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Millsap will be turning 34 years old next year and his impact on both ends of the floor is continuing decline. He'll still be effective this upcoming season but watching him last season and the two games in preseason....offensively he just isn't the best fit with Jokic. Now some of you may say we have a young up and comer with Lyles, but I'm also skeptical of his fit with Jokic. Lyles is most effective posting up and scoring the ball. He likes to operate in many of the same spots as Jokic and isn't much of a defender. Ideally the perfect PF fit with Jokic is someone who doesn't really need the ball, is athletic, can shoot, cut and be a versatile defender. I don't see anyone with that type of potential on this roster besides Jarred Vanderbilt. So what's the plan after Millsap, OG Anunoby would have been perfect but he slipped through our fingers on draft night. Is there someone we could target in a trade or via free agency???

Millsap is still a very good two-way player, and he is actually a good fit with Jokic. But your main point is correct of course, he is not worth right now $30M per season, and next year can be only worse. We have a team option next summer and no way we are going to extend it. I think we should all our salary cap space next summer to use to buy one big FA name, a forward player.

If we ignore biggest names of SF/PF forwards 2019 FA market which will never join Denver (Durant, Leonard, Butler, Porzingis), our targets can be 15M-20M level guys like Khris Middleton, Tobias Harris, Nikola Mirotic... or we should use trade option (but our assets are limited). Expiring players from rebuilding teams can be interesting (for example, Kevin Love).

Well, Lyles might fit, we could keep Millsap one more year, Porter might make a decent PF, Vanderbilt might develop. The above posts both make a lot of sense but for this year, we're OK. Who knows, by the end of this year, we might have a greater need than PF.

Lyles has been turning into a multi-dimensional player, I was thinking he could be heir apparent to Millsap with his good shooting stroke. However, I like what I see of his new swiss army knife role off the bench and an hopeful that Vanderbilt can fill that role, he reminds me of a younger Millsap

We won't have any $$$ this offseason for a big-budget free agent. Even if we renounce Milsap & Lyles, we would only have ~15 million. I'd rather see both come back. My guess is that Lyles gets a 3-4 year deal around 10-15 per depending on his year, and we bring back Milsap on a 2 year deal for the mid-level exception. We have several players that should be able to earn minutes, but we'll have to wait to see if any of them develop into starters. We hope that Vanderbilt, Porter Jr, or Juancho challenge for minutes at PF. If Milsap's replacement isn't already on the roster, we should look at a consolidation trade.

MidMountain wrote:We won't have any $$$ this offseason for a big-budget free agent. Even if we renounce Milsap & Lyles, we would only have ~15 million. I'd rather see both come back. My guess is that Lyles gets a 3-4 year deal around 10-15 per depending on his year, and we bring back Milsap on a 2 year deal for the mid-level exception. We have several players that should be able to earn minutes, but we'll have to wait to see if any of them develop into starters. We hope that Vanderbilt, Porter Jr, or Juancho challenge for minutes at PF. If Milsap's replacement isn't already on the roster, we should look at a consolidation trade.

Denver would have more than enough to get a top end FA. We would have about $92M on the books and the is anticipated at $109M but the tax limit is expected to be around $132M so we'd have about $40M before exceeding the tax. I still like the idea of using Millsaps's expiring, Lyles and ?? in a trade for AD, he'd fit great next to Jokic and MPJ

I could see Larry Nance Jr being a great fit next to Jokic

SuperDario wrote:I could see Larry Nance Jr being a great fit next to Jokic

Don't see CLE letting Nance Jr go and I think Vanderbilt will be a less expensive more dynamic PF in the long run.

skywalker33 wrote:

SuperDario wrote:I could see Larry Nance Jr being a great fit next to Jokic

Don't see CLE letting Nance Jr go and I think Vanderbilt will be a less expensive more dynamic PF in the long run.

Maybe, but they just signed Love to a long term deal so I'm sure he could be had for the right price. I don't know much about Vanderbilt other than watching a couple UK games last year.

SuperDario wrote:

skywalker33 wrote:

SuperDario wrote:I could see Larry Nance Jr being a great fit next to Jokic

Don't see CLE letting Nance Jr go and I think Vanderbilt will be a less expensive more dynamic PF in the long run.

Maybe, but they just signed Love to a long term deal so I'm sure he could be had for the right price. I don't know much about Vanderbilt other than watching a couple UK games last year.

