Nuggets 2019-20 Pre-Season Presser

[TheSyndicate]

Previous Year Recap:
The two-headed monster of Jrue and Klay could never stay healthy enough through a season and playoffs combined to let the fans in Denver - as well as us in the organization - know what we really had there. With Klay headed back to UFA with no guarantee a supermax deal would land him, we made a deal for a young PG who was not a prospect but could be immediately plugged in keeping our team producing wins on the season. We kept our franchise-record streak of 8 consecutive post-season appearances alive, and we gave the eventual Western Conference champions hell in round one of the playoffs. If we had made a tactical change a little quicker, I don't know that our friends from the North would have made it by our scrappy ballclub. In addition, we got under the salary cap and reset our tax repeater status which was absolutely critical to our long-term plans.

Off-season Recap:
We went into the offseason with a stacked back-court, essentially no forwards, and very little options outside of Jrue for scoring. We knew we had Chet in RFA madness and though we were prepared to match a max deal, and knew that that probably could happen, we really really really hoped we could get him for close to a fairer value. #themarketsucks

So we went looking on the trade market. We probably had intensive talks with 2/3 of the league. Our goal was to obtain 2 very good front-court players (one offensive-minded, and one defensive-minded) while keeping Jrue Holiday and as much youth as possible - though fully prepared to go all-in for the right players. In a sense, we came up short of that goal, but with some potential long-term benefits. We were able to swing a trade for Blake Griffin in exchange for a 2021 pick (which we hope won't be that tasty) and Buddy Hield, who while we loved his potential and even current stats, didn't really have a place on our team and was viewed kind of as a tweener. We worked to acquire a defensive stalwart at the 4 or 5 with our remaining pieces, but weren't able. Prior to RFA, we sent some cash to Golden State for Kent Bazemore who should add a little scoring punch at the wing for us.

We traded up in the draft to obtain the rights to Aaron Donald who we think can be an offensive/blocking force in this league. We love that we didn't have to trade our picks in the last two drafts for this season's run, and the youth will give us some flexibility moving forward.

In RFA, the coked-up Miami GM went ham and handed out max deals like they were going out in style, including one to Chet Dooley which we reluctantly matched. As opposed to Nuggets stars of the past, Dooley didn't stuff off the offseason after getting paid, came into camp in amazing shape, and has even been working with our assistant coach and scoring advisor, former Nugget, Danny Manning.

In UFA, we more or less struck out. This was the darkest of our offseason days. We did bring in some depth toward the end of Free Agency to round out our team including a few of the guys from last year's team.

Season Outlook:
While every coach/GM/Owner would love to come out and say 'our goal is to win a championship', I look around the league at some very talented rosters and think that's probably not in the cards for us. Though, we do like our chances in a 7-game series agains many GMs due to DC creativity. Our goal is to contend for the division, make the playoffs in a decent seed, and if we determine mid-season our goals are unattainable, we'll make moves to get better for next year.

[kucoach7]

Jose Jumper is starting to look pretty solid. With a couple of aging vets around him, what role do you see for him on your team this year?

[TheSyndicate]

Jose Jumper is starting to look pretty solid. With a couple of aging vets around him, what role do you see for him on your team this year?

Jose's role may evolve as the year moves on. We would like him to have slightly better defensive fundamentals before thrusting him into the starting lineup as that is a weakness in general for our front-court. So at the beginning, he'll provide a scoring punch off the bench. He certainly has the ability to play his way into the starting lineup, as do any of our young players.

[garbageman]

While the Nuggets definitely look like a playoff team this year, there seem to be some holes in the lineup, especially, a true SF. Are you likelier to move young talent to fill that spot with a win now guy, keep Bazemore playing an undersized 3, or only trade if it helps your future out?

[TheSyndicate]

While the Nuggets definitely look like a playoff team this year, there seem to be some holes in the lineup, especially, a true SF. Are you likelier to move young talent to fill that spot with a win now guy, keep Bazemore playing an undersized 3, or only trade if it helps your future out?

Yes.

But seriously, we're exploring all options both internally and externally to fill that spot. We also feel like McCormick could stick there long-term if we can get him to focus some time an energy to his perimeter defense. If there's a 3/4/5 available on the trade market, we've probably inquired.