Denver's weaknesses and how to address them in the off-season

[SoCalNuggsFan]

I've been told "To make a story more believable you must add some truth in to have people accept your credibility"

Quite a few hack writers trying to put out what they WANT us to believe.....IMO

This is the era of TMZ/Facebook. Newspapers are dying and if you want to make it as a reporter, you better have some hot takes that you can turn into a click-bait headline.

[NuggetsWY]

I've been told "To make a story more believable you must add some truth in to have people accept your credibility"

Quite a few hack writers trying to put out what they WANT us to believe.....IMO

Well, you don't get much attention or fame if you don't say something different. Just ask Charles Barkley.

Well, other than saying he wasn't a role model, Barkley's fame was made on the court, not in the media

Glad you added that wink. He sure gets attention from his mouth these days.

[The Rebel]

Spoiler:

https://clutchpoints.com/the-coaching-spin-nuggets-come-up-short-in-loaded-west/

Read the whole article before you comment.

I read it, and like many other people who watch 3 or 4 Nuggets game and think they are an expert this guy reads the same.

Sorry but there are very few big men in the league that get back against fast breaks, it rarely happens for any team, singling out Jokic is crap, as is his blaming KAT's game the other night on Jokic when we all know that for most of the game Millsap and Plumlee were guarding him. NOt to mention the highlight video that he shows to use against Jokic shows Jokic hedging and the guards taking too long to get back into place leaving Jokic's guy open, that has nothing to do with Jokic, and everything to do with the guards forcing Jokic to cover 2 guys because they do not want to put in the work.

While Murray and Harris may struggle at times to create for others, both of them are quite adapt at creating for themselves, and numbers bear that out, especially with Murray who only had 53% of his shot attempts assisted and Harris only had 60% of his shots assisted, both low numbers for guys who shoot so many 3s.

He also ignores the biggest issue that the Nuggets had this season, the starters were a plus 9.4 in net rating last time I looked, our bench was a negative 6.7. That puts our starters in elite company and our bench worse than the Grizzlies overall. Ignoring that and trying to blame JOkic for the problems shows how little this guy actually knows about the team.

Yup, like most, he's got a lot wrong, but he pegged a couple of things right.

Defense he got half-right and he pointed out the flawed roster and inconsistent effort and the losses to bad teams.

That is not a hard analysis to come up with, you can just look at the depth chart and take a look at the record and see that. If you are going to act like you are presenting some hard analysis than you need to do that analysis and I am sorry blaming any of the 3 of Jokic, Murray, and Harris is basically message board crap, anybody who really watched this season knows that those 3 are the only reason this team was close to the playoffs.

Never mentioning the fact that the 4 of Jokic, Murray, Harris, and Millsap put up elite point differentials, especially when on the floor with anybody but Chandler. Not a damn thing about Chandler's issues this year for that matter. Nothing about how the bench was a bottom 5 bench. Nope blaming in on the tough analysis of they are inconsistent and the roster isn't constructed properly. Ya no ****, but those were not the only or even biggest issues.

In one section he said of Jokic:

Nikola Jokic has emerged as a franchise savior for the Denver Nuggets. He is one of the most uniquely skilled centers in the league, as evident by his insane statistical output.

This season, The Joker averaged 18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game while shooting 39.6 percent from three on 3.7 attempts.

Modern big men can stroke from deep, but rarely to this extend.

Jokic’s three-point range is higher than many stretch bigs around the league, including Joel Embiid (30.6 percent), Marc Gasol (34.1 percent), and DeMarcus Cousins (35.4 percent).

He’s also a dual threat, capable of taking mismatches onto the low block and punishing teams in the paint.

And for as adept as he is at these things, they’re only secondary skills meant to balance out his elite playmaking.

Perhaps one of the most important statements might have been:

There are simply too many plays where the Nuggets’ superstar gives up after committing a turnover on his own and allows the offense to get a head start up the court:

But that's just my opinion.