Cleveland is using him as their small ball C, better player to Cavs than us

SuperDario wrote:I could see Larry Nance Jr being a great fit next to Jokic

In the post-Millsap era I see Porter Jr as our PF starter, sharing minutes with Lyles which can be a backup center too after Plumlee exit, which means 25+ mpg from the bench playing PF/C both. IT will also leave, so Barton will be our SG/SF backup option (with Morris covers PG from the bench). So big-name FA forward which we should take next summer should be rather SF than PF, or at least combo (in case Porter really more suits to SF than PF despite 6'10 height). Sixers are in better position to take some superstar at SF spot (even Durant is possible scenario), so Covington will be probably open for trade, and he is player which really suits to Nuggets with his great defense and good 3pt skills. It would be probably some three-team deal because Nuggets has no assets now which Sixers needs.

skywalker33 wrote:

MidMountain wrote:We won't have any $$$ this offseason for a big-budget free agent. Even if we renounce Milsap & Lyles, we would only have ~15 million. I'd rather see both come back. My guess is that Lyles gets a 3-4 year deal around 10-15 per depending on his year, and we bring back Milsap on a 2 year deal for the mid-level exception. We have several players that should be able to earn minutes, but we'll have to wait to see if any of them develop into starters. We hope that Vanderbilt, Porter Jr, or Juancho challenge for minutes at PF. If Milsap's replacement isn't already on the roster, we should look at a consolidation trade.

Denver would have more than enough to get a top end FA. We would have about $92M on the books and the is anticipated at $109M but the tax limit is expected to be around $132M so we'd have about $40M before exceeding the tax. I still like the idea of using Millsaps's expiring, Lyles and ?? in a trade for AD, he'd fit great next to Jokic and MPJ

We'd be far from the tax, but still close to the salary cap. You can go over the cap ($109M) to sign your own free agents (as long as you have bird rights) but not an external one. So we could only offer a contact of ~15 million (cap - current salary). And that's only if we renounce the bird rights on Lyles.

Was looking over potential 2019 Free Agents at the PF position and one name jumped out (beyond Trey Lyles that is): Julius Randle. Coming out of Kentucky I thought of his as just a rebounder with a little offense. However, he seems to be proving to me he's more than I expected. We'd definitely have the money to go after him, any interest ??

skywalker33 wrote:Was looking over potential 2019 Free Agents at the PF position and one name jumped out (beyond Trey Lyles that is): Julius Randle. Coming out of Kentucky I thought of his as just a rebounder with a little offense. However, he seems to be proving to me he's more than I expected. We'd definitely have the money to go after him, any interest ??

How do we have the money? He signed a deal for 1 year to prove last year wasn't a fluke, so he can get paid and last I check we will have less than $10 million to spend unless we renounce Lyles.

Maybe we can sign back Faried for cheap...

Listening to local radio, broadcasts, and reading some national stuff I think they bring back both Millsap and Lyles next year. I think Lyles gets a deal starting around $12 million per year based on the market this year and the huge amount of cap space. Millsap's next deal I think ends up being a declining deal, but I think it will likely start at $18 million on something like a 3 year deal with the 3rd year only being partially guaranteed, meaning we will be left with the MLE and trade exceptions to add talent without trading anyone.

I go back and forth on Millsap, but with the defense improving so much with his input and is ability to be a leader on that end, I can easily see im getting 18-20 mpg and still being very effective for the next 2-3 years.

I'm in the time to replace Millsap camp if there is an opportunity. Upgrading the postion might be difficult but there will be a lot of options out there at the end of the season. I can't see the Nuggets paying Millsap 30 mil a year so he has to be allowed to become a free agent. He is not likely to get 30 mil anywhere. After that, who can guess and if he has anything left in the tank and would come cheap, then sure. Lyles is not someone that I would rely on, just yet.

There are some power forward UFA's out there that might be interesting to look at before the Nuggets decide on Millsap:

JaMychal Green
Nikola Mirotic
Marcus Morris
Thaddeus Young

I think Marcus Morris is looking like a solid rotation pf in Boston playing behind Horford. Mirotic is a 20 ppg scorer. Young and Green look like solid defensive starters. Except for Young, all have current salaries below 10 mil but will be looking for a pay raise, especially Mirotic.

I am suggesting we take a long look at Morris.

Do you ever go to sleep and regrett that you didn't draft OG Anunoby 2017?! Hhhh. This Denver team would really be set on all positions for a long time.

WalterBenjamin wrote:Do you ever go to sleep and regrett that you didn't draft OG Anunoby 2017?! Hhhh. This Denver team would really be set on all positions for a long time.

is that a dig or something ?? Stupid question