2019-20 Denver Nuggets

2018-19: 54-28 (2nd rd playoffs)
Draft picks: none

Signed for next season ($121.1m): Nikola Jokic, Gary Harris, Mason Plumlee, Will Barton, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, Juan Hernangomez, Malik Beasley, Torrey Craig, Jarred Vanderbilt, Monte Morris
This is a good team with a lot of talent and lot of depth and still has a lot of youth, too. And we still haven't seen Michael Porter, could be a badass (though it seems less likely with every...year...that he misses).


This summer's free agents: Paul Millsap (team option), Trey Lyles, Isaiah Thomas, Tyler Lydon
I put Millsap down here because I just don't see how they can give $30m to an older guy that is still good but not that good. Millsap was underappreciated virtually every year of his career and it's kinda sad to him go out like this but $30m is a lot of money. (I think Enes Kanter would be a fit with a team that likes to attack the basket; could they sign him for 3yrs/$60m?)
I always liked Lyles at Kentucky (yeah, I thought he'd be better than Towns...I missed on that one), I still think he's a big guy with good hands and good instincts, if he can knock down 3's he'd be a hot commodity. He's still young enough to get another look on a team, maybe even the Nuggets, though I doubt it.
Isaiah Thomas was an interesting gamble last summer that turned out to be...well, not much. He wasn't expensive, he didn't play much, he didn't garner much attention. He was strangely invisible in Denver last year. If he still has anything left in the tank, he'll be headed elsewhere (Lakers for another 1yr/$2m deal, right?)
Lydon made no impression on me at all. I have no idea where he'll be next year.


Next year's lineup:
PG Murray, SG Harris, SF Morris, PF Plumlee, C Jokic with Barton, Beasley, Craig, Vanderbilt, Hernangomez and Morris (and Porter?).

I think last year's success was not a fluke--and I think they'll beat the Blazers if they see them in the playoffs again next year. Jokic is so unique and Murray is a for-real filler-upper and the rest of the cast fills in around those two poles and that's a goof thing. Yeah, I'd add Kanter to this lineup: good rebounder, good garbage man-type scorer, I think he can clean up a lot of spills for this team (and, yeah, he sucks at defense but this team will be looking to outscore everyone they play, this is an offensive squad not a defensive one).