Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Denver Nuggets

[slicedbread2]

-Keep the coach and GM
-Performed above expectations considering Jokic was literally carrying the team like Atlas carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
-Rising probably if Porter Jr. and Murray can get healthy.

Honestly the best thing they can do is just pray that the team can get healthy and pay Jokic his money. Good thing for Denver is that Jokic is a low profile dude and he ain't turning down $254M over 5 years knowing he could be flipped to a team of his choice should the situation dictate it.

They'll have the 21st pick in this draft and while this draft won't be as sexy as the 21 draft, the Nuggets have had a solid drafting record and are pretty solid at developing players. Besides Morris, Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr.(last 2 were lotto picks), Dozier was solid before injuries crippled his season and I think Hyland+Nnaji if both can stay healthy will take the next steps needed to go forward.

They should resign Boogie to be a stopgap backup to Joker as Bol bol's ego was out of control relative to his actual ability which was horrible hence why the Nuggets dealt him to Boston in the deal that brought in Forbes. Plus having someone who's a poor man's Joker at this point in boogie isn't a bad idea considering he'll take the vet min for another year to extend his career.

I'd honestly look at consolidating depth to upgrade the team. Jeff Green will definitely opt into his 4.5M deal and you have the expiring deals of Barton and JaMychal Green and I'd consider rolling the dice on another dude. Problem is the Nuggets owe a 23+25 1st to OKC and Orlando respectively(both lotto pro.) and can't trade a 1st till 27 so they are sort of stuck there. Best thing is to hope they find a diamond in the rough in the draft or find a good rotation player with the MLE. Hopefully Silent Stan spends some damn money considering he unloaded the big bucks to get the Rams a super bowl title but it'll be seen.

[Bornstellar]

I think they need to get their team healthy first and foremost. While I don't believe MPJ and Murray are legit #2 and #3 options for a championship team, their #1 is Jokic who is so damn good he can probably get by with them. Get those guys healthy and put some actual defenders around them and this team is definitely a legit contender. I think they performed about as expected. Jokic had an all-time great season which netted them a playoff berth as I figured they would because of how singularly good he is, and they lost in the first round to a better team as they were decimated by injuries. Sounds about right.

[MarcusBrody]

I'm baffled by the levels of hate for the Denver front office in this thread. I do agree that the early MPJ extension was a mistake, though they really need to keep him as they are going to be pretty capped with Murray's extension, Gordon on the books, and Jokic's upcoming super max. He's a great shooter and even his much maligned defense was improving, so I think he's worth his contract if he plays, there's just the big risk of him not doing so.

But aside from that, what do you want from a front office? What roster isn't going to look bad 2-8 if you take 2 of the best 3 players out of the rotation (plus another rotation guy in Dozier)? They had drafted/developed Gary Harris, who would have been a perfect fit with this team save he got hurt and wasn't the same after; the Gordon trade was a useful one. Jerami Grant turned down the same contract in Denver that he accepted in Detroit because he wanted a more central role. You can't really blame the front office for any of that. Their bargain basement pickups (Rivers, Boogie, etc.) all worked out pretty well really, you just aren't getting high level talent that way. I did think they should have converted Devon Reed to a full contract and cut someone (probably Facu), but on well.

Going forward, Jokic/Murray/MPJ/Gordon is a solid core and their age timing is good. As a player, I like MPJ more than most. His defense improved more than people realize and his strength is providing a bit of weakside shot blocking which is helpful for the Nuggets. Plus he's a good rebounder and that is useful for the Nuggets as it means that Jokic isn't battling multiple guys constantly. Bones looks like he'll be a great bench spark plug and I think Monte Morris is a very good second string point guard. Zeke Nnaji looked like he was developing before his knee problems. I don't know he'll ever be starter quality, but I think he can develop into a useful rotation player.

Jamychal and Jeff Green both have player options for next year that I imagine they'll exercise. I wouldn't worry much about them as they aren't good, but as long as they're bench players not seeing crucial minutes, they're fine and can eat some regular season time.

I would try to keep Boogie and sign Devon Reed to a real contract. I'm ambivalent to Rivers/Cancar. I think they're totally fine though for end of the bench guys if the price is right. You just can't have Rivers playing a central role on the team.

The core player I'd try to move on from is Barton. He's not good. He's also not terrible, but the balance of what he brings isn't what the Nuggets need. I'd try to send him out for someone who can play perimeter defense even if they can't score. Facu is also likely gone. I wouldn't try very hard to bring back Forbes, though again, if it was cheap, it's not a big deal.

