- The Nuggets improved with the signing of Paul Millsap, but still may struggle to make the playoffs in a tough Western Conference, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE. Millsap will team with Nikola Jokic to give Denver an impressive inside game, but the team has several questions to resolve, starting with finding a role for former starting point guard Emmanuel Mudiay.
- David Adelman has formally joined the Nuggets‘ coaching staff, the team announced on its website. The son of longtime NBA coach Rick Adelman, David spent last season as an assistant in Orlando after several years in Minnesota. Denver also promoted Tommy Balcetis to Director of Basketball Strategies and Analytics.
The Nuggets missed the postseason in 2016/17, but you could make a convincing case that they were the most talented team to land in the lottery. Only the Heat had a better record than Denver among non-playoff teams, but the difference was only one game, and the Nuggets played in the stronger conference.
That conference has gotten even more daunting within the last few months. Not only have teams above the Nuggets in the standings, such as the Rockets and Thunder, added star talent, but some of the West’s other lottery teams, like the Timberwolves and Pelicans, have made major moves and hope to enter the postseason picture themselves.
Denver made a signficant move of its own when free agency opened, landing All-Star big man Paul Millsap, who is expected to make an excellent frontcourt partner for breakout star Nikola Jokic. With young guards Gary Harris and Jamal Murray showing signs of developing into core pieces as well, the Nuggets have a strong foundation and look poised to get over the hump and make the playoffs in the West this season.
Still, Denver’s roster isn’t without its weaknesses. The point guard position remains unsettled, with neither Jameer Nelson nor Emmanuel Mudiay looking like a solid starter at this point. Longtime Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari is also gone, and it still feels like the club needs to make one more trade for its roster to really take shape.
Oddsmakers are optimistic about the Nuggets’ chances of taking a major step forward in 2017/18 though. After finishing last season with a 40-42 record, Denver is currently projected to have an over/under of 45.5 wins for the coming year, per offshore betting site Bovada.
What do you think? Can the Nuggets finish with 46 wins or more, or is the Western Conference simply too tough for a non-playoff team like Denver to make that kind of leap in 2017/18? Vote below in our poll and then jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!
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Previous over/under voting results:
- Golden State Warriors: Over 67.5 (53.57%)
- Boston Celtics: Over 55.5 (63.5%)
- Houston Rockets: Over 55.5 (65.57%)
- San Antonio Spurs: Over 54.5 (67.74%)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Over 53.5 (68.82%)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Over 50.5 (71.77%)
- Minnesota Timberwolves: Over 48.5 (55.69%)
- Toronto Raptors: Over 48.5 (64.21%)
- Washington Wizards: Over 47.5 (71.29%)
- Milwaukee Bucks: Over 47.5 (63.88%)
Gary Harris (Nuggets), Marcus Smart (Celtics), Jabari Parker (Bucks), and Clint Capela (Rockets) are among the most intriguing players eligible for rookie scale contract extensions this offseason, Kevin O’Connor writes in his latest piece for The Ringer. In addition to going into detail on those four players, who have until October 16 to work out new deals with their respective clubs, O’Connor drops a few other notable tidbits within his article, so let’s round up the highlights…
- Multiple sources believe the Nuggets were targeting OG Anunoby in June’s draft when they traded down from No. 13 to No. 24, says O’Connor. Anunoby ended up coming off the board one spot earlier, with Toronto nabbing him at No. 23. Denver used the 24th pick on Tyler Lydon.
- Limited to a small role in his rookie season with the Nuggets, Juan Hernangomez has gotten plenty of chances to strut his stuff with the Spanish National Team at EuroBasket 2017. A report on Denver’s official team site has more.
Dwyane Wade feels misled by the Bulls and hasn’t talked with anyone from the front office for two months, writes Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. Those strained feelings have led to rumors of an impending buyout and the possibility that Wade might be headed to Cleveland, Los Angeles or Miami.
Sources tell Kennedy that Wade asked management for assurances that Chicago would have a competitive team next season before deciding to opt in for $23.8MM. The front office promised him it would, so Wade announced June 21 that he will stay for another year. The next day, the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves and signaled the start of a rebuilding process.
