Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Denver Nuggets

ElectricMayhem · Post #1 » by **ElectricMayhem** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:33 am

We shall now cut them open and see what's inside...

Here is the data from last year's Post-Mortems:
Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

Team Name: Denver Nuggets
Record at Time of Death: 48-34 (.585)
GM: Calvin Booth (2020-) (Mark Connelly POBO)
Coach: Michael Malone (2015-)

Offensive Rating: 6th
Defensive Rating: 15th
Rebound %: 4th
Turnover %: 26th

GM: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Jamal Murray ($34m)
Nikola Jokic ($32m)
Michael Porter Jr. ($30m)
Aaron Gordon ($20m)
Will Barton ($17m)
Monte Morris ($9m)
JaMychal Green ($9m)
Zeke Nnaji ($3m)
Bones Hyland ($2m)

Team Options:

Player Options:
Jeff Green ($5m)

Free Agents:
Facundo Campazzo
Austin Rivers
Vlatko Cancar
DeMarcus Cousins
Markus Howard
Davon Reed

Dead Money:

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Orlando Magic
29. Detroit Pistons
28. Houston Rockets
27. Indiana Pacers
26. Oklahoma City Thunder
25. Washington Wizards
24. New York Knicks
23. Portland Trailblazers
22. Sacramento Kings
21. Los Angeles Lakers
20. Charlotte Hornets
19. San Antonio Spurs
18. Cleveland Cavaliers
17. Los Angeles Clippers
16. Brooklyn Nets
15. Atlanta Hawks
14. Chicago Bulls
13. Denver Nuggets

TroubleS0me · Post #2 » by **TroubleS0me** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:35 am

lol already Post-Mortem

Cubbies2120 · Post #3 » by **Cubbies2120** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:38 am

TroubleS0me wrote:lol already Post-Mortem

Given that the Warriors were -20000 odds when up 3-1 (meaning you gotta bet $20k to win $100), im sure he’s been preparing this for a few days

It was just a question of how many games they could pull out

HotRocks34 · Post #4 » by **HotRocks34** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:39 am

Keep GM and Coach. Re-sign Cousins and Rivers, probably Reed and Howard too.

Main issue is health. They have experience now and their poise has improved dramatically. A fully-healthy Nuggets squad will be a threat.

Overall, also, they need more athletes, length and two-way players. Just keep working on improving the talent level.

maxwellcu · Post #5 » by **maxwellcu** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:40 am

Warriors were better, as expected.

No point in talking about tearing down the team until they see what they have with Murray and MPJ next year.

syrus3 · Post #6 » by **syrus3** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:40 am

Get the Joker some help!

Or Nikola should just go to the Bucks!

Get rid of MPJ.

We need a power forward too.

Cubbies2120 · Post #7 » by **Cubbies2120** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:45 am

On topic: Keep GM and Coach
Relative to expectations…depends on which expectations. Going into season expecting a healthy MPJ and ~20 games at end of season with Murray? They ended up juuust above the win total that Vegas set for them. Taking into consideration that MPJ and slurry’s were both out for the season (9 games of MPJ), they overachieved.

If Barton won’t accept a significantly reduced role and exclusively bench minutes, trade him.

Everything boils down to the health of MPJ and Murray - we know what we are getting with Jokic.

Resign Cousins, He’s been a great spark plug off the bench

anotherhomer · Post #8 » by **anotherhomer** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:47 am

MPJ may have permanent back injuries

just hope he can make a full recovery...

RRFB · Post #9 » by **RRFB** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:50 am

This season basically became a punt season the moment Murray tore his ACL. It sucks that the two greatest individual seasons in this franchise’s history have basically been wasted by injuries, but it is what it is.

Denver will give it one more go next year with Jokic, Murray, MPJ, and Gordon as the core while hopefully also finding some improvements in the margins. If it doesn’t come together again, they’ll have to blow it up and re-tool around Jokic.

sp6r=underrated · Post #10 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:50 am

HotRocks34 wrote:Keep GM and Coach. Re-sign Cousins and Rivers, probably Reed and Howard too.

Main issue is health. They have experience now and their poise has improved dramatically. A fully-healthy Nuggets squad will be a threat.