YOu are welcome to your opinion, but here is the way I see it. Most bigs do not fly down the court for other team's fast breaks. There are only a handful of bigs in the league that do occasionally, and not a single one of them is asked to operate the offense like Jokic. If you don't want him to commit that stupid Euro foul, than he is going to get beat down the court by most guards and SFs that is no secret. Most big men do not move any faster then Jokic, in fact that is why people loved guys like Howard, Shaq, even Tyson Chandler, as they were fast enough to get down the court with many of the perimeter players even if they rarely did it. But the average big man is lucky to get to the half court line on most fast breaks, it is not just Jokic, basically all of them, especially the ones being asked to post up or set screens. Maybe I am different but I have watched big men and centers my whole life, Issel was my favorite player when I was a young kid and I always knew I would be tall, so I was fascinated by post play. Most bigmen are not chasing down the fast breaks, so why expect Jokic to chase them down? Nobody expects KAT, Embiid, Gobert, either Gasol, or any other big man to do it, so why is Jokic expected too?

Sorry but the fact is that only Murray and Harris make it a regular effort to get down the court on a turnover, most teams also have their SF to help, but with Chandler sometimes I don't know that he even noticed. Fact is for basically 60 games this year our biggest issue was that our elite big 3 were being asked to play 4 on 5 on offense while Chandler was checked out and only half way focused on defense. They were also backed up by one of the worst benches in the league which was basically Plumlee, devin Harris/Mudiay, and Barton. Those 2 facts outside of Millsap's injury are the biggest reason we are not a playoff team this year.

[The Rebel]

I've been told "To make a story more believable you must add some truth in to have people accept your credibility"

Quite a few hack writers trying to put out what they WANT us to believe.....IMO

That is what fascinated me about most Jokic coverage, it is all based on internet memes that are just not based on facts or are based on expectations that they place on nobody else.

[NuggetsWY]

Spoiler:

I read it, and like many other people who watch 3 or 4 Nuggets game and think they are an expert this guy reads the same.

Sorry but there are very few big men in the league that get back against fast breaks, it rarely happens for any team, singling out Jokic is crap, as is his blaming KAT's game the other night on Jokic when we all know that for most of the game Millsap and Plumlee were guarding him. NOt to mention the highlight video that he shows to use against Jokic shows Jokic hedging and the guards taking too long to get back into place leaving Jokic's guy open, that has nothing to do with Jokic, and everything to do with the guards forcing Jokic to cover 2 guys because they do not want to put in the work.

While Murray and Harris may struggle at times to create for others, both of them are quite adapt at creating for themselves, and numbers bear that out, especially with Murray who only had 53% of his shot attempts assisted and Harris only had 60% of his shots assisted, both low numbers for guys who shoot so many 3s.

He also ignores the biggest issue that the Nuggets had this season, the starters were a plus 9.4 in net rating last time I looked, our bench was a negative 6.7. That puts our starters in elite company and our bench worse than the Grizzlies overall. Ignoring that and trying to blame JOkic for the problems shows how little this guy actually knows about the team.

Yup, like most, he's got a lot wrong, but he pegged a couple of things right.

Defense he got half-right and he pointed out the flawed roster and inconsistent effort and the losses to bad teams.

That is not a hard analysis to come up with, you can just look at the depth chart and take a look at the record and see that. If you are going to act like you are presenting some hard analysis than you need to do that analysis and I am sorry blaming any of the 3 of Jokic, Murray, and Harris is basically message board crap, anybody who really watched this season knows that those 3 are the only reason this team was close to the playoffs.

Never mentioning the fact that the 4 of Jokic, Murray, Harris, and Millsap put up elite point differentials, especially when on the floor with anybody but Chandler. Not a damn thing about Chandler's issues this year for that matter. Nothing about how the bench was a bottom 5 bench. Nope blaming in on the tough analysis of they are inconsistent and the roster isn't constructed properly. Ya no ****, but those were not the only or even biggest issues.

In one section he said of Jokic:

Nikola Jokic has emerged as a franchise savior for the Denver Nuggets. He is one of the most uniquely skilled centers in the league, as evident by his insane statistical output.

This season, The Joker averaged 18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game while shooting 39.6 percent from three on 3.7 attempts.

Modern big men can stroke from deep, but rarely to this extend.

Jokic’s three-point range is higher than many stretch bigs around the league, including Joel Embiid (30.6 percent), Marc Gasol (34.1 percent), and DeMarcus Cousins (35.4 percent).

He’s also a dual threat, capable of taking mismatches onto the low block and punishing teams in the paint.

And for as adept as he is at these things, they’re only secondary skills meant to balance out his elite playmaking.

Perhaps one of the most important statements might have been:

There are simply too many plays where the Nuggets’ superstar gives up after committing a turnover on his own and allows the offense to get a head start up the court:

But that's just my opinion.