For the Nuggets first round pick, I would definitely be targeting a perimeter/wing defender. I would be willing to pair the pick with Barton if a starting level defensive guard/wing was available (edit: forgot the Nuggets owe a protected 23 first, so they would have to pick the player for the other team then trade).

I've heard lots of rumors that PJ Dozier will be back. He was traded, but it was essentially an injured player/cap relief for assets trade. He showed up at at least one of the games in the Warriors series, so I suspect he'll be back. I've also heard some rumors that Gary Harris might be a target as he hits free agency, but I suspect this is further from reality.

So the 15 man roster would look like.
Jokic
Murray
MPJ
Gordon
X
Bones
Morris
Green -PO
Green - PO
Boogie
Reed
X - Rivers/Cancar?
X - Dozier?
X - FRP

that's actually pretty good in my mind. Get a defensive wing/guard and if you have good health, you have a chance to be a legitimate contender.

[Alatan]

Fire the GM. There was no reason to give MPJ a max contract. He didnt earn it, he was still on a rookie contract after witch he would be a restricted FA and he has a history of serious injuries. The GM is prone to overpaying mediocre players and cant get any decent players to even consider Denver as a location. Hasnt addressed Denver biggest needs but instead focuses on getting popular names.

Fire the Coach. Malone is an ok defensive minded coach that has surprised me by making a decent defensive team with terrible defensive players. But his complete lack of ability to create a fluid offense and his terrible in game adjustments are enough to make me want a change. He is not a playoff coach.

The team performed better than expected as i thought that a rag tag team of outcasts surrounding Jokic would barely be able to scrap enough wins to reach 0.500 but here we are. Still, sometimes i wonder would have it been better to tank out this season and get some much needed talent on the team.

Its a treadmill team. Thanks to the incompetent front office, the Nuggets are stuck with several bad overpaid players on a team that struggles to get players in the best of times. The Nuggets are capped out and any improvements to the team would be a miracle. MPJ is a glorified Anderson with a bad back on a max contract. Murray was an inconsistent borderline allstar guard with poor defense and now he has a bad knee. I doubt he will even be as good as he was before injury let alone improve as a player. Gordon is an overhyped scrub of all trades type of player. His "defense" is a myth and he provides as much value as old man Jeff Green. Giving him 20+ mill was a mistake even as we got him for basically nothing. Barton is a irredeemable chucker with poor game awareness. Nuggets are stuck with him. I know that Jokic cant decline a supermax but i sure hope he gets tired of losing with this sad Nuggets roster and gets traded to somewhere where he can actually win.

[Jadoogar]

If you were told that the nuggets were going to miss Murray and MPJ for the whole season, you would have expected a first round loss in the best case scenario and that's essentially what happened. They have an incredible MVP talent that almost dragged this team to home court. If they get Utah instead of the warriors, i think they would have looked a lot stronger (probably still lost tho).

Their main focus needs to be health and depth. Monte Morris moves back to the bench where is he best suited. Gordon moves to the fourth option and just defend and cut. MPJ needs to regain his shot (wonder how much was due to the back injury).

Aside from health, they need some backup athletic wings. Resign Cousins, he actually is a perfect backup center at this point in his career. Cut Facu, he's awful. Continue to develop Bones

Murray/Morris
Barton/Bones
MPJ/Athletic wing
Gordon/Green
Jokic/Cousins

[Whopper_Sr]

Won't get my hopes up until Barton's minutes are severely reduced. They need more size and athleticism.

[Sgt Major]

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[Mickey8]

I think until he proves otherwise health permitting, Porter Jr should be a sixth-man. They need him for the playoffs, not the regular season. As for Murray, he's great, but he missed the entire season. I personally think the Nuggets brass expected to miss the playoffs or be in the play-in, but Jokic willed them to higher heights.

However, they need to get creative. Stop bringing back the Campazzo's and JaMychal Green's of the world. This is where their lack of interest in owning a G-League team hurts them. They should be developing that deep bench. If Nnaji can't help them either, get him out of there and get someone who can. Maybe Terrence Ross for Green would help. Another scorer. Forbes, it's time to go to Europe. Hyland has a lot of potential. Jeff Green can come back as a bench player. Cousins too.