Overall, also, they need more athletes, length and two-way players. Just keep working on improving the talent level.

Why do people like Rivers? He is a terrible basketball player. This was the best season of his career and he was still a below average player.

Anyway, this roster needs a significant talent upgrade.

metalinguss · Post #11 » by **metalinguss** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:50 am

syrus3 wrote:Get the Joker some help!

Or Nikola should just go to the Bucks!

Get rid of MPJ.

We need a power forward too.

Come on man last thing we need is the league's 2 best players (or at least two top 3 players) teaming up :lol:

Lockdown504090 · Post #12 » by **Lockdown504090** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:51 am

murray and porter being there would just make their defense worse, they should move on from both and trade them for guys like og anunoby, dort and jerami grant.

HotRocks34 · Post #13 » by **HotRocks34** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:52 am

sp6r=underrated wrote:
HotRocks34 wrote:Keep GM and Coach. Re-sign Cousins and Rivers, probably Reed and Howard too.

Main issue is health. They have experience now and their poise has improved dramatically. A fully-healthy Nuggets squad will be a threat.

Overall, also, they need more athletes, length and two-way players. Just keep working on improving the talent level.

Why do people like Rivers? He is a terrible basketball player. This was the best season of his career and he was still a below average player.

Anyway, this roster needs a significant talent upgrade.

Rivers is an end-of-the-bench guy on a team with sufficient talent.

Rivers is ok as long as he's ONLY shooting spot-up threes on offense. As soon as he does anything else, he should be pulled.

He's also an ok defender.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see him third string and playing few minutes. But he's ok in a pinch and can come up big at times.

dc · Post #14 » by dc » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:52 am

anotherhomer wrote:MPJ may have permanent back injuries

just hope he can make a full recovery...

He actually played in the great majority of games his 2nd and 3rd year and the Nugz probably thought he had kind of put the major injuries in his rear view mirror in sort of the same way Embiid did (after Embiid missed ALL of his first 2 years).

But 3 back surgeries by age 23 isn't a good sign.

Ducklett · Post #15 » by **Ducklett** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:58 am

No offense to the Nuggets fans, but Jokic should demand a trade.

Frank Dux · Post #16 » by **Frank Dux** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 5:00 am

Someone get Jokic over to the Spurs. Denver’s core outside of Jokic is miserable.

GeorgeSears · Post #17 » by **GeorgeSears** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 5:01 am

Everything hinges on Murray and MPJ coming back. It's that simple. The Nuggets have 3 players on max contracts (Nets and Warriors are the other two), but they have the disadvantage of not playing in a large market. They also have cheap ownership that's rich but doesn't like to spend. As Bobby Marks pointed out: "The question heading into the offseason is if ownership approves the use of $6.3 million midlevel exception to sign a free agent. If Denver uses the exception, it will cost them an additional $14 million toward the luxury tax."

Tim Connelly is going to be on the hook to try and make something happen given that situation. The Nuggets need more depth at SF and PF. JaMychal Green was an irrelevant signing, as was Campazzo, and Forbes is completely useless.

AbC? · Post #18 » by **AbC?** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 5:02 am

Given the health of his supporting cast Jokic *should* hold off on signing his extension but I think he'll take the supermax this summer. He'd look pretty nice on the Raptors...

Post #19 » by **lebron stopper** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 5:03 am

dc wrote:
anotherhomer wrote:MPJ may have permanent back injuries

just hope he can make a full recovery...

He actually played in the great majority of games his 2nd and 3rd year and the Nugz probably thought he had kind of put the major injuries in his rear view mirror in sort of the same way Embiid did (after Embiid missed ALL of his first 2 years).

But 3 back surgeries by age 23 isn't a good sign.

Another problem with MPJ is that he's a disaster on the defensive end. Last time he was playing in the playoffs, the Suns repeatedly targeted him whenever he was on the floor. Just an absolutely terrible contract all around.

Ducklett wrote:No offense to the Nuggets fans, but Jokic should demand a trade.

Jokic is a free agent in 2023...

Sothron · Post #20 » by **Sothron** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 5:10 am

If Murray and MPJ play to what we saw before their injuries Denver is a contender to win a title next season. They should do nothing but pray for health.

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