12footrim wrote:Bologna Smasher wrote:I must be the only one that actually thinks it's a pretty good deal for the Nuggets, especially considering what other mid-tier big men have been getting the past couple years. It's only for three years, isn't so bad.
In a vacuum, sure. It's not terrible, but on this team with a superstar center prospect that needs to play as much as he can and a max PF where is his value to them really. It's even debatable if he and Jokic work together at all, certainly not ideal so if they can't play together he really should only be getting about 12 minutes a game.
Especially when the Nuggets have multiple solid PF's and even small ball 4's depth. Also in this market centers weren't getting paid at all that's what shocking that they gave up that much to get him then overpaid on top of it. He just doesn't make much sense.
The reason the Nuggets like Plumlee so much is because he is a player of similar style to Jokic. The problem the Nuggets had early last year was they were playing completely different styles of offense from when Jokic was on the floor to when he was off it. Having another center who can pass and keep the same offensive flow going when Jokic is on the bench is a huge plus. And beyond that, he's just a good backup center overall (career 18 PER) with his energy and shot blocking.
It might be a slight overpay given the situation, but it's also much better than the 17-20 million a lot of people had projected earlier in this year. It's pretty fair market value in my eyes. And while they didn't HAVE to pay him, as his only other realistic option was to accept the QO, I'm sure they preferred to get him locked up for multiple years. A three year contract (and hopefully a team option year 3) is great fit into Denver's payroll and lines up nicely with other contracts they have on the roster. Helps retain a lot of flexibility and should be a net positive asset over the duration of the deal.
