Strike 2: The Denver Nuggets – and their fans – are truly blessed to have one of the best centers in NBA history wearing a Denver uniform. When he retires, Nikola Jokic will go down as one of basketball’s top two or three centers of all-time.
Not bad for a second-round draft pick.
Had Denver – or anyone else – foreseen what Jokic would become prior to that fateful 2014 draft, he would have obviously been the top overall pick (instead it was Andrew Wiggins.) But as it turned out, some astute overseas scouting and a good deal of luck helped the Nuggets land a generational talent with the 41st pick.
But other than that 2014 draft, when Denver picked Doug McDermott (and then traded him to Chicago for their first pick, Jusuf Nurkic) with their first-round selection, the Nuggets fortunes with big men has been pretty incomplete.
Denver has a big picture problem when it comes to (backup) big men. They get them, but other than Joker, don’t keep them. And that becomes a problem when the Nuggets go up against teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, who can throw multiple bigs at Joker. Denver doesn’t have an answer for that.
Some history: Three years after he became a Nugget (and the original plan was to have Jokic be the back up before Joker emerged as a star) Nurkic was dealt to Portland for Mason Plumlee. Plumlee spent three seasons as the number two center, but left Denver as a free agent after the 2020 season.
And so it’s gone. Both Nurkic and Plumlee were solid backups for Joker. Both could still be solid backups for Joker if they were still Nuggets. Instead, Denver continues to search and come up wanting. Like, every year.
Prime – or almost Prime – DeAndre Jordan would have been awesome, but the Nuggets signed him late in his career and he’s been much more of a mentor than a savior. Free agent acquisition Dario Saric – also drafted in 2014 – has been pretty much a bust, only taking off his warm-ups on those rare occasions Joker misses a game entirely. Zeke Nnaji – given a multi-year $8 million contract – has not measured up either.
Current Oklahoma City center Isaiah Hartenstein once had a locker at Ball Arena. He was signed just prior to Plumlee’s departure, and spent two seasons as a backup for Joker, but Denver traded him for JaVale McGee in March of 2021. Hartenstein blossomed as a New York Knick in 2022 before landing with the Thunder on a multi-year $87 million contract. He’s averaging 12 points and 12 rebounds per game for the Western Conference’s best team this season.
Last year, current Memphis big Jay Huff was a Nugget. But he got almost no playing time here, and left as a free agent after last season. He’s now the prime back up for the Grizzlies, who currently sit third in the West, one spot ahead of Denver. Huff could still be a Nugget, too.
The Nuggets bad fortune continued last summer when top draft pick DaRon Holmes – a center/power forward from Dayton – blew out his Achilles tendon in the first few minutes of his first summer league game in a Denver uniform. He’d signed his rookie contract three days before he was lost for the season.
So what’s the real problem here? It’s not that the Nuggets front office doesn’t recognize talent. It’s been proven that they do. But they clearly don’t value guys like Plumlee, Hartenstein and Huff as much as they probably should when they have them under contract. Had they given Huff a slightly bigger role a season ago and then signed him to a reasonable contract for this year, it would have made pursuing Saric last summer unnecessary.
It’s the little things like not really knowing what you have until it’s gone that can leave a team with big issues.