At 35, Wade doesn’t have a lot of years left in the league and he doesn’t want to waste a season playing for a lottery team. Kennedy states Wade’s only discussions with the organization since the deal were with coach Fred Hoiberg and didn’t involve anything related to the team.
Several recent stories in the national media have been negative toward Wade, which Kennedy speculates is the Bulls’ way of angering him so he might be willing to accept less in a buyout just to get out of Chicago. A recent report from ESPN suggested the Bulls’ younger players don’t like having Wade as a teammate. A Fox Sports story claimed Wade and Butler had a strained relationship, which Butler denies.
Even if a breakup is imminent, all public comments from the Bulls’ front office have indicated Wade is staying with the team. Kennedy adds that Wade is preparing to report to training camp if a buyout doesn’t happen in the next three weeks.
A source tells Kennedy the Cavaliers and Heat are the most likely destinations for Wade once a buyout is completed. If he does go to Cleveland, he will probably become a starter, with J.R. Smith being moved to a reserve role. The Cavs see a Wade addition as a way to improve their roster and appease LeBron James before he enters free agency next summer.
Wade recently took his children out of school in Chicago and moved them back to Miami, but Kennedy warns not to read too much into the move. Wade and Heat president Pat Riley have barely communicated since their 2016 breakup, and Wade wouldn’t be guaranteed a starting spot in Miami. Other teams, such as the Nuggets and Bucks, who both tried to sign Wade last summer, could also get involved.
Before the chair, before Grandpa Pierce, before DeAndre Jordan‘s infamous change of heart and the Emoji War that inspired it, there was Antonio McDyess. McDyess, obviously, but then of course French-Canadian ice hockey legend Patrick Roy, an impromptu charter flight across the southwest, dozens of unanswered pager calls and a good old-fashioned Rocky Mountain blizzard.
In January 1999, a 24-year-old with jetpacks for calves and long sinewy arms found himself at an emotional fork in the road. Fresh off of his third season in the NBA and his first in the desert, Suns power forward Antonio McDyess had the choice between re-signing with the team he just won 56 games with or returning to the basement-dwelling franchise that shipped him out of town less than 18 months prior.
After playing his first two seasons with the Nuggets and establishing himself as one of the most satisfyingly athletic big men in the game, McDyess enjoyed his first taste of team success following his arrival in Phoenix. The trade that sent him from Denver to the Suns prior to that 1997/98 season was precipitated by the fact that McDyess and his representative, Arn Tellem, were seeking a six-year, $100MM contract extension back when the club’s front office refused to go any higher than $70MM.
“I guess they had no choice but to trade me,” he said at the time, adding shortly thereafter that he didn’t think there was any possible way he would return to the Nuggets when he hit free agency seven months later.
Of course it was seven months later when things got unprecedentedly interesting.
Magic assistant coach David Adelman will become part of Michael Malone’s staff in Denver, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The son of former NBA coach Rick Adelman, he spent just one year in Orlando. Adelman broke into the league in 2011 as a player development coach on his father’s staff in Minnesota and remained with the Wolves through the 2015/16 season.
Adelman will probably serve as offensive coordinator with the Nuggets, tweets Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press.
The addition of Paul Millsap will give the Nuggets an established defender capable of helping the franchise improve its efforts on that side of the ball, Buddy Grizzard of Basketball Insiders writes. Last season Denver sported the second-worst defense in the NBA.
Grizzard suggests that Millsap’s “humble-yet-forceful” personality could bring out the best in his Nuggets teammates, including Nikola Jokic who already opted out of EuroBasket 2017 to focus on more individual workouts.
He may not be the final piece that the Nuggets need to contend, Grizzard writes, but he certainly fits into the right puzzle.
When top college prospects like Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball are drafted, there’s virtually no doubt that their next step will involve signing an NBA contract. However, that’s not the case for every player who is selected in the NBA draft, particularly for international prospects and second-round picks.
When an NBA team uses a draft pick on a player, it gains his NBA rights, but that doesn’t mean the player will sign an NBA contract right away. International prospects will often remain with their professional team overseas for at least one more year to develop their game further, becoming “draft-and-stash” prospects. Nikola Mirotic, Dario Saric, and Bogdan Bogdanovic are among the more notable players to fit this bill in recent years.
