For the kajillionth straight year, the Nuggets had a much better net rating when Nikola Jokic was on the court, but unlike in past years, the minutes when he sat weren’t a complete disaster. According to Databallr, Denver was a net positive with Tim Hardaway Jr. on the court; the same goes for Spencer Jones, and even Jonas Valanciunas - who seldom played with Jokic - was pretty much neutral.
By the Nuggets’ standards, that’s a great success. The issue has always been surviving the non-Jokic minutes and letting the elite starting group do the heavy lifting. And this past season, the revamped bench was finally up for the task. Big Val was nothing special, but he was a solid, competent backup center.
THJ was a contestant for the Sixth Man of the Year Award and gave the team a much-needed scoring and shooting spark. Spencer became a reliable innings-eater and one of the team’s best defensive players. And that’s not even to mention Peyton Watson, the Nuggets’ breakout star off the bench.
And now, as well as this depth was assembled last season, it’s being ripped apart just as quickly. Hardaway Jr. has signed with the Heat. Valanciunas was waived on Thursday for financial relief. Jones is posting messages about looking for a new job on LinkedIn. Watson’s restricted free agency is touch-and-go, and it seems he could be traded to the Clippers at any moment.
Nuggets' bench looks extremely questionable
They’ve brought in Marvin Bagley III and re-signed Tyus Jones, two fine rotational pieces, but Jones was waived last season and available to any team on a minimum, and Bagley will be suiting up for his seventh team in his nine-year career, after being drafted 2nd overall by the Kings in 2018.
Bruce Brown is still dangling on the free agent market as well. Hopefully, he’ll sign back on for another minimum once the rest of the Nuggets’ business is finished, but still, it seems clear this bench is going to look completely different next season. And make no mistake, I understand the financial reasons behind what’s happening, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a shame.
Keep in mind that the most likely outcome remains staying below the second apron, so even if the Nuggets do manage to bring Watson back, he’ll be elevated to the starting lineup, and one of Cam Johnson or Christian Braun will be gone. The front office is doing a lot of work to keep a loaded starting unit together, but it’s coming at the cost of depth, and we’re seeing the bench ripped to shreds.
As of now, they’ll be putting a lot of stock in Julian Strawther, DaRon Holmes, and their rookie Trevon Brazile to be major contributors. For a veteran team that was injury-ravaged last season, the roster construction is looking like a major question mark after one week of free agency.
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