With the Denver Nuggets drafting highly-touted point guard Emmanuel Mudiay (not to mention Nikola Radicevic), picking up a quality shooting guard during free agency is next on the agenda.
Starting Wednesday, July 1, all NBA teams are free to negotiate contracts with free agents but players are not able to officially sign a contract until July 9. Having not drafted a two-guard, Denver currently has five off-guards on their active roster but four of them are either listed as restricted or unrestricted.
According to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post, the Nuggets are expected to retain Will Barton who Denver picked up in the Aaron Afflalo trade to Portland in February.
Barton is coming off a career high in Denver, shooting 44 percent from the field and upping his three-point average to 28 percent—only 22 percent from behind the line with the Trailblazers. On June 23, the Nuggets extended a $1.18 million qualifying offer to Barton making him a restricted free agent. With that, any other team can match the Nuggets with that price if they do want to sign him. Barton received a lot more playing time in Denver and has developed into an all-around scorer. But that’s just it, he’s only a scorer meaning he can get buckets on his own, not a shooter.
The Nuggets have made known that they are looking for a standout 2-man who is great in the open court and somebody who is, simply put, a pure shooter.
“The game is becoming a three-point shooting game,” Malone said in his introductory press conference. “You look at the number of three’s taken now compared to 10 to 15 years ago it’s not even close. Moving forward we have to ask, how can we make our roster better, not just through draft and trades but through player development.”
Some of the top shooting guards on the free agent market are Wesley Matthews, Danny Green, Monta Ellis, Marco Belinelli and Gary Neal.
Perhaps the most desirable of them all for the Nuggets is Belinelli—an eight-year veteran who is a knockdown shooter that has helped Gregg Popovich and the Spurs win many important games, one being the 2014 NBA championship. Also that year, Belinelli won the three-point shooting contest going up against the Wizards’ Bradley Beal.
However, the Nuggets have not yet shown public interest in Belinelli (both the Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Hornets have expressed interest in signing the sharpshooter, according to probasketballtalkl.com. With Wednesday being just the first day of free agency, expect many other teams to add the unrestricted shooter to their list FA wish list.
Neal, meanwhile, is a dead-eye shooter who also has thrived under the Popovich system (2010-13) and can help the Nuggets space the floor. His most recent stint was with the Minnesota Timberwolves where he is an unrestricted free agent which makes Neal free to sign with any team needing a long-range shooter.
For now, Denver still has Michigan State standout Gary Harris signed through 2018. The Nuggets got Harris in a trade during last years’ draft from Chicago. As an up-and-coming player, Harris shared playing time with veteran Randy Foye.
Foye, at best is a middle-of-the-road shooting guard who has a slow trigger, but does provide stable defense. The Nuggets have until July 11 to decide on Foye’s non-guaranteed $3.1 million deal, the final year of his deal with the team.
Denver has yet to show any public interest with the current free agents on the market, but with free agency just beginning that’ll change soon.
Mike Tolbert, a Mile High Sports intern and student at MSU-Denver, contributed to this report