Nuggets Win/Place Projections

[NuggetsWY]

The Malone HATE is strong in this forum.

He frustrates me and if he doesn't figure out how to have fewer starting rotations than at least one other team, he's got to go. Usually I give a coach three years. Malone had me ready to vote him off the island during his first year. His second year, I'd have ignored a vote and pushed him off the island myself. He's very short-sighted. He not only wants to make the playoffs, he wants to win every game and every quarter. With that focus, he hasn't developed young players while playing veterans he knew would not be able to win a playoff series. What he should have done was to sacrifice at least a few games to develop the future core - you know, the core most fans had already been talking about.

The player development of Jokic and Harris has been fantastic! Murray and Juancho are showing signs of emerging. They may not be advancing as quickly as you like, but slow and steady progress and the upward trend has been great to see and I credit Malone. Mudiay was set on the fast-track and that didn't go well, perhaps sink or swim is not the best approach.

LeBron, Magic, Bird, etc. plus many less famous players - some do well right off, some do not. Some players straight great and flame out. Some players ...

A great coach knows the difference. Murray & Hernangomez showed the promise early but still were held back. Not for their development IMO but because Malone trusted veterans to try to win.

[U hova]

48 to 50 wins

[skywalker33]

That's a pretty good O/U....I'd take the under, still too many serviceable players on the roster. I see some sloppy losses trying to figure out the correct lineups. 43-44 wins. $hit myself if we got 50 and a 5th-6th seed.

I hope you buy some DEPENDS soon. I see the growth in Jokic/Murray/Harris as well as improved health in Murray worth more than 3-4 wins itself,

I say 43-44, you say 46....Not that far off. I see Michael Malone still messing up rotations

I actually have them at 48 wins but even so 4-5 wins are up in the air every season IMO. I do agree Malone will have to step up for us to get those 48, nobody really knows what to expect outta him this year but isn't this a contract year for him ?

[NuggetsWY]

I hope you buy some DEPENDS soon. I see the growth in Jokic/Murray/Harris as well as improved health in Murray worth more than 3-4 wins itself,

I say 43-44, you say 46....Not that far off. I see Michael Malone still messing up rotations

I actually have them at 48 wins but even so 4-5 wins are up in the air every season IMO. I do agree Malone will have to step up for us to get those 48, nobody really knows what to expect outta him this year but isn't this a contract year for him ?

In June they picked up the option on his contract, so he's signed through 2018-2019.

[Andy123]

There is a discussion on the general board about sixer vs Denver ... I can't post on general board yet , just want to say you have a good team will make the playoffs ... I prefer your team over sixer's even long term..
Only concern is you are in the West.

[HoopsMalone]

There are some seriously delusional people in that den vs philly thread. I certainly think you can MAKE AN ARGUMENT for philly, but people acting like it's not close are insane...

I mean given the choice between Jokic and Embiid.. that isn't a choice. You take Jokic and you don't even think twice about it. Everyone keeps saying "If Embiid's healthy". Well if my mom had a D she'd be a boy. He's not healthy. So you choose Jokic. Clearly. There are a lot guys I'd roll the dice on Embiid vs. _____ with.. Jokic is not one of them. If you think he is, you are dumb. And I don't mean that in a demeaning way. I'm just trying to clarify that you're nuts.

Fultz vs Murray is an easy decision right now. You take Murray. Because he looks pretty good and Fultz does not. There that was a simple explanation. I'm not saying I'll 100% be proven correct in the long run. But for now, I'm 100% correct because I took the better player.

Millsap over Simmons. Now this one is debatable for sure. Millsap is a very good player but he's aging. Simmons I think will be a very good player but he's nowhere near being one yet. I think I would go with Simmons because he really does have a high ceiling and I think his floor is pretty low. This one isn't cut & dry. If Denver had another guy like say Kevin Durant on their team I'd take Millsap. Since they don't I'd prefer to lengthen my window of contention with Simmons.

Harris/Juancho vs Covington/Saric is a joke. Denver in a landslide. Much better players now with much higher potential as well. There isn't even an argument to be made for Philly here.

Role players and youth: Most of these guys are somewhat irrelevant. They'll either suck and get cut/traded/leave via Free agency. Or they'll improve and probably get signed away via free agency since these teams have so many other core young players they need to pay. It's just not really worth evaluating.

People keep saying things like "Denver needs to prove it". Uh they were the best offense ever for much of last season. They invented the piano key neck tie. What has Philly done? NOTHING!

[Powder Blue]

Wanted to bump this given we’re at the halfway point of the season. 21-19 at the moment.

Milsap injury a huge unforeseen event but other than that the Nuggets season has been fairly predictable or within tolerance of predictions. Some players have over-performed, some under-performed but I feel they cancel out. Coaching has been as expected too.

I’m going to stick with 43-44 wins. I’m seeing a rocky Milsap re-addition and too many bad losses to raise my #. Be nice if they could string together a long winning streak or a 7-3, 8-2 stretch, I’m just not seeing the consistency needed for that.

[NuggetsWY]

Wanted to bump this given we’re at the halfway point of the season. 21-19 at the moment.

Milsap injury a huge unforeseen event but other than that the Nuggets season has been fairly predictable or within tolerance of predictions. Some players have over-performed, some under-performed but I feel they cancel out. Coaching has been as expected too.

I’m going to stick with 43-44 wins. I’m seeing a rocky Milsap re-addition and too many bad losses to raise my #. Be nice if they could string together a long winning streak or a 7-3, 8-2 stretch, I’m just not seeing the consistency needed for that.

I'm going to claim "great minds" and I'm glad you did this. I was going to wait until after tonight's game because that's half-way, but I'm good with this.

The forum seemed to be spread from 43-50 wins for the most part. We seem on pace for the low end of that but I believe continued development and the return of Millsap could push us up towards the middle of those projections.

[skywalker33]

Given the Millsap injury and a few poor losses we shouldn't have taken, I'll adjust my 48-34 prognostication down to 45 wins...still the optimist

[THE J0KER]

I'm also close to 45 wins projection, which is very close to my pre-season projections.

The reason, why we handle so good Millsap absence, is Trey Lyles unexpected big and fast improvement after Millsap injury, Barton playing over expectations since the start of the season, and Murray suddenly becomes much more consistent lately, now even on bad days, he scores around 15, not under 10 like before. Another reason is injuries which early kicked Clippers, Jazz, and Memphis out of playoff race, so instead tough 11 teams race for a West playoff, there is all 8 spots locked since the early start. But benefits from this LAC UTA MEM disaster will be reflected on NOP and POR better W-L record also, so it is not a big help to our fight for #6 spot in West. I hope we will finish 6th, but I expect dead race with Pelicans and Portland, these two teams also should be close to 45 wins record.