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I see these next 2 offseasons as the last 2 for having flexibility for a while. This year we have a lotto pick, and next year we should have a good amount of cap space. After that, we should be picking in the 20s for a while and be capped out. So how would everyone round out the team around Jokic/Murray/Harris? Might be fun to look back at the responses in a couple years.

So, lay out your plan. Just big picture stuff is fine. We don’t need to guess who the 2 way player will be in ‘20. Reasonable trades and signings ONLY. We’re not gonna trade chandler, faried and plumlee for Anthony Davis, then sign Lebron next year.

Mine:
2018
1. Use Lyles to move up for Mikal Bridges
2. Let Barton walk
3. Sign a vet PG to a 1 year deal, and bring back Craig on a cheap 3 year deal
2019
4. Use minor assets to dump the last year of Plumlee’s deal
5. Decline Millsap’s option
6. Throw a big offer sheet at Jordan Bell that GS can’t match
7. Use the remaining cap space to sign a bench PG & C

2019-20 starting lineup:
Murray
Harris
Bridges
Bell
Jokic

2018 off-season

Eliminate salary & find a future starting SF that is 25 or younger

In the modern NBA, you need superstars and role players - role players are evidently easy to find - look at what Cleveland and Houston have done. Role players can not eat up the salary cap. If they are not a superstar or potential superstar, do not pay them high dollars.

Overpaid Nuggets include Plumlee, Faried, Chandler, Arthur, and if re-signed, Barton. Good players are not great players. Consider a superstar team with 2 or 3 players making $30-40m. That can eat up your entire budget. Role players on those teams, for the most part, are making less than $10m.

The Nuggets need to understand salary-cap. They've already hurt themselves with the above contracts, but they did not destroy the team with those contracts. Let's hope they've learned their lesson and they do not target good players that will never be superstars, at least not target them with $15m salaries.

2019-2020 Roster
Murray - Morris - veteran
Harris - Beasley - veteran
??? - Craig - veteran
Lyles - Hernangomez - veteran
Jokic - young center - veteran

The five veterans may or may not start. They may or may not be significant bench players, but they are the insurance in case of injury. How much experience? Not important. Who? Not too important; there are always options.

I'd keep Morris, Beasley, Craig, Lyles, Hernangomez because their contracts are small and easy to keep reasonable - until one proves to be of great value. If one forces their way off the team somehow, the team will still do fine. I think each has potential, but how much is yet to be seen.

The single most important thing to remember in the next two years is the Nuggets have three players that are clearly worth building around and that most be the focus. High-usage players must be avoided. Jokic & Murray should be the highest-usage players in every game they play in (with Jokic in the lead). Jokic, Harris, and Murray all need to be more aggressive in taking their shots - this will lead to them finding more openings for all the fancy passes Jokic & Murray love to make.

Here's hoping we accidentally find another superstar along the way!

OK, I'll put my $.02 worth into this game:

2018
GOAL: Make playoffs and build for the future

1. Sign Jokic to a MAX 5-yr contract.
* No-brainer here
2. Let Barton walk.
*Lose a valuable piece, but we can't afford him, no choice
3. Chandler and Arthur opt in, nothing good for the Nuggets who ARE going to pay the luxury tax.
* Don't see either opting out with limited salary cap space with other teams
4. Trade #14, 2019 1st and Juancho to ORL for draft rights to SF Michael Porter Jr.
* Most potent SF in the draft, has size to create mismatches, will flourish next to Jokic
5. Draft PG DeAnthony Melton with pick #43
* Melton has strong defensive skills, size and untapped potential, will be a steal.
6. Draft C Jo Lual-Acuil Jr as a draft-n-stash at #58
* Shot blocker and eventual replacement for Plumlee
7. Re-sign SF Torrey Craig to 2/+1 (TO) contract
* Shown he needs to be on this team
8. FIRE Malone if we don't have strong playoff run.
* OK technically don't resign him but we'll have a roster that should be 3-5 seed.

C Jokic, Plumlee
PF Millsap, Lyles, Faried
SF Porter, Craig, Chandler, Lydon
SG Harris, Beasley
PG Murray, Morris, Melton

Salary $120,000,000 (est)

2019
GOAL: Avoid Repeater tax, save cap space, advance past 2nd round of playoffs, let core build chemistry.

1. Chandler, Arthur and Faried expire, opening up $33M in cap space and 3 roster spots.
* Great guys but not part of the future and we need cap space to avoid the repeater tax.
2. Release PF Paul Millsap.
* Declining skillset and allows PF Trey Lyles to start. $$ for 2019 free agents and future free agency of Murray.
3. Re-sign Trey Lyles to 4(TO) $88M.
* Nuggets didn't trade for him to sit on bench or release him, we'll see what he becomes in 2018
4. Sign FA PF Jordan Bell to 3/30M
* Creating a strong defensive 2nd unit (and had to make my bud SoCal happy)
5. Trade both 2nds to moveup to get SG/SF Admiral Schofield
* Wing depth with potential
6. Bring over C Jo Lual-Acuil Jr.
* Start getting him ready to take over for Plumlee.


C Jokic, Plumlee, Lual-Acuil Jr
PF Lyles, Bell, (Lydon)
SF Porter, Craig, Lydon, (Schofield)
SG Harris, Beasley, Schofield
PG Murray, Melton, Morris

Salary $90,000,000 (est)

1st year
Trade Faried and the 14th to the Bulls for 22nd overall pick and a future 2nd
Draft Chandler Hutchison with the 22nd overal pick
draft Grayson Allen in the 2nd round putting him on a 2 way deal

Trade Plumlee, Chandler, and Arthur with our 2019 1st for Tristan Thompson, George Hill, and Zizic saving the Cavs some long term money

Resign Jokic to the max, give 2 year minimum deal to Morris and a LLE deal to Craig.

