How did the Nuggets improve this off-season?

[NuggetsWY]

What's the biggest reason for optimism?

1) Additions: Millsap + Lyles + Lydon --- vs. --- Subtractions Gallinari + Miller + Hibbert
... Better? Worse? How about it just amounts to Millsap vs. Gallinari? Seems to fit better.

2) Jokic will be starting from the start of the year; which many of us asked for before last season.

3) Murray & Hernangomez should get more playing time and that will help.

4) Beasley might get to play --- OK, probably not much, but at least he'll be available.

5) Nelson seems unlikely to start.

6) Mudiay is in a make-or-break year --- that means "motivated".

7) Barton & Chandler can become free agents - contract years motivate.

[Alatan]

1) Millsap brings some much needed skills to our team. He is good defender, passer and plays a team game. He has experience with motion offence so he will fit in immediately. His defense is IQ based without much reliance on athleticism so he is a great mentor for Jokic and probably the rest of the young guys. He also is a decent scorer so he can mostly replace Gallo's production.
1b) Gallinari is a nice player but i think that we can replace what he brought to the team. We will miss his shooting and shot creation but to what degree depends on the development of Murray who i think will inherit his role.
1c) I don't think the rest of those guys really have much of a impact. Maybe we unlock some of Lyles potential. Lydon is a rookie so his a mystery box.
2) Not only will Jokic be starting from the beginning but he had all the summer to work on his conditioning and i watched a video of him dribbling and doing crossovers where he looked stronger and MUCH more mobile that he was, so i'm all hyped up. Players usually make a leap in their 3rd year so i expect even more.
2b) Harris was awesome player on the offensive end last season and i expect it to continue. The stats say he was not so good at D even as he has the ability and will to be a good defender. I think that part of the problem is that he is a bit undersized and inexperienced. I have also noticed that even as he stays in front of his man is late to bring the hands up and contest the shot. Maybe his defense will improve significantly if he addresses that small thing. I think he will be a better defender this season eventually entering the prestigious 3nD club.
3) I have big hopes for Murray on account of what i saw from him in his limited minutes. We all know he will be a great shooter and he impressed me with his quick and diverse development. His handles look really nice, as does his finishing. He made great strides athletically as well. He is a willing defender that puts effort and that's like half of what you need to be a positive defender so i'm hopeful about that too. All in all i think that he will be a great player in a few years and a good one in the upcoming season.

3b) I like Hernangomez because he is a team player, a knockdown shooter and plays with hustle. I have some questions about his perimeter defense but i think he can be a plus defender as a 4 in a few years. For now he will be a nice player to bring some shooting and hustle of the bench and i think he earned his minutes coming in this year. We shall see what else can he do this season.
4) For some reason i think that Beasley will be a nice 3nD guy and maybe more but he will probably not play much this season unless we trade Barton.
5) Nelson is an ok vet to have around but i dont think he should play much this season except if Mudiay doesn't bring it in this critical year for him. He atrocious at defense but can still space the floor and make the right pass.
6) Mudiay is a strange player. Has the tools to be a good point guard but somehow doesnt know to use them. Is he just so undeveloped or does he not have whatever hidden ability i dont know but his play to this point was terrible. I know that he was working on his shot but what troubles me even more than his shooting is his finishing at the rim. For a 6'5'' athletic guy he is really bad at finishing that its embarrassing. I hope he brings it all together this next season.
7) I'm kinda split on is the fact that Barton and Chandler are on contract year a good or bad thing. They will be motivated thats for sure but will that mean that they will play better or just try to stuff their stat sheet on the expense of the team... They allready like to take ISO plays...
8) I expect the same production from Faried of the bench and i doubt we trade him this season. He is probably most valuable on this team being Jokic's athletic sidekick than he is anywhere else.
9) Plumplee didnt have enough time to fully integrate in our offense so i think we can expect better production from him in the upcoming season than what he showed last year. Maybe he can pick up some tricks from Millsap and become a better defender as well.

TLDR: I think Millsap will fit in beautifully, young guys will surprise us with their development especially Murray and Jokic and Plumplee will produce more having time to adjust to the team.

[The Rebel]

While I hate to say it and I know many will not like to read it, I view losing Gallo as a addition by subtraction after last year. As much as I have always loved Gallo, his struggles on defense really bugged me, and I am convinced his increase in offense was as much a product of the Jokic affect as it was him working harder. I know NuggetsWy has argued in the past that Harris was our 2nd best player last year, and while I have never went that far, though I think it was much closer than even most Nuggets fans would have liked to admit at the end of the season.

Millsap gives us the defensive quarterback that we have been missing since Iggy left with his own history of making teammates better, and also is a good enough player on offense to cover for the loss of Gallo. The prototypical defensive quarterback in my mind is a guy like KMart, a great defender, but most importantly a guy who understands defense at all 5 positions and will tell guys what they did wrong and where they should be as well as how to see the play and defend it. Through 2 head coaches and seemingly dozens of assistant coaches our defense has gradually gotten worse over the last 4 years, and I think not having a defensive leader on the court is a big reason for that especially with all the young guys on the court.

