Nuggets swingman Will Barton has fully recovered from the hamstring injury that forced him to miss most of the playoffs and he’s looking forward to the start of training camp, writes Eric Spyropoulous of NBA.com. Entering his 10th season, Barton is the longest-tenured player on Denver’s roster. It appeared he might be headed elsewhere when he declined a $14.7MM player option this summer, but he wound up re-signing for two years at $32MM.
“This is the best I’ve felt going into a season in two years,” Barton said. “So, I feel like I’m rejuvenated really. I got to really work on my game this offseason, I didn’t get to do that last year.”
During last year’s shortened offseason, Barton was immobilized by an injured right knee and said he had to step away from the game to avoid getting depressed. This year, he immersed himself in basketball and spent a lot of time studying opponents on film when he wasn’t in the gym.
“I’m so excited man. I haven’t been this excited in a while just to be feeling good, knowing I put the work in, knowing I got a lot of work in and got better,” Barton said. “We have a good team. Like I said, we have a lot of good guys and a lot of good talent.”
There’s more from Denver:
- The Nuggets’ status as a contender has limited the opportunities for Bol Bol, but he may be ready for a breakthrough as he heads into his third season, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post. Bol stands 7’3″ but has the skills of a smaller player. That can be an asset on offense, but it’s often a liability on defense as his height and thin frame make it difficult for him to guard either inside or on the perimeter. With a compressed schedule last season, Denver rarely was able to practice, which left little time to experiment with the best ways to use Bol. “Our first three years, we were developing, and young guys were given the opportunity to play, and more importantly, play through all their mistakes,” coach Michael Malone said. “Well, Bol doesn’t have that option, man. It’s all trying to be homecourt advantage in the playoffs.”
- The clock is ticking for Michael Porter Jr. to get a contract extension before the season starts, but he’s not fretting about the outcome, Singer adds in a separate story. Porter said he trusts agent Mark Bartelstein to act in his best interests. “I love basketball,” he said. “It’s not too stressful for me about the money stuff. Of course that’s part of it. I’m just trying to stay in the gym and get better.”
- The Nuggets saw enough from Aaron Gordon in his two and a half months with the team to be comfortable giving him a four-year extension, president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said on a podcast with Singer and Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post. Connelly said the team was particularly impressed by Gordon’s ability to adapt to a new role after being acquired at the trade deadline.
If the Sixers had taken MPJ or Bridges instead of dealing for Zhaire… man. They could have gotten Harris still I know the Heat pick was involved.
Yeah and at the time Brett Brown said something like ‘You know, when you’re building something like this, you don’t always take the best player at the position. You have to think further down the timeline when thinking about a dynastic team like this one’…
Oh dear
Talent evaluation isn’t an exact science. Why would you think to take the #1 prospect leading up to the draft class for years until he injured his back? If Zhaire was a project, they had time to wait a year on MPJ. Coleangelo and Brown GM-ing was the downfall of the process
They were going to take Mikal Bridges.
They literally did take him lol
Bol Bol looks totally lost out there. Defensive rotations, offensive spacing, hustle, motor… He’s like a newborn foal.
His highlights are fun, but these are during ball-hogging garbage time minutes.
I’m not saying he won’t improve, and I hope he does, but he’s a ways off contributing any meaningful minutes at this point. And that isn’t necessarily something he could ‘play through’ even if given chance.
A backup big needs to rebound, set screens and play solid D. Bol simply doesn’t have the physical stature to play this role.
He’s currently a Tacko Fall-esque novelty/fan favourite.
I think his ceiling is as a scoring big man off the bench playing vs small ball reserves/alongside another traditional big – Mo Buckets Speights style.
Not sure about the tf comp, cause your right bb is basically a small forward. Did you watch summer league? He looked good there
I didn’t mean positionally, or even physically, moreso that any popularity he has with Denver fans is based on novelty rather than production.
Can’t produce if you not given the chance, not his job… now give him a solid chance & lots of playing time, then it will be his job to produce it on the floor… right now nothing to do with him!
He looked good for those 3 games, but that was mostly because the ball was in his hand the entire time and against non-NBA level centers, which I believe is the position with the highest NBA/other league skill gap.
@jbl, I agree that he is still a prospect with a long way to go. He sits on the three point line and doesn’t know how to move off the ball. When he does have the ball in his hands, ypu know he is going to sizeup and/or take a shot. He will pass, but because the defense forces him to and not so that the offense keeps flowing. Also, the dude is 7’3 and had 0!!!!! Offensive Rebounds in 32 games last season. And per 36 minutes averaged 5.4 rebounds total. Yes, he clearly isn’t getting an opportunity to grow and thrive, but you still have to produce no matter how much court time you see.
Imo, he will be a fringe starter/6th man in 3-5 years from now. But he still has a long way to go.
Denver is def not the place for Bol Bol. He the the team’s leading scorer and rebounder and shot blocker in summer league only to be doubted and berated the entire time by the local media. The dude is barely out his teens and they treat him like he’s a vet who can’t play at all. I would love to know the source of all the hate he gets from certain people.