2019-20 Finish: 40-42

Season Highlight: Making it into the playoffs after having the Wall injury and moving forward with a different lineup than they had in years past.  Denver has always had the talent to be a top team in the West, but they have never had quite enough to push past some of the bigger powerhouses.  They are one of those teams that is always relevant, never a lotter team, but never a top team either.

Season Lowlight: Just an 8 seed is not where this team sees itself.  They see themselves as a top 4 seed in the West, competing in the playoffs.  A lot of this can be attributed to injuries, but some of their youth hasn’t developed as fast as they would like.  Look for that to change this season.

Best Trade: Trading John Wall, Aron Baynes, and Zhou Qi for Mike Conley, (1) 1^st round pick and (2) 2^nd round picks

Getting off of John Walls monster contract, and the fact that he was going to miss almost 2 full seasons was a huge win for the Nuggets.  Sadly, the John Wall era ended earlier than Rootsey wanted.  He was an amazing 2k player, but having $40 million eating space on the IR isn’t good for anyone.  He also managed to get a 1^st back and a borderline all-star point guard in Mike Conley.  Great trade!

Worst Trade: I didn’t see any trades that could be called objectively bad from the Nuggets this year.  They didn’t make a ton of trade though.

Other Notable Trades: Trading Tristan Thompson, Andre Roberson, (1) 1st round pick, and (1) 2nd round pick for Paul Millsap

I’m not a huge Millsap fan anymore, but they really only gave up some picks for Millsap as Thompson and Roberson are somewhat past their useful stage.  Millsap is still a great 2k player and was a great contributor for the Nuggets last season.

Denver gets Marc Gasol, Aron Baynes, (1) 1^st rounder for Zach Randolph, Austin Rivers, Jalen Brunson, and (2) 1^st round picks

This trade was really about getting an all-star caliber center for 2 future 1^st round picks.  In hindsight it’s not as good for Denver as it could have been as NY went into a free-fall and that pick ended up being the 4^th pick in the draft.  At the time however, it looked like a pretty good deal.

Free Agency:

Really the only player that the Nuggets are going to be worried about is backup center Enes Kanter entering free agency as an F loyalty.  It remains to be seen if they try to spend the points to resign him, but he would come in on a much cheaper deal, and Kanter has always been a good 2k player.  If they can find the points to keep him, I’d suggest dropping them on Kanter.

Star:

Mike Conley – He’s clearly their best player now, and with some other veterans around him and a few young players, he will probably have a great season.  The Nuggets are really high on backup point guard Anfernee Simons however, so Conley really needs to be on his A game to not lose any time to the young guard that Rootsey is crazy about.  Conley is going to be the guy that makes this offense hum, and he’s a great defender too.  If the Nuggets want to make the playoffs again, he will be the reason why.

Goat: 

Jonathan Isaac – He’s supposed to be the future for the Nuggets, but he really hasn’t produced as much as they would like.  He averaged 10 points a game in the regular season, playing a bit out of position at SF.  This may not necessarily be his issue, but Denver has so many bigs, he’s not getting the time at his natural position of PF that maybe he would like.  Look for him to take a big step forward this year.

Draft Grades (from Insider):

 #28) Darius Bazley and #47) Jaylen Nowell

Bazley is a big project in that he sat out his college years to do an internship with New Balance, but projects to be a long athletic wing, he may fit in well in Denver with all their length.  Nowell looks like he will likely get some playing time in Minny NBA.  I like both picks for Denver

Grade: A-

The Future-

They have some promising young players in Isaac, Anfernee Simons, Miles Bridges, and Darius Bazley.  This mixture of youth and veterans is a great way to stay relevant for many seasons.  As they age out, hopefully a few of these young players can develop into stars, and if that’s the case, Denver will be in the playoffs for a long time.  The hope for Denver is that maybe they can develop their youth ahead of schedule and mix the veterans with a young star.  That will be seen in the next few years here.