With basketball season slowly creeping up, what are some realistic predictions for the Denver Nuggets in 2018?
With a little over two months to go before the start of the NBA season, fans and players alike are starting to get excited. Free agency is all but done, and we saw massive moves take place. LeBron James moved to Los Angeles to make a tough Western Conference even tougher. DeMarcus Cousins joined the Warriors, completing a starting lineup of all-stars. Paul George shocked the NBA world and stayed in Oklahoma City.
The Nuggets made splashes of their own. They re-signed Nikola Jokic and Will Barton to new deals, locking them up for a long time. They signed Isaiah Thomas to a 1 year, $2.4 million deal, which equates the veteran minimum.
In the 2018 draft, they selected Michael Porter Jr, who tumbled down the draft board until the Nuggets happily stopped his fall. Porter Jr, originally rated as high as the #1 overall pick just a year ago, saw his college career get derailed by injuries, which led to his fall during the draft.
Denver also added Jarred Vanderbilt and Thomas Welsh as two second round picks in the draft.
The Nuggets also offloaded a huge amount of salary, sending Wilson Chandler to Philadelphia and Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur to Brooklyn. They had to sacrifice some picks in the process, but to shed so much salary, it was worth it.
As the season approaches, this Nuggets team looks extremely strong on paper. They have at least two quality players at every position, and are bringing back almost the same exact team that missed the playoffs by one game in a very talented and crowded Western Conference.
What are some realistic predictions for Denver in 2018-19?