Saturday, September 23, 2017

Season preview: Denver Nuggets

STAYING: Darrell Arthur, Will Barton, Malik Beasley, Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Gary Harris, Juan Hernangomez, Nikola Jokic, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jamal Murray, Jameer Nelson and Mason Plumlee.

ADDED: Josh Childress (SAN-EN NeoPhoenix), Torrey Craig (Gold Coast Rollers), Trey Lyles (Utah), Tyler Lydon (Syracuse), Paul Millsap (Atlanta) and Monte Morris (Iowa State)

GONE: Danilo Gallinari (LA Clippers), Roy Hibbert and Mike Miller.

STRENGTHS: Elite offense … They have a plethora of players who can score and pass the ball well … With quite a young squad, they were No. 4 in offensive rating last season … It should only get better this year … Nikola Jokic is a superstar in the making … Either creating for himself or others, he’s a great source of offense … Overall, the frontcourt is quite impressive … With bigs like Jokic, Mason Plumlee and Paul Millsap, ball movement should not be an issue … Same goes for rebounding … They have a super promising backcourt with Jamal Murray and Gary Harris … Harris’ chemistry with Jokic is something to keep an eye on … More than decent depth.

WEAKNESSES: Defense … Additional experience and Millsap’s presence should help matters there, but to what extent? … Only the Lakers had a worst defensive rating than Denver in 2016-17 … At point guard, they are not nearly as strong as other Western Conference teams … Emmanuel Mudiay has been pretty awful for them so far … They could miss Danilo Gallinari a bit.

PREDICTION: 3rd in the Northwest Division, 6th in the Western Conference.

SALARIES:



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