The need healthy Murray who is going to average at least 20ppg, which he's capable when healthy, plus he has good chemistry with Jokic, two man game was on the spot. Denver needs to add some reliable three point shooters too.

[Mickey8]

I think until he proves otherwise health permitting, Porter Jr should be a sixth-man. They need him for the playoffs, not the regular season. As for Murray, he's great, but he missed the entire season. I personally think the Nuggets brass expected to miss the playoffs or be in the play-in, but Jokic willed them to higher heights.

However, they need to get creative. Stop bringing back the Campazzo's and JaMychal Green's of the world. This is where their lack of interest in owning a G-League team hurts them. They should be developing that deep bench. If Nnaji can't help them either, get him out of there and get someone who can. Maybe Terrence Ross for Green would help. Another scorer. Forbes, it's time to go to Europe. Hyland has a lot of potential. Jeff Green can come back as a bench player. Cousins too.

They need healthy Murray who is going to average at least 20ppg, which he's capable of when healthy, plus he has good chemistry with Jokic, two man game was on the spot. Denver needs to add some reliable three point shooters too.

[cupcakesnake]

Does this team require the least post-mortem analysis of maybe any team in the NBA? Denver put together a contender at the trade deadline last season. Their second-best player near immediately got injured and hasnt played since. Their next best offensive threat also went down. This team will theoretically be healthy and ready to contend next year. Aaron Gordon has been a good fit with Jokic, and I think will fit even better once the teams shooting is restored, giving more space for his finishing game a brute post-ups (which remind me a bit of a poor man's version of Miami Lebron's post-ups). Monte Morris and maybe Will Barton will look better in smaller roles.

The Greens will almost certainly pick up their options, which is meh since neither helped in the playoffs this year. Everyone else is under contract. Jokic looked best flaked by Gordon and Green, so you'd think Denver might try to sniff around players like Robert Covington or Thaddeus Young, but I can't see them eager to take on salary with MPJ's money kicking in.

I'm a touch more optimistic about MPJ's defense than most. He has stiff hips and poor awareness, but the later will improve with experience and he's flashed signs of making good use of his athleticism.

[BenoUdrihFTL]

They need to build around their strengths and address their weaknesses. Unfortunately I don't think Murray + MPJ coming back necessarily does that

Their obvious strength is that they have a center who is an offense unto himself. So they're the only team in the NBA that doesn't need playmaking guards or wings. All Jokic needs to lead an elite offense is shooters and finishers

Their weakness is defense in that Jokic will always require defensive help either at the rim or on the perimeter. It's really both, but imo they could probably get away with just solidifying their perimeter defense as Jokic is a decent enough interior defender. But getting him out in space is rough for him, and the close to Gm4 was an extreme example of this. But that wasn't all on Jokic, his guards weren't even trying to fight the switch and just letting Jokic on an island with Curry. Even Doris Burke commented on it lol

Jamal Murray coming back doesn't address the perimeter defense, in fact it probably exacerbates the problem. MPJ can work I think because he's an elite finisher and can actually be a pretty decent secondary rim-protector. The problem is that I feel a lot more confident about Murray's health going forward than MPJ's. But still, I think their best bet if they want to address their weaknesses is to try to move Murray for a defensive guard who can hit open 3s

That's probably unrealistic and they'll go the safe route with just bringing Murray and MPJ back and seeing if they can just outscore opponents. Which who knows, a supercharged offense coupled with a defense that -- while lacking in talent -- simply tries hard could be enough to make them contenders

[floppymoose]

I was so impressed by Morris' three point shooting in the series. It felt like everything he threw up there went in.

[Los_29]

Depending on the health of MPJ and Murray, I see no reason why this team can't contend for a title next year.

Pretty remarkable what this team was able to do this year.

[BelgradeNugget]

They need to build around their strengths and address their weaknesses. Unfortunately I don't think Murray + MPJ coming back necessarily does that

Their obvious strength is that they have a center who is an offense unto himself. So they're the only team in the NBA that doesn't need playmaking guards or wings. All Jokic needs to lead an elite offense is shooters and finishers

Their weakness is defense in that Jokic will always require defensive help either at the rim or on the perimeter. It's really both, but imo they could probably get away with just solidifying their perimeter defense as Jokic is a decent enough interior defender. But getting him out in space is rough for him, and the close to Gm4 was an extreme example of this. But that wasn't all on Jokic, his guards weren't even trying to fight the switch and just letting Jokic on an island with Curry. Even Doris Burke commented on it lol

