Why is Zeke Nnaji on the Nuggets roster?

[farkingidiot]

I just don't see much there. I don't get to see the Nuggets much. What am I missing?

[NuggetsWY]

I just don't see much there. I don't get to see the Nuggets much. What am I missing?

Did you look at his salary? This year it is insignificant and even when it doubles next year, it's not a crippling salary.

Did you look at the Nuggets' depth chart? Remember that he plays center and power forward in Mike Malone's rotation. Realistically, Jokic's primary backup is DeAndre Jordan, whose great in the paint but situations calling for a backup that can play a stretch center, he's not a great choice. Malone's third choice has often been for Nnaji.

Did you consider our front office's record of players everyone else thinks are no good and how they turn out?

Nnaji has shown potential and evidently Malone and/or the front office believe he will learn -- or they wouldn't have given him his current contract.

[farkingidiot]

Other than being condescending, that doesn't seem to be much of an answer. Every team has players they give contracts and every team thinks a player has potential. There is a league of guys with potential. I'm asking what everyone's opinion is of his game. I haven't seen anything of note, ability-wise, for years from Zeke. I was wondering what fan's opinion is of him.

[THE J0KER]

Other than being condescending, that doesn't seem to be much of an answer. Every team has players they give contracts and every team thinks a player has potential. There is a league of guys with potential. I'm asking what everyone's opinion is of his game. I haven't seen anything of note, ability-wise, for years from Zeke. I was wondering what fan's opinion is of him.

Zeke was the personal pick of our former GM Tim Connelly who never clicked with our coach Malone. There was big excitement about his Nuggets' future in the rookie and sophomore seasons when he had over 40% 3pt percentage, but not anymore, he has no future as FC in a team where C is Jokic, PF is Gordon, and Porter jr playing many minutes at PF too. Most probably, Nnaji is going to be traded this year's trade deadline or this Summer, and I wish him success. I'm the first who complain here because young players do not get enough chances under Malone, but I can't blame him this season about Zeke whose TS% is down to 53% (from over 60% in the first two seasons). Former Denver center Isaiah Hartenstein has a breakthrough season now in New York so I wish Nnaji everything best in his new home (since next season his salary will rise to 8M which is just too much for Denver to pay for 10mpg reserve).

[Maf]

I am not much high on him. He showed some flashes of promise previous seasons but this season is terrible. There were several games you could see Malone wanted to try him as back up C but after couple of minutes and terrible effort, defense etc he was immediately benched for the rest of the game. I think he is a nice kid and fun to be around, only reasons I see for him being extended. Basketball-wise, if you can´t outplay DAJ in his age for role on your team, it speaks a lot.

[Maf]

Other than being condescending, that doesn't seem to be much of an answer. Every team has players they give contracts and every team thinks a player has potential. There is a league of guys with potential. I'm asking what everyone's opinion is of his game. I haven't seen anything of note, ability-wise, for years from Zeke. I was wondering what fan's opinion is of him.

I'm the first who complain here because young players do not get enough chances under Malone.

Want to ask, do you still think that? Because I wonder who are those players that were overlooked by Malone? Bones barely plays in LA. Bol Bol barely plays at Phoenix. I had no idea if Hampton is still in the league, had to look it up. Many guys are out of the NBA. Like only guy I can remeber is having any career is Vanderbilt and he was bad fit to our playstyle.

So I mean, some of those players were given chances after they were traded but in season or two showed they are just not that good. Yeah like Malone feels like he is the coach of NBA team, not a babysitter. But it is not as he would ignore some super talented players on the bench.

[THE J0KER]

Other than being condescending, that doesn't seem to be much of an answer. Every team has players they give contracts and every team thinks a player has potential. There is a league of guys with potential. I'm asking what everyone's opinion is of his game. I haven't seen anything of note, ability-wise, for years from Zeke. I was wondering what fan's opinion is of him.

I'm the first who complain here because young players do not get enough chances under Malone.

Want to ask, do you still think that? Because I wonder who are those players that were overlooked by Malone? Bones barely plays in LA. Bol Bol barely plays at Phoenix. I had no idea if Hampton is still in the league, had to look it up. Many guys are out of the NBA. Like only guy I can remeber is having any career is Vanderbilt and he was bad fit to our playstyle.

So I mean, some of those players were given chances after they were traded but in season or two showed they are just not that good. Yeah like Malone feels like he is the coach of NBA team, not a babysitter. But it is not as he would ignore some super talented players on the bench.

