Denver Nuggets make big changes to their roster in first 2 days of free agency

Denver Nuggets make big changes to their roster in first 2 days of free agency

NBA free agency is underway and boy did the Nuggets get after it right off the jump. Within 24 hours they have almost reshaped this Denver Nuggets team as we like to say at the front office. They’ve been cooking. What have they done? The big move of course came almost immediately as free agency began and that was trading Michael Porter Jr. This has been a trade that fans have long wondered would they? Won’t they? Could you offload that contract? So MPJ is gone and in they bring for him Cam Johnson. Now, there’s a couple things that make this fantastic. Let’s talk about the money piece. They save about $20 million in offloading MPJ’s contract and bringing in Cam Johnson for about half the price and he’s a perfect fit. This guy profiles as a picture perfect fit next to Nicole Joic and Jamal Murray. He’s make great creation off ball. He doesn’t need a ton of touches. This is going to be perfect. Now, defensively, is he a lockdown defender? Not necessarily, but he is a really good 3 and D guy and absolutely an upgrade on the defensive end compared to what you were getting from Michael Porter Jr. So, you can argue you got a better fit on both sides of the ball for about half the price. Now, because they saved all that money, they were able to bring back the one that I think Nuggets fans are most excited about, Bruce Eye. Bruce Eye is back in the mile high city. We know Bruce Brown wanted to stay in Denver, but he wanted to get paid after that championship year. Now, he got paid. never found a home. Bounced between 03 teams. Now he’s back. And let’s go back to the money on a vet minimum again. Front office, they are cooking. Bruce Brown’s happy to be back. Everybody’s happy to have him back. The do it all forward completely reshapes the bench. We all know he was the sixth man, the key sixth piece in that championship run. He’s going to slide right back in. Of course, there’s going to be no growing pains. He’s just going to go right back to being Brucey B in the cowboy hat balling on the court. H fixing that bench. fixing that bench. They did a lot of that. Uh and that is where the next moves came in. Nuggets followed up a big first day with Cam Cam Johnson and Bruce Brown. And then they were like, “Oh, we’re not done. Finally.” How many years have you said, “Can we get a backup center for Nicole Joic?” Who hasn’t said that about a thousand times this season. Finally. And what a good get they got in Yonas. Let’s go through the name. Valenunis. That’s how we say it. Yonas. Valenunis from the Sacramento Kings. There’s a couple great pieces about this. First and foremost, we’re going to shore up those non- Nicola minutes. We don’t have to go like this anymore. He’s a great fit. Almost a walking double double as my dear friend Dgo uh pointed out. And uh here’s the other thing. This was a direct player swap. They sent Daario Sarich to the Kings for Valenunz. Dario Sarich the definition of a bust. That guy did absolutely nothing. And when he was on the court, which he barely was, he had averaged, I believe it was about three points and under 40% shooting. Couldn’t be a better situation to get rid of your dead weight and bring in a huge get. Not done. Not done. Are you still listening? Because the Nuggets office still cooking. Then they bring in Tim Hardaway Jr., a lethal sharpshooter, a grizzly vet, 33-year-old vet that can really fill in the bench. So look at this bench. When we think about the Nuggets bench this past season, every time they came out there, you just felt so insecure about what was going to happen. Now you have got Baroo Brown leading the way, really carrying that unit. You’ve got Jonas Valenunis as their big man. You’ve got Tim Hardaway Jr. And I think the Nuggets then are really going to lean on the depth and the growth as well of Peyton Watson and Julian Strather. Think about those five. You got to feel pretty good about the bench and letting the starters actually rest throughout the season. As far as Michael Porter Jr., Of course, everybody thankful for the contributions he had for helping that championship run, but this was a fresh start for both teams and what you’re getting in Cam Johnson. I don’t want to say you’re going to forget MPJ, but you’re going to feel really good about seeing Johnson and and feeling like that’s a little bit of an upgrade at that position as well. So, all in all, oh, how dare I forget this after I said all those very nice things about Sar. The Nuggets absolutely cooking. What’s the goal? Max, maximize Nicole Yokic’s window. What’s the goal? Get back here. get back to the NBA finals. And if you’ve seen the Nuggets championship odds since they’ve made all these moves, they have jumped so high they now have the second best odds in the West under who? The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. So folks, mark your calendars. Is it too early to say mark your calendars for next June? I’d say it’s not. Nuggets are cooking. Front office, David Adelman. They’ve done everything that they said they were going to do. They were aggressive and they were incredibly smart with the financial constraints that they had. This is a picture perfect off season for the Nuggets so far. I give them a grade, an A+.

The team’s biggest move, trading away Michael Porter, Jr., came first — on Monday — and then later that day and on Tuesday, more changes were made.

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