Great season with great ending

[BelgradeNugget]

I think our team had a great season. We exceeded expectations in the POs again with all this injuries, and ending couldn't be any better. If we have won 2 games in this series I think Nuggets wouldn't be as hangry as they will be now. The amount of disrespect to our MVP and our team with all these injuries is why I think next year Nuggets are going to come into the season with the vengeance. 65+win season and 1st ring is coming, with desire to crush all teams in their way. Enjoy the summer Nuggets nation great things are coming.

[skywalker33]

Love the optimism but the season had it's disappointing moments. The amt of talent on this team led me to believe we were better than 3rd best in the conference. Murray's injury in the waning moments of a game that was out of reach, while the effort Murray display, was he necessary to be out there ?? Being SWEPT in the 2nd round of the playoffs, felt we looked unprepared and spent our victory over the Trailblazers

On the flip side, the acquisition of Gordon added to a young core, signing Morris fills our need for a backup PG, Jokic has an MVP season for this team were all tremendous.

As for next year, hard to say because we have no idea what to expect from Murray, really showed how much he means to this team. I do think going forward we have some great pieces, a strong core but there are still question marks that persist.

[GeorgeSears]

It was an overall good season imo.
- The Nuggets showed a lot of resilience competing through all the injuries they suffered.
- MPJ took big steps in the right direction.
- I liked the signing of Gordon.
- Jokic showed up in incredible shape and established himself as a top 5 player.

There were some troubling aspects as well:
- Overall, the bench underperformed this season. Millsap's age caught up with him. JaMychal Green started strong and then fell apart as the season progressed, the lack of depth at the guard position really hurt the team when Murray went down. The lack of perimeter shooting from the bench was a huge problem. They need to fix that in the offseason.
- The coaching was inconsistent as well. Mike Malone might be on the hot seat this upcoming season.

[The Rebel]

It was an overall good season imo.
- The Nuggets showed a lot of resilience competing through all the injuries they suffered.
- MPJ took big steps in the right direction.
- I liked the signing of Gordon.
- Jokic showed up in incredible shape and established himself as a top 5 player.

I agree with these, and it is funny listening to some of the idiots on sports radio both local and ESPN nationally. I think people forget that MPJ is a 2nd year guy being asked to be a number 2 option on a contender. It is not fair to expect him to be a true 2nd option in his 2nd year and it is also unfair to expect him to be able to switch on guys like Chris Paul when it is obvious he is not quick enough to guard him. Nobody would talk **** about a great defensive center trying to guard a top PG, but 6'11" MPJ is supposed to? Overall I think the steps he took this year were amazing and I think a regular offseason and some time to work on his grip and defense will do him wonders.

There were some troubling aspects as well:
- Overall, the bench underperformed this season. Millsap's age caught up with him. JaMychal Green started strong and then fell apart as the season progressed, the lack of depth at the guard position really hurt the team when Murray went down. The lack of perimeter shooting from the bench was a huge problem. They need to fix that in the offseason.
- The coaching was inconsistent as well. Mike Malone might be on the hot seat this upcoming season.

A lot of people have scoffed at me when I say our front office made a huge mistake trading Beasley with no way to replace him. A contender has to have a bench scorer that can occasionally go off for 25 points when the starters are struggling. Not having a scorer off the bench is a huge problem, and not having shooting is just plain dumb.

I don't see anyway that Malone is on the hot seat. As long as Jokic and Murray both reportedly love him than he will have a job. In the NBA having a coach that your stars love is more important than anything that coach does or does not do on the court, you have to keep the stars happy.

[Coeur]

MpJ is the real deal, big step forward

AG trade was very good. Or better

A deserving MVP

Nnaji is legit and a very good replacement for Millsap moving forward

Created trade value in Campazzo

——tons of good———



Free pass to Malone…

How do you know how close to championship level a healthy backcourt would have came…..

I don’t think you can give malone a deep roster or he will over play the wrong guys and underplay the wrong guys. 4 players he doesn’t have to think too much but not sure I like thinking of what will happen if they bring back campazzo, Barton, or I really hate saying, but Millsap.

[NuggetsWY]

Four solid starters
Center of the team is the center of the team and he's an MVP without a doubt.

Porter is looking like an elite draft pick that fell too far due to injury - he's a keeper, but young and made big some big improvement on the defensive end of the court too.

Murray still struggles with consistency, but no question he's a legitimate scoring threat and an improving defense.

Gordon showed he fit better than I expected and accepted the challenge of being a defensive specialist - and in just half of a season. We can hope that his offense adjusts even more next year. He's a great fit.

What we need
Shooting guard is a serious issue. It doesn't matter if he's an offensive great or a defensive specialist, he just needs to fit with the four above - preferably 3&D type wing with a long wingspan.

Bench is also a serious issue in my opinion. It's easy to like our bench guys but we don't have a serious offensive threat and truthfully, we don't have a great defensive stopper on our bench.

Only five players are on the court at any one time. In my opinion, other than the four named above, everyone else is expendable. We need to focus on our fifth starter and two top bench players.

But that's just my opinion and I've been wrong before.

[BelgradeNugget]

I may be little too optimistic but here is how I saw it:

1. Jamal Murray averaged 22/4/5 on 50/44/92 in 34 games of 48 he played, after 1/23/2021, when he healed shoulder and elbow injuries. Much more consistent than before. That is bubble Murray for me, combo guard on the level of Book, Michell, Beal, Lavine... Improved playmaking, decision making and most importantly defensively. I don't think DRPM is very good advanced stat but he went from 31st among PGs in 18/19 to 12 in 19/20 and 2nd on 20/21. Again it is not the best stat but we can all agree that he made big improvement in every aspect of his game.
2. Will Barton for the first time in the last few years with Nuggets has defined role that suites him the best. As SF he was undersized but on SG he is longer than majority of SGs, can play good defense, break defenders off the dribble, help with playmaking, shoot the ball. I expect a good season from him if he doesn't opt out or resign for reasonable contract. If he accepts his role will be very good for us
3. MPJ one of the best shooters and one of the best rebounders among forwards in the league. Interesting stat 19/20 - 98th among 99 PFs in DRPM at -3.13. In 20/21 he was 25th among SFs at 0.87. We all saw improvement in RS, shouldn't play in second round after tweaking his back. Tried to help team but it would be better for team if Malone sit him.
4. AG was good for what we needed him to do. Defensively was very good. Offensively good in transition, cuts, can hit some 3s. With training camp and more games with our team will be better. I think Nuggets must find a way to better use his passing ability, showed glimpses with us, averaged 4 ast with Orlando.
5. Jokic MVP

Bench

1. Facu tough, smart, can run PNRs with second unit, and people forgot he was a rookie this year
2. Morris, smart, under control, can lead bench in scoring
3. PJ Dozier was our best wing defender off the bench, smart. This was his first real year in the NBA. Improved dramatically during the season if he improve his shooting can be starter in this league.
4. Green tough, fighter, starch 4, keeper
5. Javale McGee I would like to keep him, can play PNR, defend rim, good guy

11. Uncle Paul vet min to be around young guys
12. Zake talented, smart

13. Garry Harris after he is bought out by Orlando

I think we have a championship caliber team here. Only Brooklyn has 3 better scorers, but our big 3 arguable fit better. What is even more important is the amount of disrespect to out team from the mainstream media after being swept in the 2nd round. I think our platers will be hungry like a wolfs.
One more interesting think, looks like everybody who commented on Jokic's flagrant 2 jumped on refs caling it a bad call. So he might get a little bit of respect from them next year.