Apart from Emmanuel Mudiay who played over 30 minutes per game in his rookie year, there is no single player in the past 9 years who got a fair chance in his rookie year, including two-time future MVP Nikola Jokic or two future max-contract players Jamal Murray and MPJ which all three was TOP10 (TOP5!) best in their rookie class in "per 36 minutes" stats but played around 20 mpg.

30.4 Emmanuel Mudiay
21.7 Nikola Jokic
21.5 Jamal Murray
16.4 Michael Porter Jr.
15.5 Christian Braun
12.4 Bol Bol
10.1 Bones Hyland
9.5 Zeke Nnaji
9.3 R.J. Hampton
8.4 Monte Morris
8.1 Peyton Watson
7.5 Malik Beasley
4.1 Jarred Vanderbilt
3.2 Vlatko Cancar

Malone does not like young players. Period.

[Maf]

I'm the first who complain here because young players do not get enough chances under Malone.

Want to ask, do you still think that? Because I wonder who are those players that were overlooked by Malone? Bones barely plays in LA. Bol Bol barely plays at Phoenix. I had no idea if Hampton is still in the league, had to look it up. Many guys are out of the NBA. Like only guy I can remeber is having any career is Vanderbilt and he was bad fit to our playstyle.

So I mean, some of those players were given chances after they were traded but in season or two showed they are just not that good. Yeah like Malone feels like he is the coach of NBA team, not a babysitter. But it is not as he would ignore some super talented players on the bench.

Apart from Emmanuel Mudiay who played over 30 minutes per game in his rookie year, there is no single player in the past 9 years who got a fair chance in his rookie year, including two-time future MVP Nikola Jokic or two future max-contract players Jamal Murray and MPJ which all three was TOP10 (TOP5!) best in their rookie class in "per 36 minutes" stats but played around 20 mpg.

30.4 Emmanuel Mudiay
21.7 Nikola Jokic
21.5 Jamal Murray
16.4 Michael Porter Jr.
15.5 Christian Braun
12.4 Bol Bol
10.1 Bones Hyland
9.5 Zeke Nnaji
9.3 R.J. Hampton
8.4 Monte Morris
8.1 Peyton Watson
7.5 Malik Beasley
4.1 Jarred Vanderbilt
3.2 Vlatko Cancar

Malone does not like young players. Period.

Ok, no trying to convince you just fix some problematic things. First, Jamal (31), MPJ (31) Monte (24), Nikola (28, 59 games as a starter) in their second year. So let´s change young players to rookies, all right? They were still young players in their second years.
10.1 for Bones is his PPG, not minutes (19). And it still more minutes a game that he plays in his third year. Same can be said about Bol Bol in his fifth year and basically Hampton too (9.3 vs 9.5)
CB and PW, whose minutes should they took last season? Bruce´s? No way...
So my counting is from your list there are three guys contributing to other teams, one of them bad fit, one of them we couldn´t pay him the contract he wanted and (my beloved) Monte, who need to go so we could get KCP (and won a tittle). And MM was developed pretty fine I believe. Rest of them are just bad players. Or our stars/starters/rotation players.

[THE J0KER]

Spoiler:

Want to ask, do you still think that? Because I wonder who are those players that were overlooked by Malone? Bones barely plays in LA. Bol Bol barely plays at Phoenix. I had no idea if Hampton is still in the league, had to look it up. Many guys are out of the NBA. Like only guy I can remeber is having any career is Vanderbilt and he was bad fit to our playstyle.

So I mean, some of those players were given chances after they were traded but in season or two showed they are just not that good. Yeah like Malone feels like he is the coach of NBA team, not a babysitter. But it is not as he would ignore some super talented players on the bench.

Apart from Emmanuel Mudiay who played over 30 minutes per game in his rookie year, there is no single player in the past 9 years who got a fair chance in his rookie year, including two-time future MVP Nikola Jokic or two future max-contract players Jamal Murray and MPJ which all three was TOP10 (TOP5!) best in their rookie class in "per 36 minutes" stats but played around 20 mpg.

30.4 Emmanuel Mudiay
21.7 Nikola Jokic
21.5 Jamal Murray
16.4 Michael Porter Jr.
15.5 Christian Braun
12.4 Bol Bol
10.1 Bones Hyland
9.5 Zeke Nnaji
9.3 R.J. Hampton
8.4 Monte Morris
8.1 Peyton Watson
7.5 Malik Beasley
4.1 Jarred Vanderbilt
3.2 Vlatko Cancar

Malone does not like young players. Period.

