What do the Denver Nuggets do?
That’s the question I’ve been asking myself over and over and over again for the last few months. And so far, I’ve got squat.
I love this team. I love these players. I love their upside. But sometimes, there’s too much to love.
The Denver Nuggets’ most-pressing problem isn’t a talent deficiency; it’s that they have more talent than they know what to do with. And it’s actively hurting them night in and night out.
Michael Malone spoke on it last week, but simply put, the Nuggets have too many guys on their roster, and it’s making it impossible to balance rotations when there are 10 guys deserving of quality minutes on your bench. And it’s only going to get worse when Gary Harris and Will Barton come back from injury.
What’s going to happen to Jamal Murray? Is he going to get shoved out of the way for Harris and Barton? Or will one of those veterans lose minutes to the sharpshooting rookie?
And what about Nikola Jokic? Is he really going to keep coming off the bench? And if you do move him into the starting lineup, what does that mean for Jusuf Nurkic?
What the Nuggets need is consolidation, and for a long time, the belief has been that that would come in the form of a blockbuster trade for a superstar — package three to five assets, swap them for a perennial All Star and make the jump back towards contention.
There have been plenty of (theorized) targets — DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Paul George, Klay Thompson, etc. — but the unfortunate reality is that not many teams are all that excited about trading their franchise cornerstones, and if the Nuggets don’t make a move soon, they could find themselves floating around in NBA purgatory, the place between championship contention and winning the lottery.
That’s a crippling scenario.
If the Nuggets can’t parlay their assets into a true star — and I’m becoming less and less convinced that may be possible — then they’re in trouble, because either way, they have to start moving on from some of these guys, and you don’t want to be swapping them out for pennies on the dollar.
But there is another option: blow it sky high.
Now, I’ll admit, it’s not an attractive option. The Nuggets would love to start putting butts in seats at the Pepsi Center and tanking isn’t exactly going to help. It’s a last resort, to be sure. But if Plan A (a superstar) doesn’t work, Tim Connelly can’t be afraid to pull the trigger on the self-destruct option.
If the Nuggets can’t bring in a superstar, they need to convert their veterans into draft picks, role with the youngsters and attack this year’s draft (which is one of the best classes we’ve seen in a long time) with everything they have.
Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Will Barton, Darrell Arthur and Jameer Nelson could all contribute on a contending team; they can all be that “one piece” that puts a team over the edge. And with the playoff race being so fluid this season, there should be plenty of buyers.
Instead of packaging those guys for a big name, put the For Sale sign outside the Pepsi Center and start auctioning them all off individually to the highest bidder. Would someone give up a first for Chandler or Gallo? What about the NBA’s best contract, Barton? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Then, once you’ve cleared the clutter, allow the youth movement to truly begin. Denver has six guys on their roster 22 years old or younger, and they all have upside. Hand them the keys and see just how far they can go.
Likely, they’ll play like the kids they are and fall out of the playoff race and into the lottery, but that’s okay. The on-court experience they’ll gain will be invaluable, and impossible to replicate with those veterans sucking up minutes in front of them.
When the draft comes along, the Nuggets pull a 76ers’ and trust “The Process.” They bring in as much young talent as they can, and they hope that one of them develops into the superstar they were unable to acquire at the deadline.
And all of this works because the Nuggets don’t need to be great right now. It’d be nice, but the truth is that the Warriors have this conference on lockdown. If Denver reaches it’s peak in three to four years, that might actually give them the best opportunity to climb the mountain and compete in an NBA Championship.
But again, this is a Plan B. Blowing up the roster and falling back into the lottery for a fourth straight season could be a death blow to the Nuggets attendance. And when attendance is bad, ownership isn’t making money. And when ownership isn’t making money, ownership gets worried. And when ownership gets worried, teams make rash decisions.
That would be bad.
What is undeniable, though, is that the Nuggets need to do something, something big. While I believe this team can compete for a playoff spot as constructed, if they go into next offseason as is, all those assets this team has spent years compiling will be worth half as much as they’re worth right now.
One way or another, it’s time to cash in.