YOu are welcome to your opinion, but here is the way I see it. Most bigs do not fly down the court for other team's fast breaks. There are only a handful of bigs in the league that do occasionally, and not a single one of them is asked to operate the offense like Jokic. If you don't want him to commit that stupid Euro foul, than he is going to get beat down the court by most guards and SFs that is no secret. Most big men do not move any faster then Jokic, in fact that is why people loved guys like Howard, Shaq, even Tyson Chandler, as they were fast enough to get down the court with many of the perimeter players even if they rarely did it. But the average big man is lucky to get to the half court line on most fast breaks, it is not just Jokic, basically all of them, especially the ones being asked to post up or set screens. Maybe I am different but I have watched big men and centers my whole life, Issel was my favorite player when I was a young kid and I always knew I would be tall, so I was fascinated by post play. Most bigmen are not chasing down the fast breaks, so why expect Jokic to chase them down? Nobody expects KAT, Embiid, Gobert, either Gasol, or any other big man to do it, so why is Jokic expected too?

Sorry but the fact is that only Murray and Harris make it a regular effort to get down the court on a turnover, most teams also have their SF to help, but with Chandler sometimes I don't know that he even noticed. Fact is for basically 60 games this year our biggest issue was that our elite big 3 were being asked to play 4 on 5 on offense while Chandler was checked out and only half way focused on defense. They were also backed up by one of the worst benches in the league which was basically Plumlee, devin Harris/Mudiay, and Barton. Those 2 facts outside of Millsap's injury are the biggest reason we are not a playoff team this year.

Sure, I agree center's don't need to be speed demons. When Jabbar was playing for the Bucks (his first years), he was criticized for not hustling on fastbreaks in either direction. His coach defended him saying they needed him for more minutes and he needed to also save his energy for the battles against bigs. I'm not looking for Jokic to stop a fast break. What I object to is when he is the last player down the court because he's pleading to or arguing with a referee. But yeah, I think his fouls are too valuable to waste on stopping a fast break - especially when games go into overtime. He usually gets away with it, but even if foul trouble he can't play defense in just one game, it hurts the team.

[The Rebel]

Spoiler:

Yup, like most, he's got a lot wrong, but he pegged a couple of things right.

Defense he got half-right and he pointed out the flawed roster and inconsistent effort and the losses to bad teams.

That is not a hard analysis to come up with, you can just look at the depth chart and take a look at the record and see that. If you are going to act like you are presenting some hard analysis than you need to do that analysis and I am sorry blaming any of the 3 of Jokic, Murray, and Harris is basically message board crap, anybody who really watched this season knows that those 3 are the only reason this team was close to the playoffs.

Never mentioning the fact that the 4 of Jokic, Murray, Harris, and Millsap put up elite point differentials, especially when on the floor with anybody but Chandler. Not a damn thing about Chandler's issues this year for that matter. Nothing about how the bench was a bottom 5 bench. Nope blaming in on the tough analysis of they are inconsistent and the roster isn't constructed properly. Ya no ****, but those were not the only or even biggest issues.

In one section he said of Jokic:

Perhaps one of the most important statements might have been:


But that's just my opinion.

YOu are welcome to your opinion, but here is the way I see it. Most bigs do not fly down the court for other team's fast breaks. There are only a handful of bigs in the league that do occasionally, and not a single one of them is asked to operate the offense like Jokic. If you don't want him to commit that stupid Euro foul, than he is going to get beat down the court by most guards and SFs that is no secret. Most big men do not move any faster then Jokic, in fact that is why people loved guys like Howard, Shaq, even Tyson Chandler, as they were fast enough to get down the court with many of the perimeter players even if they rarely did it. But the average big man is lucky to get to the half court line on most fast breaks, it is not just Jokic, basically all of them, especially the ones being asked to post up or set screens. Maybe I am different but I have watched big men and centers my whole life, Issel was my favorite player when I was a young kid and I always knew I would be tall, so I was fascinated by post play. Most bigmen are not chasing down the fast breaks, so why expect Jokic to chase them down? Nobody expects KAT, Embiid, Gobert, either Gasol, or any other big man to do it, so why is Jokic expected too?

Sorry but the fact is that only Murray and Harris make it a regular effort to get down the court on a turnover, most teams also have their SF to help, but with Chandler sometimes I don't know that he even noticed. Fact is for basically 60 games this year our biggest issue was that our elite big 3 were being asked to play 4 on 5 on offense while Chandler was checked out and only half way focused on defense. They were also backed up by one of the worst benches in the league which was basically Plumlee, devin Harris/Mudiay, and Barton. Those 2 facts outside of Millsap's injury are the biggest reason we are not a playoff team this year.

