I believe it is Hastings who used to like to quote someone that it is easy to build a 45 win team, but damn hard to build a 55 win team. To me this is a 45 win team, with dreams of being a 55 win team, but to do it they have to resign McGee, and hope for McGee, Lawson, Faried, and Gallo all to take big jumps, with at least 2 of them becoming all star caliber players, while possible, it is unusual for players to make big jumps after their 3rd year, and I do not believe is a way to build a true contender.
RRFB, you make the statement that this is the 1st time a team has tried to do something like the nuggets are attempting, and I say quit buying the hype and think about this for a minute. a team built around role players hoping they all become better, is a codeword for being a treadmill team until we somehow find the right recipe or get lucky in the lottery. The Bulls were doing it until they got lucky and won the 1st overall pick with Rose, the Pacers are doing it now, the 76ers are doing it, the rockets have been doing it since they figured out that Yao was not coming back, the Pistons were the only team that I remember being successful at it. The point is that teams always do this type of build, the difference is the Nuggets are the only ones with the balls to come out and admit it to their fans, because Denver fans seem to be laid back enough to accept it.
speaking of the Rockets, has anybody paid attention to their plight? they have spent several years building up assets so that they can make a move to get a superstar while staying competitve, whether that superstar comes through free agency or trades, they have the cap room and talented young players, and several key role players, but still they are ignored by those top tier players. Considering Denver is a smaller market, less marketable to the african american young superstars, and only slightly better, what makes anybody believe Denver is going to be a more attractive market for those players?
To add insult to injury you have Kroenke making statements like this,
https://twitter.com/denvernuggets#Nuggets‬ president Josh Kroenke: "Our existing roster deserved a chance to move forward and compete together."
this team has been together for a year and a half, they are not magically going to get better, as shown the last time the Nuggets pulled this **** in 2005 when the team stayed exactly the same, and had the exact same results. You do not build a team by hoping that they will magically get better, you go out and make the team get better.