-year max, that says a lot about the low interest in the point guard market this year, even with the drop in salary cap space after last summer’s madness.
Next: Why the Paul Millsap deal is perfect for Denver
If Faried and Arthur are cleared out, then Denver can make a good offer to George Hill and take the team’s offense (and defense in particular) to another level. He’d be a perfect fit next to Nikola Jokic with his complementary ball handling, scoring and spot-up ability as a 40 percent 3-point shooter. Hill doesn’t need the ball in his hands a lot to help, which is ideal. On defense, the versatile 6’3″ Hill — who ranked sixth among point guards in Real Defensive Plus/Minus last season — can do a lot to support Gary Harris and secure the perimeter. That’s exactly what the Nuggets need.