Sure, I agree center's don't need to be speed demons. When Jabbar was playing for the Bucks (his first years), he was criticized for not hustling on fastbreaks in either direction. His coach defended him saying they needed him for more minutes and he needed to also save his energy for the battles against bigs. I'm not looking for Jokic to stop a fast break. What I object to is when he is the last player down the court because he's pleading to or arguing with a referee. But yeah, I think his fouls are too valuable to waste on stopping a fast break - especially when games go into overtime. He usually gets away with it, but even if foul trouble he can't play defense in just one game, it hurts the team.

Staying behind to argue calls is a different complaint, I will agree Jokic and many other players around the league do that. However that is not what this article is talking about, they are complaining that he does not beat the opposing guards down the court on turnovers and no big is doing that on every turnover and only a handful ever do it.

There is one real complaint about Jokic's defense that I can make, and that is that he does not hedge hard enough against the ball handlers on pick and rolls. he stays flat or backs off instead of taking a step forward and making the ball handler go around him which would help the guards get back in place. One of the main reasons that so many teams started switching pick and rolls is that most bigs do the same thing Jokic does, and they do not want to pull help defense from the corner 3s, so it leaves their bigs going 2 on 1 in the paint. For some reason we do not switch, and the hard hedge is the only thing that would slow down ball handlers enough to come close to making it work. Now the question is does Jokic just not want the contact, or has he never been taught how to do it properly? The other question is why don't we ever switch?

[The Rebel]

Yeah, if we win just 45 wins next year I'm calling for your head for suggesting/jinxing it

I still have major doubt about Snell, especially at a $10M price range. I like Craigs D and he's scoring ONE less bucket while playing 10 less mins, I have some confidence we could get the same production and save $9.5M on that one. And you bring up that Craig is 27 and doesn't look to be able to up his game, well Snell turns 27 when the season gets under way, guess he is what he will always be too. I do agree Craig is better off the bench, but so is Snell IMO and Craig is cheaper, saving us money to spend on starters like Jokic and Murray

Let's all gang up on SoCalNuggsFan if we end up with exactly 45 wins next year.

Our front office has their work cut out for them trying to fix our weaknesses - but it's their own fault. They are the ones that built this ridiculous roster. They don't want to pay cap-tax but in order to sign Jokic, they'll be there and then they supposedly want to re-sign Barton which will definitely be over the cap-tax.

Faried, Chandler, Arthur, Plumlee are all overpaid for their roles. So they can stretch someone but need to have Chandler opt-out plus find a way to trade at least one of the others, etc. It's likely to cost no matter what and will they pay that?

Frankly, based on past experience, I'm not very optomistic. Our improvement next year is going to be based on Jokic, Murray, Harris plus Millsap fitting in. Hopefully Malone will figure out that Beasley, Lyles, Hernangomez might be able to help; but we won't know unless he actually plays them.

Haha don’t gang up on me, I’m the one calling for bringing in a vet!

Just saying, if the 3 spot is 20 minutes of Craig, 20 mins of a rookie (unless we nail that pick) and 8 mins of out of position Juancho, it’s gonna be a very disappointing win total. You’re talking about 3 guys with about a year of nba experience between them. And (again, unless we nail the draft pick) 3 guys that are flawed players themselves. I’d rather bring in a vet that can at least be counted on to not make mistakes and be solid on defense.

I’ve been pro-young guys for the last few years, but at this point, Jokic/Harris/Murray are ready to make some noise in the playoffs. I’m more interested in getting there and having those 3 gain that experience than spoon feeding the young guys at the end of the bench minutes in the hopes that they can become rotation players.

So, bring in a vet 3, lean on a lineup of him, Jokic, Harris, Murray and millsap, and make a run at winning a playoff series or 2. If Beasley, Juancho, Morris or our rookie breaks into the lineup, great But let the core start to compete.

The 4 of Jokic, Harris, Murray, and Millsap were a plus 12 in their minutes together, when with Chandler that number dropped to a plus 8.9. Half of those minutes that those 4 played were with Chandler on the court. So that tells me a couple things, the combination of Barton, Beasley, Craig, and Juancho playing at SF were all more productive than Chandler, and that a replacement level player at SF would be a huge improvement and would let the core flourish as a starting unit. I think Craig playing 25 mpg, Juancho getting 18 at SF and 5 at PF, and Beasley sliding over for a 3 guard lineup 5 mpg would be enough to have a replacement level player with the starters at worst, and they all have the chance to do much better than that next year.

