The Denver Nuggets continue the revamp of their roster around superstar Jayson Tatum. All in all 7 of their 14 players have found new homes, and rumors have it they still may not be done dealing prior to next week's trade deadline.
Optimism was high when the Nuggets acquired Marcus Smart a month ago, but unfortunately Smarts didn’t lead to the wins that the Nuggets were looking for. Discounting his final 2 injury games, the Nuggets won 11 of their 17 games, far below their goal of winning 70+ percent. Even more concerning was the fact that the Nuggets were 0-4 (3 of them on the road) against current playoff level teams.
With results in hand, and a trade deadline looming, the Nuggets made the difficult decision to move on. GM OneNole talked to a handful of teams, but only one remained constant in their pursuit of Smart, the Atlanta Hawks. A trade that proved to be one of the more complex deals ever taken on by OneNole.
Two of the trades being discussed, both involving Atlanta, also involved the Philadelphia 76ers where one iteration would have seen the Nuggets receive Dante Exum and Michael Young and the other would have consisted of Jamal Murray and Michael Young. Dante Exum would have provided another elite level player/defender that would have maintained the Nuggets status as a Western elite. However, despite every possible measure taken, the cap numbers were off by a mere million dollars.
Jamal Murray and Michael were who the Nuggets would have been excited about. While we certainly didn’t love the fit of the trade, nor did we like the fact that we would have created another Western contender in a very large multi faceted 4 team trade all to fall apart over the inclusion of a future draft pick. The Nuggets are said to understand the view point of the other teams decision, but at times, risks are necessary to become a contender and worry about the future ramifications when those arise. While the fit would not have been great, the overall valuation of that deal would have greatly accelerated our revamp of the roster.
With both of those deals falling apart, and another coveted partner deciding to hold off on a Smart acquisition the Nuggets decided to pursue a deal with the Hawks and to to reallocate a couple of those pieces to enhance the fit of the team. We knew making this trade that we would have two major issues. One an elite defensive wing to fill in for Smart, and a 3 point gunner which we were lacking even with Smart.
While this package may not have been the top one we pursued, it met all of the needs we had. We had been after RHJ for a while, and felt he had been underutilized since leaving Brooklyn many seasons ago. “RHJ is one of those hard nosed glue type players that can make the difference between a win or a loss. He comes in every day, does his job, and can take out an opposing teams leading scorer.” In addition to RHJ the Nuggets were able to move the incoming expiring contract of McGary to the rebuilding Spurs for sharp shooter Davis Bertans. We noticed a few teams were zoning us, and while we had Fred Van Vleet who can hit the 3, he was far too passive to fit our needs. With Bertans in the fold, we feel teams will need to make a decision to zone us to slow down Tatum and Young or risk Bertans getting free from deep.
While Bertans and RHJ are elite at what they bring to us, the deal was centered on the acquisition of Michael Young and Derrick White. We feel White, who will be transitioning back to PG for us, will be able to replicate what Jalen Brunson did for us at a far better percentage. He is one of the more undervalued players in the league who we feel has been undervalued his entire career. Young, who was one of the Nuggets top free agent prospects this past summer, brings it on both ends of the court. One of the leagues top rebounders, should be an excellent fit next to Tatum.
We move forward from here still in great position to have over 20 million in cap space the following summer, have another long term building block next to Tatum in Young, and more assets to help bring this team back to the top. A spot this city hasn’t seen in over a decade.
