The physical part of NBA basketball may happen from October to June, but the real game is played in the summer, and I’m not talking about the Summer League. The off season is the most important part of the year for any NBA team. It gives rebuilding teams a chance to rebuild for the future, mid-table teams the chance to add more depth and potentially take the next step, and contenders the chance to re-sign players and address team weaknesses. Everybody thinks they’ve had a good off season, but when the season starts, most teams realize that they messed up, and messed up bad… ahem… Memphis Grizzlies. This guide is to try to prevent that from happening to the Denver Nuggets. So let’s hop right into it.
(Note: All stats are courtesy of Basketball-Reference unless otherwise noted.)
2018 NBA Draft:
The Nuggets have a few options to consider here. I’ll lay them all out, then say which one I think they should proceed with.
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Draft a 3-and-D wing
The Denver Nuggets desperately need help on defense.
They surrendered the 9th most points per game in the league, the 6th worst defensive rating, and the highest opponent field goal percentage in the entire NBA, not to mention the highest 3-point percentage as well. It’s safe to say they could use a bit of help on the defensive side of the ball.
They are actually pretty good shooting the 3 themselves, with the 6th most makes per game in the league and the 7th best 3-point percentage.
However, if they go for a player who is all-out defense with almost no offensive capability, they will basically be playing 4 against 5 when they go up the court. Think the Philadelphia 76ers when the ball isn’t in Ben Simmons hands.
You can also look to Torrey Craig as an example. As an undrafted free agent, Craig kind of went under the radar of a lot of basketball fans.
However, he has been phenomenal on defense, allowing his defensive assignments to shoot just 43.7% from the floor, according to ESPN.com. He could not get a consistent shooting stroke, however, shooting under 46% from the floor and just 29.3% from 3. As a result of poor shooting, he only played 16.1 minutes per game and appeared in just 39 games.
With Wilson Chandler on the decline and being nicely overpaid, the Nuggets could really use a prospect like Mikal Bridges out of Villanova or Miles Bridges from Michigan State.