Jamal Murray coming back doesn't address the perimeter defense, in fact it probably exacerbates the problem. MPJ can work I think because he's an elite finisher and can actually be a pretty decent secondary rim-protector. The problem is that I feel a lot more confident about Murray's health going forward than MPJ's. But still, I think their best bet if they want to address their weaknesses is to try to move Murray for a defensive guard who can hit open 3s

That's probably unrealistic and they'll go the safe route with just bringing Murray and MPJ back and seeing if they can just outscore opponents. Which who knows, a supercharged offense coupled with a defense that -- while lacking in talent -- simply tries hard could be enough to make them contenders

I think this is pretty good analysis, just like one from jamaalstar21 before you, I just don't agree on Murray part. Offensively Murray is 2nd most important Nuggets player. Jokic by himself can do so much, but Jokic/Murray 2 man game was practically unstoppable in the clutch when both healthy. Murray is the only Nuggets player beside Jokic able to create for himself or others. MPJ can hit every shot he takes, he is not as good creator.

Defensively Nuggets were 15th in the league. You replace Jeff Green and Monte Morris with Murray and MPJ. MPJ is very good help defender and rebounder. Murray is also underrated here. He made big improvements from Portland series 3 years ago. He become solid defender, bigger and stronger than Morris. Than you have AG who will be able to focus on defense 100% and offensively only care about finishing around the hoop. Jokic will also be able to play better defense the whole game if he is not asked to spend so much energy on offensive end.

All Nuggets need to become top 5-10 defense is to replace Barton with 3-D player like healthy Gary Harris, Caruzo, ect and bring PJ Dozier back after knee rehabilitation. BTW Nnaji is pretty good wing defender WHEN HEALTHY (I'm sick of repeating this when healthy again and again... )

[Doctor MJ]

I'm baffled by the levels of hate for the Denver front office in this thread. I do agree that the early MPJ extension was a mistake, though they really need to keep him as they are going to be pretty capped with Murray's extension, Gordon on the books, and Jokic's upcoming super max. He's a great shooter and even his much maligned defense was improving, so I think he's worth his contract if he plays, there's just the big risk of him not doing so.

But aside from that, what do you want from a front office?

I think there's a major tendency of people with both coaches and GMs to point to a mistake and then say "Therefore he should be fired." rather than thinking about where you'd get the person who would come in an be clearly superior.

Those who are in charge make mistakes while they are in charge, that doesn't mean an unemployed dude should be treated as if he was doing better work in the same timeframe simply because he never got in the position to make decisions that could be classified as mistakes.

So yeah, I think the Nugget GM & coach both tend to get unreasonable criticism. It's not easy to build a team around a guy who is fundamentally different than any other superstar the NBA has ever seen, let alone as a small market club.

[FNQ]

They'd be the #1 - 3 seed in the West if healthy. Aaron Gordon got shat on all series, but he was actually a tough defender and that's what they signed him for, not to be the #2 seed. Have to get Will Barton on the bench ASAP. He's a one-note player. Moving Jeff Green to a bench role will help a lot too.

Jokic is the best player in the world right now.. and because of that, Denver's still got every reason to be optimistic going forward. This year might wind up helping them in the long run, as it gives guys like Monte and Bones some important run, and they could both really shine when the team is fully healthy

Keep the GM, coach, as many players as you can. Injury bugs suck but they are far from permanent. We were there for 2 years and have come back with a much older team.

[Mattatron]

the mpj situation is a complete disaster already. dude already has 3 back surgeries with 23 y/o. you better try to find someone that takes him. overall the nuggets are set for the future. besides mpj, I think they need better options at the wings/4. I don't like the gordon fit

[antonac]

They obviously outperformed expectations as I remember hot takes suggesting they'd miss the play offs after MPJ went down.

Personally I think Malone deserves a season where they're healthy before we know how far he can take them BUT I do think perhaps that the injuries can't all be passed off as bad luck. At some point you have to ask why this is happening. too many injury prone players with issues on the roster? Training and coaching not preparing players? Physios and team doctors not performing? To a degree, you make your own luck in sport, if you have half your roster constantly banged up, you're doing something wrong.

[TravisScott55]

Just gotta stay healthy next year

[nomansland]

Fire Malone, he brought in Boogie who's washed and traded Jokic's replacement Center.

What?