Ok, no trying to convince you just fix some problematic things. First, Jamal (31), MPJ (31) Monte (24), Nikola (28, 59 games as a starter) in their second year. So let´s change young players to rookies, all right? They were still young players in their second years.
10.1 for Bones is his PPG, not minutes (19). And it still more minutes a game that he plays in his third year. Same can be said about Bol Bol in his fifth year and basically Hampton too (9.3 vs 9.5)
CB and PW, whose minutes should they took last season? Bruce´s? No way...
So my counting is from your list there are three guys contributing to other teams, one of them bad fit, one of them we couldn´t pay him the contract he wanted and (my beloved) Monte, who need to go so we could get KCP (and won a tittle). And MM was developed pretty fine I believe. Rest of them are just bad players. Or our stars/starters/rotation players.

I give rookie stats because it is a pure picture of how some coach is willing to give a chance to young players where no pressure on him to put them to play, and also it is easier for me to navigate stats because "rookie year" filters on stats sites. You give as proof the sophomore playing times of our three players which are so good in their young years that all three signed max-contract as their first NBA pro contract. If you ask me Jokic playing only 27.9mpg in his 2nd year back in time in a mediocre team where he had already shown clear signs of future HoF (competed with Giannis for the MIP award that season) is an even bigger scandal!


In his 2nd year, Murray literally has no competition on the PG spot because veteran Nelson was out while Muddiay was just a year older than Jamal and underperformed badly. I'm just curious what would happen with MPJ's playing time in his 2nd year if Jerami Grant re-signed as FO hoped. Would Malone give up on giving 30+ minutes to his favorite Will Barton?

Malik Beasley is a starter-level player (currently 29mpg starter in the contender Bucks team) and clearly more talented than Barton, but gets 8mpg in 1st, 9mpg in 2nd season. GF Hyland is in the worst possible position right now, in a team whose guard-forward spot was occupied by Kawhi-Harden-PG13-Russ-Power, don't write off him too early.

Christian Braun overperformed in his rookie season despite restricting 15mpg but he barely played over 20mpg this season (mostly during Murray's injury pause). Peyton Watson, a defensive specialist who can score also playing his 2nd season and he has 2nd best defensive rating after Jokic, but under Malone 17.7mpg so far in a team whose bench is the biggest weakness! Talking about defensive specialists I remind you about Jarred Vanderbilt case who struggled recently with injuries but back in time he was a 5mpg player under Malone in his 1st and 2nd seasons but after the trade, he was most the time starter in Minnesota and Utah, and the Lakers (starter in 150 games in first 200 after trade from Denver), before injury troubles prevail.

Malone doesn't *love* young players, if you want to see him lovable and patient with someone and give him some extra minutes just look at the cases of the VETERANS Will Barton, Plumlee, the late Milsap + G.Harris, also Wilson Chandler.. etc..

[Manolito]

Nnaji's contract was intended to inflate Nuggets cap and have a tradeable contract to gain some flexibility while being over the tax. The problem is Nnaji is playing even worse than ever, becoming a toxic contract.

IMHO Nnaji is not a Center and never will be, I do not understand why insisting so much on that. He could be a decent backup PF if he recovers his 3pt shoot, because he is a good switchable defender

[TunaFish]

Nnaji's contract was intended to inflate Nuggets cap and have a tradeable contract to gain some flexibility while being over the tax. The problem is Nnaji is playing even worse than ever, becoming a toxic contract.

IMHO Nnaji is not a Center and never will be, I do not understand why insisting so much on that. He could be a decent backup PF if he recovers his 3pt shoot, because he is a good switchable defender

I have to agree with you there. When Nnaji came into the league, he showed good outside shooting ability and projected as a stretch 4. Rebounding was a weakness.

Still Malone was forced to use him as a center because the Nuggets have had cap issues that prevented them from adequately addressing the backup big position.

Nnaji has improved some aspects of his game (defense) while not improving on his offense. His shooting has slipped.

Where goes from here is hard to say.

[Maf]

Spoiler:

Apart from Emmanuel Mudiay who played over 30 minutes per game in his rookie year, there is no single player in the past 9 years who got a fair chance in his rookie year, including two-time future MVP Nikola Jokic or two future max-contract players Jamal Murray and MPJ which all three was TOP10 (TOP5!) best in their rookie class in "per 36 minutes" stats but played around 20 mpg.

30.4 Emmanuel Mudiay
21.7 Nikola Jokic
21.5 Jamal Murray
16.4 Michael Porter Jr.
15.5 Christian Braun
12.4 Bol Bol
10.1 Bones Hyland
9.5 Zeke Nnaji
9.3 R.J. Hampton
8.4 Monte Morris
8.1 Peyton Watson
7.5 Malik Beasley
4.1 Jarred Vanderbilt
3.2 Vlatko Cancar

Malone does not like young players. Period.