However, draft-and-stash players can be former NCAA standouts too. Sometimes a college prospect selected with a late second round pick will end up playing overseas or in the G League for a year or two if there’s no space available on his NBA team’s 15-man roster.
While these players sometimes make their way to their NBA teams, others never do. Many clubs around the NBA currently hold the rights to international players who have remained overseas for their entire professional careers and are no longer viewed as top prospects. Those players may never come stateside, but there’s often no reason for NBA teams to renounce their rights — those rights can sometimes be used as placeholders in trades.
For instance, earlier this summer, the Pacers and Raptors agreed to a trade that sent Cory Joseph to Indiana. Toronto was happy to move Joseph’s salary and didn’t necessarily need anything in return, but the Pacers had to send something in the deal. Rather than including an NBA player or a draft pick, Indiana sent Toronto the draft rights to Emir Preldzic, the 57th overall pick in the 2009 draft.
Preldzic is currently playing for Galatasaray in Turkey, and at this point appears unlikely to ever come to the NBA, but his draft rights have been a useful trade chip over the years — the Pacers/Raptors swap represented the fourth time since 2010 that Preldzic’s NBA rights have been included in a trade.
This week, we’re taking a closer look at the players whose draft rights NBA teams currently hold, sorting them by division. These players may eventually arrive in America and join their respective NBA teams, but many will end up like Preldzic, plying their trade overseas and having their draft rights used as pawns in NBA trades.
Here’s a breakdown of the draft rights held by Northwest teams:
Denver Nuggets
- Sani Becirovic, G (2003; No. 46): Retired.
- Xue Yuyang, F/C (2003; No. 57): Retired.
- Izzet Turkyilmaz, F/C (2012; No. 50): Last played in Croatia.
- Nikola Radicevic, G (2015; No. 57): Playing in Serbia.
- Petr Cornelie, F (2016; No. 53): Playing in France.
- Vlatko Cancar, F (2017; No. 49): Playing in Serbia.
Minnesota Timberwolves
- Lior Eliyahu, F (2006; No. 44): Playing in Israel.
- Henk Norel, C (2009; No. 47): Playing in Spain.
- Paulao Prestes, C (2010; No. 45): Last played in Brazil.
- Bojan Dubljevic, F/C (2013; No. 59): Playing in Spain.
Oklahoma City Thunder
- Abdul Shamsid-Deen, C (1990; No. 53): Retired.
- Sofoklis Schortsanitis, C (2003; No. 34): Last played in Greece.
- Szymon Szewczyk, F/C (2003; No. 35): Playing in Poland.
- Paccelis Morlende, G (2003; No. 50): Last played in France.
- Yotam Halperin, G (2006; No. 53): Playing in Israel.
- DeVon Hardin, C (2008; No. 50): Retired.
Portland Trail Blazers
- Marcelo Nicola, F (1993; No. 50): Retired.
- Doron Sheffer, G (1996; No. 36): Retired.
- Federico Kammerichs, F/C (2002; No. 51): Retired.
- Nedzad Sinanovic, C (2003; No. 54): Retired.
- Daniel Diez, F (2015; No. 54): Playing in Spain.
Utah Jazz
- Peter Fehse, F (2002; No. 49): Retired.
- Mario Austin, F/C (2003; No. 36): Retired.
- Ante Tomic, C (2008; No. 44): Playing in Spain.
- Shan Foster, G/F (2008; No. 51): Retired.
- Nigel Williams-Goss, G (2017; No. 55): Playing in Serbia.
Previously:
Information from Mark Porcaro and Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
It has been eight days since both the Celtics and Cavaliers announced the completion of a trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Nets’ 2018 first-round pick. However, more than a week later, we still can’t classify the deal as “completed.”
As first reported last Friday by ESPN, the Cavaliers expressed concern after their own doctors conducted a physical exam on Thomas’ injured hip. That concern has pushed the Cavaliers to re-engage the Celtics about acquiring further compensation in the blockbuster deal. Although it took a few days for the two sides to make contact again, that reportedly happened on Tuesday.
Here’s a breakdown of what we know about the situation, and when we can expect resolution: