3...2....1....Nuggets Presser

[TheSyndicate]

Hey y'all,

Welcome to the Nuggets press conference. We're moving GM offices (I'm actually literally moving and my fiancee is glaring at me as I maintain that I need to spend 30 minutes on my fake basketball league) so we apologize for the delay.

We obviously had a great year last year, but I thought we lacked some firepower from the 5, and we never quite got the 5th starting piece to make a deep run. We also were pretty locked into our positions, a weakness that was glaring come playoff time despite winning two series, in one we seriously overmatched them talent-wise, and the other had a major injury. Once we played a talented team at full strength, there was little we could move around to match up.

We knew we had to sign our 5th rotation guy before Rondo signed or we weren't getting anything but a min to fill that spot out. We tried in RFA to get a great wing in Aminu, but unfortunately he had just bought a home in Dallas and was more than happy to return there when they matched the deal we had offered.

In UFA, we had about $25 million in cap space. We offered Rondo a max, but asked that he wait a day to take, to see if we could lure another big-time player to Denver. We had several min offers outstanding in UFA 1, and the only big offer went out to LaMarcus Aldridge. We thank the Aldridge camp for quick straightforward negotiations. Once he was in the bag, we called the representatives of Rajon, who quickly signed his new deal.

As talented as ever, our roster was still imbalanced with either Amare, LaMarcus, or Perkins having to play out of position or come off the bench. Not that having talent on the bench unit is a bad thing, but we wanted to make sure our available minutes were going to the players with the most amount of talent. We had our eyes on Luol Deng for MANY seasons as a stopper who could play 3 positions, and swapped Kendrick for him with some quick negotiations with Portland. We thank them for the talks, and wish Kendrick all the best in the Pacific Northwest.

I think we'll compete for the division, and even the Western Conference title. There are some strong teams out East, and we hope to face one of them in the Championship.

I'll now take your questions with lightning speed.

[TrayWithAnA]

Under Presser
- simQueen

[WigNosy]

Is there any concern LaMarcus Aldridge will bring a bad attitude with him from Detroit?

[ballsohard]

How big of a disappointment would ending the season without a ring be

[TheSyndicate]

Is there any concern LaMarcus Aldridge will bring a bad attitude with him from Detroit?

That was a concern, though we spent an extensive amount of time with LaMarcus and his camp. He wants to come to a winner and has the best attitude we could ask for. He's not great at sharing the ball, but as long as he's putting it through the circle, we're good. AD on the other hand should probably be on suicide-watch.

[TheSyndicate]

How big of a disappointment would ending the season without a ring be

You, of all GMs, should know that unless you're legitimately rebuilding, any season without a ring is a big disappointment. That being said, there ARE comparable or more talented teams out there (the hawks come to mind), so if I got to the finals and lost to them in say 7 games, am I disappointed? Yes. But not AS disappointed as I'll be if we don't get there.

[Xist2Inspire]

Klay appears to have even more to show than was previously expected. How excited are you to see what he'll do this season?

[TheSyndicate]

Klay appears to have even more to show than was previously expected. How excited are you to see what he'll do this season?

Here in Denver we always had very very high expectations for Klay's ceiling. So I can't say we were surprised. That being said, we're essentially trading out LMA for Rudy Fernandez in our rotation, so there may not be as many shots as last year for Klay. We would be happy with better efficiency, regardless of counting stats.

[garbageman]

Who do you think will be your biggest contributors off the bench?

[Inner_GI]

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