People talk about Millsap's struggles on offense last year, but the fact is Millsap is not a 1st option on offense, hell he is not even an optimal 2nd option, he is a 3rd option type that can do well enough at everything to help the team on offense, but is not going to have to overcome double and triple teams. If he puts up 15 ppg on good shooting percentages than he will be good enough for what we need.

Millsap and Horford were the cornerstones and best players on that 60 win Hawks team, with most Hawks fans agreeing Millsap was the best one. That team as well as the other Hawks teams over the last few years have had several role players and end of the bench guys go there and turn their careers around. Hell Teague was an all star in Atlanta and was maybe an average PG last year in Indiana despite being in the heart of his prime. Millsap understands how to make the game easier for the role players so add that to the Jokic effect and it could be huge.

The other area we should get better is at PG, for all the analysts and people who know nothing about the team and their on court play they think we need a PG, but for those of us who actually watched last year it was pretty obvious that is where Murray belongs and he was clearly outplaying Nelson after the all star break despite having 2 sports hernias. While I know some want to argue that Malone will play Nelson all the time, fact is Nelson was even being outplayed by Mudiay after he came back, and it wasn't that close. The growth of Murray and if Mudiay plays anything like what he finished the year playing like, our PG position is actually a good group with Nelson being among the best 3rd PGs in the league. Going from Nelson to Murray and Mudiay will improve the ball movement, it will cut down on the terrible end of game shots with Nelson trying to go one on one, and most importantly it will improve the defense considerably.

Our defense should also improve going from Gallo to Chandler at SF, and while Hernangomez is not exactly quick he works hard on defense and puts in a ton of effort on that end, which is more than I can say for Gallo last year so that will also improve our team on that end.

The other area I think we show a ton of growth is in the young guys making their natural progressions. We had 5 guys 22 or younger and in their 3rd or less season in the league as part of our rotation, which was the youngest in the league. Last year our young guys all improved throughout the season, which tells me they are working hard, and so this offseason they should all take some kind of step which should improve the team overall.

Overall I think this team continues to have a top 5 offense but more importantly I think they move into the top 15 and possibly even top 12 on defense, with that improvement we should be a team fighting to win 50 games.

[SoCalNuggsFan]

Tyler Lydon! (End green font)

But seriously millsap over Gallo is a good improvement but the rest of the offseason hasn't been good. We're one Wilson chandler injury away from a train wreck season.

[Alatan]

Tyler Lydon! (End green font)

But seriously millsap over Gallo is a good improvement but the rest of the offseason hasn't been good. We're one Wilson chandler injury away from a train wreck season.

That would be unfortunate but not a train wreck at all. We could use another SF though...

[SoCalNuggsFan]

Tyler Lydon! (End green font)

But seriously millsap over Gallo is a good improvement but the rest of the offseason hasn't been good. We're one Wilson chandler injury away from a train wreck season.

That would be unfortunate but not a train wreck at all. We could use another SF though...

Having Juancho and Barton play 48 mins at the 3 would cripple us

[Alatan]

Tyler Lydon! (End green font)

But seriously millsap over Gallo is a good improvement but the rest of the offseason hasn't been good. We're one Wilson chandler injury away from a train wreck season.

That would be unfortunate but not a train wreck at all. We could use another SF though...

Having Juancho and Barton play 48 mins at the 3 would cripple us

I think Juancho is much more competent that you give him credit. His main problem is defense and its not like we have or had defensive stalwarts on that position. Think of him as of Gallinari light.

[SoCalNuggsFan]

That would be unfortunate but not a train wreck at all. We could use another SF though...

Having Juancho and Barton play 48 mins at the 3 would cripple us

I think Juancho is much more competent that you give him credit. His main problem is defense and its not like we have or had defensive stalwarts on that position. Think of him as of Gallinari light.

Gallo had the length to stay a step off quicker players and the strength to bump guys off drives so he got away with his below average quickness. Juancho gets bullied by bigger 3s and blown by by quicker 3s.

On offense he's fine there because he's just spotting up 90% of the time, but having a guy just spotting up on the wing not creating anything is much more valuable out of your PF than SF.

I think Juancho and Barton can get away with 10 mins at the 3 each. But it'll be easy for teams to take advantage of it if they have the whole game to do it.

[U hova]

Millsap.

Also not worrying about who's going to be starting has to be an improvement over last season. We won't be wasting the first 2 months adjusting line-ups and essentially throwing games away experimenting synergy.

[HoopsMalone]

I mean millsap is a GIANT addition who fits the team needs well.

And a lot of young guys on the team whose improvement should about cancel out the loss of gallinari.

Don't forget nurkic was downright terrible for the nugs and a big part of their slow start. The nugs were a well above .500 team when you remove their rough start when he was hurting them

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