I personally am not interested in tying up big money or giving up assets to find a SF, guys like Snell are basically replacement level and can be found anywhere, if we are not getting a star SF than there are much more cost effective ways to actually improve the team that is not going to kill all future cap space.

We all know we have limited ability to improve this summer, there is no cap space and limited trade assets, and our biggest issue outside of Chandler not bothering to try all season was lack of bench production. Whether anybody wants to admit it or not our bench cost us as many games as the whole team deciding not to play hard on some nights. We lost too many leads in the late 1st early 2nd and late 3rd early 4th, and that needs to be fixed. The good news is that you can get those types for expiring contracts and future picks or marginal prospects.

[NuggetsWY]

1. Yeah, I don't like moving coaches too often, and I like Malone, but I think it's time to go in a different direction
2. A nice, smart, long, athletic, 3-and-D starting small forward
3. A pass-first backup point guard who can defend
4. Clear the PF logjam and find the cap space to get the above
5. I love Harris, and I love Murray, but there just isn't enough play-making skills there

Isn't this what everyone was saying last year.

[NuggetsWY]

Is it too early to consider 2019-2020?

Assuming Jokic, Harris, Murray are all wrapped up
Plumlee is the only other player under contract
except for team options on Millsap, Hernangomez, Beasley, Lydon

[MidMountain]

Is it too early to consider 2019-2020?

Assuming Jokic, Harris, Murray are all wrapped up
Plumlee is the only other player under contract
except for team options on Millsap, Hernangomez, Beasley, Lydon

This off-season we're a bit jammed up with salary, but we have a lot of flexibility going forward.

[SoCalNuggsFan]

Is it too early to consider 2019-2020?

Assuming Jokic, Harris, Murray are all wrapped up
Plumlee is the only other player under contract
except for team options on Millsap, Hernangomez, Beasley, Lydon

That’s why plumlee is #1 on my players to dump big board. Faried, Arthur, possibly chandler and millsap all expiring the same year opens up a ton of cap space.

[skywalker33]

Is it too early to consider 2019-2020?

Assuming Jokic, Harris, Murray are all wrapped up
Plumlee is the only other player under contract
except for team options on Millsap, Hernangomez, Beasley, Lydon

That’s why plumlee is #1 on my players to dump big board. Faried, Arthur, possibly chandler and millsap all expiring the same year opens up a ton of cap space.

Some of that will be consumed by Jokic's extension but we all expected that. Should some of that remaining go towards Lyles ?? I think so but we'll have to see what options are out there.

[SoCalNuggsFan]

Is it too early to consider 2019-2020?

Assuming Jokic, Harris, Murray are all wrapped up
Plumlee is the only other player under contract
except for team options on Millsap, Hernangomez, Beasley, Lydon

That’s why plumlee is #1 on my players to dump big board. Faried, Arthur, possibly chandler and millsap all expiring the same year opens up a ton of cap space.

Some of that will be consumed by Jokic's extension but we all expected that. Should some of that remaining go towards Lyles ?? I think so but we'll have to see what options are out there.

Essentially you’ll have Harris making 18 mil, Jokic making around 25 and the FO will likely try to sign Murray to an extension similar to Harris’. If he signs that extension, you’re looking at 60 million between the 3. Even if lyles signs for 10-12 million, that’s still enough room for a max or near max (I think the projected cap is around 110) if you get rid of plumlee. Then you can go over to re-sign Beasley and Juancho, theoretically.

[The Rebel]

You still have a couple of years before you have to worry about Murray, Hernangomez, and Beasley's extensions kicking in. Plumlee's contract will be off the books by that point so there is no reason to be concerned about Plumlee or Millsap's contracts causing issues with that.

The time to add a max contract is either this summer in trade or next summer in free agency. Depending on whether Chandler opts out you have up to $34 million in expiring contracts that you can trade this summer and a team option on Millsap putting that number at just under $64 million if you decide to move him, you also have young guy locked up on rookie deals, all your own 1sts and plenty of 2nd round picks.