Giving a 1st year lineup of
Murray/ Hill/ Morris
Harris/ Beasley/ Allen
Juancho/ Craig/ Hutchison
Millsap/ Lyles/ Lydon
Jokic/ Thompson/ Zizic

Staying just under the tax.

Year 2
I fire Malone if we do not get to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Buyout Hill for $1 million

Use the full MLE to fill any holes for guys not developing.

Sign and trade Lyles for a future 1st

Year 3

let Millsap & Thompson expire to give Murray, Juancho, and Beasley their extensions while being under the tax, or if one does not work out long term than you can use the cap space to replace them. draft young bigs,

Agree with most what was said.

No one else wants to go on record?

2018 off-season
Sign Jokic max
Fire Malone and hire Casey or Messina
Find decent SF on FA market or via trades
Trade 2 out of 4 these players: Arthur, Faried, Chandler, Plumlee (too many PF's)
If it is necessary, use Lyles or #14 in a trade to solve SF and salary cap problem
Find cheap but trustful guard-backup veteran

2018 draft strategy
#14 pick should be estimated best player left at the moment (except "C"), so I'm against "take best SF" plan, because when was last time some 14+ pick SF becomes a useful starter as a rookie? Not even Giannis, Kawhi or Butler! Our SF problem must be solved on FA market or via trade, not on draft.

2019 off-season
Sign Murray no matter on price
Release Millsap

2019 best case scenario roster:
PG Jamal Murray
SG Gary Harris
SF Paul George
PF Who Cares
C Nikola Jokic
COACH: Not Malone

2019 worst case scenario roster:
PG Jamal Murray
SG Gary Harris
SF Juan Hernangomez
PF Nikola Jokic
C Mason Plumlee
COACH: Mike Malone

A 2 years plan is too long right now.
I want a 1 year plan that bring denver to the PO, then we'll see if this squad is a Portland (decent in RS, awful in the PO) or a Utah (good both in RS and PO).

1.) Trade Plumlee and our 2019 1st for long term cap relief. With Plumlee off the books, Faried, Chandler, Arthur, Millsap all expire. This means Denver will have a ton of cap space to sign some free agents in 2019 our retain the developing young guys in the core.

2.) Draft Troy Brown Jr., young prospect who will be able to play/defend 1-4.

3.) Re-sign Will Barton for anything in the 10-14 million range.

4.) Fire Michael Malone at some point.

5.) Take care of the Wilson Chandler situation. Likely he opts but a team will take him for free regardless.

6.) Look for a back up pg available for trade or sign Jameer Nelson to a vet minimum deal. His leadership on and off court is huge

7.) Sign Jokic to a 5 year max deal.

Jamal Murray(33)/Jameer Nelson(15)
Gary Harris(33)/Will Barton(15)
Troy Brown Jr.(25)/Will Barton(15)/Juancho Hernangomez(8)
Paul Millsap(24)/Trey Lyles(16)/Juancho Hernangomez(8)
Nikola Jokic(33)/Trey Lyles(9)/Paul Millsap(6)

Riko wrote:A 2 years plan is too long right now.
I want a 1 year plan that bring denver to the PO, then we'll see if this squad is a Portland (decent in RS, awful in the PO) or a Utah (good both in RS and PO).

Spoken like the typical young American - now, now, NOW!

The best one year plan would be to sign Paul George & LeBron then trade for Steph Curry & Kawhi Leonard.

NuggetsWY wrote:

Riko wrote:A 2 years plan is too long right now.
I want a 1 year plan that bring denver to the PO, then we'll see if this squad is a Portland (decent in RS, awful in the PO) or a Utah (good both in RS and PO).

Spoken like the typical young American - now, now, NOW!

The best one year plan would be to sign Paul George & LeBron then trade for Steph Curry & Kawhi Leonard.

Quite the opposite, to be fair, an eventual postseason run (1 or more round) wuold became the basis for a multiyear plan next summer.
Take Portland like example, before april they probably think they have a good squad and they could compete right away or in the next years, now they must revolutionize their roster.

Riko wrote:

NuggetsWY wrote:

Riko wrote:A 2 years plan is too long right now.
I want a 1 year plan that bring denver to the PO, then we'll see if this squad is a Portland (decent in RS, awful in the PO) or a Utah (good both in RS and PO).

Spoken like the typical young American - now, now, NOW!

The best one year plan would be to sign Paul George & LeBron then trade for Steph Curry & Kawhi Leonard.

Quite the opposite, to be fair, an eventual postseason run (1 or more round) wuold became the basis for a multiyear plan next summer.
Take Portland like example, before april they probably think they have a good squad and they could compete right away or in the next years, now they must revolutionize their roster.

Definitely would’ve been nice to make the playoffs this year to get an idea of what players on the roster work and who doesn’t. And also what types of players are needed to compliment the core.

But this year we have #14, young guys on rookie deals and big expiring deals to facilitate a trade for just about anyone available. And next year we could have cap space to sign a max player. Once Jokic, Harris and Murray are all making big money, we probably won’t have that kind of flexibility again for a while. That’s why I think these 2 offseasons are the best shot we’ll have at rounding the roster into a contender.