Denver Nuggets: Is Troy Daniels a keeper?
By Evan Siegel
The Denver Nuggets signed Troy Daniels in March in an effort to bolster their outside shooting. So far in Orlando, it’s worked like a charm.
The Denver Nuggets signed Troy Daniels in response to still being in the middle of the pack in three point shooting. Daniels has scored 50 points in the two scrimmages to this point, with a combined 11 three pointers made. The Nuggets lack a true outside sniper threat to give themselves some space to work with in the paint.
The Nuggets have three different players who can slash to the basket at will in Gary Harris, Will Barton, and Jamal Murray. One small contributing problem to the team’s defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers in last year’s playoffs was a lack of a potent shooting threat on the perimeter allowing the Trail Blazers to suck into the paint and bother Nikola Jokic that much more.
The Nuggets will have the mid-level exception available to them in free agency, and hardly anything more. Adding consistent shooting appears to be job one for the team’s management, as Bol Bol and Jerami Grant appear to be useful options going forward in the event that both Mason Plumlee and Jerami Grant depart in free agency.
The Nuggets are very, very close to being a championship team. Rather than breaking the bank and selling the farm for a third cornerstone star, it might be in the best interest of the team to continue to supplement the roster they already have with more shooting, as simple as that is. Furthermore, it not overly difficult to find elite shooting in this day and age.
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The Nuggets can easily add two or even three elite shooters with the mid-level exception and one or two minimum contracts. Names like D.J. Augustin, Courtney Lee, and Marco Belinelli come to mind as affordable rotation players to add to the squad. But as of now, Daniels might just be the guy to keep around as he is hotter than fish grease to this point in Orlando.