ESPN NBA analyst points out glaring hole in Nuggets roster

After a concerning start to the offseason, the Nuggets were able to rebound with late veteran signings of Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric, a solid Summer League showing from Julian Strawther, and a four-year contract extension for Jamal Murray.

That’s not exactly a slam dunk of an offseason. Still, it’s a stark improvement from an ugly playoff loss, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walking in free agency, DaRon Holmes II tearing his achilles, and organizational dysfunction.

Nuggets still have a massive hole in their lack of three-point shooting

Calvin Booth and company did a solid job of salvaging the situation and giving the Nuggets a chance to contend this year and beyond, but the roster is far from perfect. ESPN NBA analyst Tim Bontemps wrote a column highlighting key roster holes on several Western Conference contenders and pointed out a glaring one for the Nuggets: three-point shooting.

This has been an issue for the Nuggets in recent seasons. They were one of the lowest-volume three-point shooting teams in the league last year and fixing that had to be a point of emphasis going into this offseason.

Unfortunately, the team somehow went in the opposite direction. They lost KCP, who was one of their only consistent three-point shooters last season. Justin Holiday and Reggie Jackson weren’t high-volume shooters, but they were two of the only bench players who could actually space the floor.

The new additions for Denver will only compound the issue. Westbrook is one of the worst volume shooters of all time and cannot be relied on to space the floor in any way; the less he shoots, the better. Saric is a decent shooter but doesn’t fire up threes at a high enough volume to truly pressure the defense.

Christian Braun has been a solid shooter but needs to increase his volume quite a bit. The Nuggets are hoping for a big internal leap from Julian Strawther. There’s reason to believe he’ll be able to help the bench with scoring and shooting, but expecting him to come in and meaningfully bolster the team’s three-point shooting outlook feels ambitious.

The vibes are getting better in Denver since the Murray deal was announced, but this is a reminder that the team still needs a lot of things to go right for them to be elite contenders this season. A lot of their fortunes will be determined by their three-point shooting; if they can find one more gunner, they’ll be in business.