Denver Nuggets: Offseason lessons from the Suns series

Denver Nuggets offseason lessons: Is it worth keeping these prospects?

The Denver Nuggets, more specifically this Tim Connelly front office, has done an excellent job and developing young talent. They have developed rotation pieces like Monte Morris, Malik Beasley, Juan Hernangomez, and others, while also hitting on the big names like Jamal or Jokic.

A few of those rotation pieces were shipped off last season in a consolidation trade and then Gary Harris and RJ Hampton went to the Orlando Magic in the AG trade.

This has left Denver’s reserve of young talent a bit shallow. At the moment, the prospects on the roster are Zeke Nnaji, Bol Bol, and Vlatko Cancar. The difference between these guys and their predecessors is that they haven’t been able to produce at a rotation level yet.

It’s hard to go in on these guys since they are so young, but maybe it’s time to refill the coffers? Nnaji just completed his rookie season so he isn’t going anywhere, Bol has played in 39 regular season games, and Vlatko has only been playing in garbage time.

With the 26th pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, the Nuggets will have another shot at a young player. There’s also the opportunity to buy into the second round of the draft if Denver sees some talent worth grabbing (like they did with Bol Bol).

Michael Malone’s lack of options was exposed in this series. When nothing was working, he looked down the end of his bench and couldn’t find a spark.

It’s also worth mentioning that injuries to Jamal, Barton, and PJ Dozier made the team incredibly shallow, but wouldn’t it have been nice to try an RJ Hampton late in this series? Maybe not, we didn’t get to see Nnaji in real minutes so maybe I’m just grasping at straws here.

At the end of the day, the Nuggets had a ceiling without Jamal Murray, their second-best player. The Phoenix Suns were fully healthy and playing incredible defense. Let’s wait and see what next year holds.