Ok, no trying to convince you just fix some problematic things. First, Jamal (31), MPJ (31) Monte (24), Nikola (28, 59 games as a starter) in their second year. So let´s change young players to rookies, all right? They were still young players in their second years.
10.1 for Bones is his PPG, not minutes (19). And it still more minutes a game that he plays in his third year. Same can be said about Bol Bol in his fifth year and basically Hampton too (9.3 vs 9.5)
CB and PW, whose minutes should they took last season? Bruce´s? No way...
So my counting is from your list there are three guys contributing to other teams, one of them bad fit, one of them we couldn´t pay him the contract he wanted and (my beloved) Monte, who need to go so we could get KCP (and won a tittle). And MM was developed pretty fine I believe. Rest of them are just bad players. Or our stars/starters/rotation players.

I give rookie stats because it is a pure picture of how some coach is willing to give a chance to young players where no pressure on him to put them to play, and also it is easier for me to navigate stats because "rookie year" filters on stats sites. You give as proof the sophomore playing times of our three players which are so good in their young years that all three signed max-contract as their first NBA pro contract. If you ask me Jokic playing only 27.9mpg in his 2nd year back in time in a mediocre team where he had already shown clear signs of future HoF (competed with Giannis for the MIP award that season) is an even bigger scandal!


In his 2nd year, Murray literally has no competition on the PG spot because veteran Nelson was out while Muddiay was just a year older than Jamal and underperformed badly. I'm just curious what would happen with MPJ's playing time in his 2nd year if Jerami Grant re-signed as FO hoped. Would Malone give up on giving 30+ minutes to his favorite Will Barton?

Malik Beasley is a starter-level player (currently 29mpg starter in the contender Bucks team) and clearly more talented than Barton, but gets 8mpg in 1st, 9mpg in 2nd season. GF Hyland is in the worst possible position right now, in a team whose guard-forward spot was occupied by Kawhi-Harden-PG13-Russ-Power, don't write off him too early.

Christian Braun overperformed in his rookie season despite restricting 15mpg but he barely played over 20mpg this season (mostly during Murray's injury pause). Peyton Watson, a defensive specialist who can score also playing his 2nd season and he has 2nd best defensive rating after Jokic, but under Malone 17.7mpg so far in a team whose bench is the biggest weakness! Talking about defensive specialists I remind you about Jarred Vanderbilt case who struggled recently with injuries but back in time he was a 5mpg player under Malone in his 1st and 2nd seasons but after the trade, he was most the time starter in Minnesota and Utah, and the Lakers (starter in 150 games in first 200 after trade from Denver), before injury troubles prevail.

Malone doesn't *love* young players, if you want to see him lovable and patient with someone and give him some extra minutes just look at the cases of the VETERANS Will Barton, Plumlee, the late Milsap + G.Harris, also Wilson Chandler.. etc..

I think we should end this with classic "agree to disagree." You have truth at some things, no doubt. We differ on that that you say Malone doesn´t play young guys, I say he does when they deserve them and earn his trust.

Only shorties about the names we talked about. Nikola back then wasn´t in shape his is at now. And he had to learn to foul less. Superstar or bench player, some rules and restrictions about being substitued with two, three, four fouls stand for anyone. Which I think is a good way to aproach it.

Ok I give you Beasley now plays ok on good team. Last two year when he shot under 40% he looked like he is on the way out of NBA.

CB and PW. I don´t think this season CB´s performance screams "give him more minutes." Doesn´t earn them so far. And same thing for him and PW too. Yes, our bench struggles. Because they often cannot create any offense. This won´t change if you give them more minutes. Plus, giving them more minutes means taking them from starters. I don´t really think this is such a great idea. I belive our PO success very much depends on having HC advantage. So we cannot afford to lose many games by playing worse players more.

[TunaFish]

Nnaji has looked much improved since the break. He has been effective in the rotation and appears to have temporarily won the backup center minutes.

[skywalker33]

Nnaji has looked much improved since the break. He has been effective in the rotation and appears to have temporarily won the backup center minutes.

I've noticed too, and am pleasantly surprised. Seems like when he (or anyone else for that matter) gets some PT with Jokic , always looks better. Gotta think his confidence is growing as well, that could be the biggest plus with the playoffs coming, could easily be Malone's intent in getting back into the rotation. Wonder if he garnered any kind of attention before the trade deadline ?

Regardless, I'd like to see more as long as he's improving, his size can only help during the playoffs