Next summer those expirings/team options would translate into about $36 million in cap space when accounting for Jokic's extension and our 2 1st round picks between now and then. That will be enough to sign a 9 year max deal, so cap space isn't really the issue, the issue is building around the young guys properly and how much future payroll the Kroenkes are willing to spend.

If you resign a guy like Barton than you have to use the expirings this summer to add any other top end talent that you need. otherwise next summer you are trying to clear cap space to sign another max player to replace Millsap which just leads to a mess in having to move either Plumlee or Barton. So if you bring back Barton than you have to use a couple of the young guys which at that point should be Beasley (if Barton is back he will never get development minutes), Lydon, and Lyles along with the expiring contracts to get the guys you want long term.

If you do not bring back Barton than you have to bring in a good backup PG that can make the game easier for the young guys at SG/SF/PF, again cutting into your future cap space unless you trade for him and he has 1 year left on his deal.

I personally would like to see them move Plumlee for a more cost effective Center that can be here long term but it is not essential at this point.

Some of you guys have convinced me that keeping Barton for the right number would not be the worst thing in the world, but I would only do it contingent on finding a deal to move an expiring that would not cost too many future assets.

At the end of this offseason I would not be surprised if this team is basically the same as it is now but I would also not be surprised if we are left with a new team built around Jokic, Harris, Murray, with Hernangomez, Morris, and Craig still being on the team but the rest of the team essentially changed over. This is clearly the summer to make the moves to put us in position to become contenders in a couple of years as staying the same will delay it one year but next year the team could be stagnant which will destroy fan support and will not help attract a top level free agent. The real question is will TC and Josh have the balls to pull it off?

[MidMountain]

I've been thinking about Rebel's idea of downgrading Plumlee in order to upgrade SF.
Plumlee & Lyles to WAS for Mahinmi & Oubre
Mahinmi would be serviceable for 15 minutes and Oubre would move into the starting SF role.

[The Rebel]

I've been thinking about Rebel's idea of downgrading Plumlee in order to upgrade SF.
Plumlee & Lyles to WAS for Mahinmi & Oubre
Mahinmi would be serviceable for 15 minutes and Oubre would move into the starting SF role.

I like that deal, especially since Mahinmi's deal expires in time for Murray's extension to kick in, and Oubre can be extended next summer. Find a backup of and young project center would make it a decent off-season. I don't know that Wizards fans will like it though, they have long been attached to Oubre.

[NuggetsWY]

I've been thinking about Rebel's idea of downgrading Plumlee in order to upgrade SF.
Plumlee & Lyles to WAS for Mahinmi & Oubre
Mahinmi would be serviceable for 15 minutes and Oubre would move into the starting SF role.

Love this and if Washington wants more value, I'd be even go so far as to add pick(s) - perhaps a future 1st or a couple of seconds.

[NuggetsWY]

Which of our young players are you willing to trade? Certainly not Murray or Harris or Jokic, but what about the others?

Lyles? - Hernangomez? - Beasley? - Lydon?

If I had to rank them, I'd prefer to keep Beasley the most and then Hernangomez. I like Lyles too but don't really know much about Lydon. So that'd be the order of their value IMO.

[The Rebel]

Which of our young players are you willing to trade? Certainly not Murray or Harris or Jokic, but what about the others?

Lyles? - Hernangomez? - Beasley? - Lydon?

If I had to rank them, I'd prefer to keep Beasley the most and then Hernangomez. I like Lyles too but don't really know much about Lydon. So that'd be the order of their value IMO.

I would put it at Hernangomez, Lyles, beasley, Lydon.

I think both Hernangomez and Lyles have a clear path to roles on this team next year. Juancho has to be healthy and Lyles has to improve his defense, but they can easily be the 7th or 8th man next season.

Beasley 100% depends on what happens with Barton, personally I would let Barton go and put Beasley at backup SG, but he does not have the position flexibility to get minutes if Barton comes back.

Lydon has the ability to grow into the exact forward we need as a spot up 3 point shooter and weakside shot blocker, but where do the developmental minutes come from? He is likely going to be 3rd on the depth chart at SF and 4th or 5th at PF, not a good sign to get minutes.

[NuggetsWY]

Watching the playoffs leaves me with even more doubt about our current roster. The playoffs are distinctly more physical and the refs allow it. Since most teams play the Nuggets with the assumption that we don't do well in physical games (and I tend to agree), we just might not do too well in the playoffs.

We need less flopping and more strength play - more attitude, not bad attitude but attitude that says, "I can't be stopped".