2017-18 Finish: 31-51

Season Highlight: Not the best season for GM Rootsey after years of being a playoff contender.  The highlight for this team is signing John Wall to a large extension that will keep him in the mile-high city for years to come.  Wall is a franchise player, and even with his baggage can drag a team to the playoffs when healthy.

Season Lowlight: Finishing 12^th out West wasn’t what the Nuggets were looking for last year.  Injuries and some questionable trades may have sunk the team last year, but the future may still be bright! 

Best Trade: Denver gets: Jonathan Isaac, Nerlens Noel, Tristan Thompson, 2^nd rounder for Otto Porter Jr and Norman Powell.

This trade was criticized initially, but Porter had a step back last season, and has never translated well to the NLL anyway.  Powell isn’t as much of a talent as people thought, so getting a promising youngster in Isaac, and still a potential in Noel and a role player in Thompson is a really good get.  It was clear at the end of the year that Denver was looking to make a rebuild toward youth, and getting Noel and Isaac really helps that.  It will be years before we can really judge this fairly though.

Worst Trade: Denver gets Wade Baldwin IV and 2^nd rounder (Arnoldas Kulboka) for 1^st rounder (Wendell Carter Jr)

It was hard to choose as there were a couple of questionable trades, but this one in hindsight just looks awful.  It’s clear Denver assumed they would be in the playoff picture and that their pick would be in the late teens to 20s.  It didn’t work out that way, and it ended up being the 7^th pick in the draft and Wendell Carter Jr.  Carter is getting raving reviews and may be a foundational player in the NBA.  Baldwin is still even a question as to whether he is an NBA player at all.  It’s hard to judge a trade a year later, but man this one has to hurt.

Other Notable Trades:

The Denver Nuggets get: Dwyane Wade for Marcin Gortat, Thomthe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Damyean Dotson, and a 2^nd rounder.

Getting Wade was a big get initially, but then he got bought out and looks like he’s about done.  He ended up getting traded before the end of the year with Denver.  Giving up Gortat wasn’t a huge give, but he has been a solid NLL player for years and a huge part of the Nuggets rotation.

The Denver Nuggets get: Pau Gasol, Courtney Lee, and ATL 1^st rounder for Eric Gordon, Markieff Morris, Aron Baynes, and a 2^nd rounder.

This was almost my worst trade until I saw the Wendell Carter one.  I don’t get how giving up 3 really solid players for Pau Gasol, salary, and a middling 1^strounder makes any sense at all.  Lee has a bloated salary, and Gasol is a walking skeleton at this point.  This was one of the trades that doomed the Nuggets last season.

Free Agency:

Denver has some decisions to make, and it looks like they may be trying to keep Nerlens Noel.  While the multi-year deal doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, Denver will have to hope that Noel stays happy in the NBA and resigns with his OKC team so they don’t have to dump 99 points on him two years in a row.  Is a backup center really worth all of your GM points?  Lance looks like he’s a foregone conclusion and is already gone.  He seemed like a shoe-in to stay, but was surprisingly released and headed to the LAL in the NBA.  This had to shock the Denver front office, and left them really hurting for swing men.

Star:

John Wall- This guy is one of the best point guards in the league when healthy.  He missed games last season which lead to some of the issues with the Nuggets last year.  He has had his leadership and teamwork questioned many times, but he seems worth the headache as such a unique talent doesn’t come around often.

Goat:

The Denver front office. – The team decided to move for a rebuilding process even though they had a pretty good young team working in the West.  When you are bounced from the playoffs a couple of years in a row though, something has to change.

Draft Grades (from Insider):

# 16 - SF Miles Bridges, Michigan State sophomore

The other Bridges, he dropped a few spots from the latest mock. He projects more as a role player to play alongside stars and there’s always a spot for that in the league as long as you can A, shoot (tick) and B, defend and do the little things (tick). For Denver, when you’ve got Reggie Bullock sitting atop your SG depth chart, this was a no-brainer. Grade: A

# 30 - SG Anfernee Simons, IMG Academy

Simons was mocked at 24 but his raw game and lack of experience left him on the board to be the final 1st round selection by the Nuggets. He’s explosive however and physically gifted so if he learns how to play the game at the NLL level he could become a great get for pick 30. The Nuggets need off guards and they took the safe option at 16, and the upside swing at 30. Grade: B

#42 - PG Jalen Brunson, Villanova junior

Brunson could be one of the safest picks in the draft with a very high floor but equally low ceiling. He should make it as an NLL back-up PG for years to come, just don’t expect him to do much else. Grade: B+

#54 - PG Issuf Sanon, Ukraine

Sanon will be stashed and at 18 and fearless as a combo guard, he could be a nice choice down the track. Grade: B+

#59 - SG Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Kansas senior

Svi is a shooter and that’s about all he’ll be bringing to the table. That said, there’s always a need for shooting so as long as he can do that consistently he may shuffle around the league a while. Grade: C+

The Future-