The Denver Nuggets created doubt for their future with a confusing draft

The 2017 NBA Draft shaped up to be a weird one for the Nuggets from the beginning. After barely missing the playoffs last year, they walked into the night with the 13th pick, in what largely seems like a 10 or 11-player draft. That’s never a good position to be in. Naturally, Denver tried to trade out of the spot, and they were ultimately successful, as they dealt the 13th pick to the Jazz to move back to the 24th pick. More importantly, they picked up Trey Lyles, the young power forward for the Jazz, in the deal. It was a decent trade to get out of a bad spot.

However, the rest of the draft was…confusing to say the least. Chris Stone gave the Nuggets a D in his post-draft grades, despite the trade. The Nuggets got themselves out a tough spot and got a promising young player in the process, but you could argue that all three of their draft picks left something on the table.

With that 24th pick, the Nuggets took Tyler Lydon of Syracuse — a raw offensively-focused power forward with a decent outside stroke and not much else. That would be fine by itself, except that’s exactly the type of player they just traded for in Lyles.

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Lyles has potential as a versatile offensive four, capable of shooting from outside and creating out of face-up opportunities. If you’re building an elite offense around Nikola Jokic, it’s hard to argue with adding a player like Lyles. He’s a bigger, better version of Lydon, and Lyles and Lydon are the same age  — leading one to question what Lydon’s role is supposed to be on this team. They got Lyles, already have Jauncho Hernangomez and they still have Kenneth Faried on the roster as well. With so many power forwards, so few of whom can play up or down a position, where is Lydon’s fit?

Denver continued the confusion in the 2nd round. With the 49th pick, the Nuggets took a Serbian forward named Vlatko Cancar, who plays for Mega Leks (they of the pink jerseys). This was a clear draft-and-stash move, but the same issue persists: Cancar is another raw, offense-focused forward who probably would play the four in the NBA if he ever comes over. The underlying reasoning here is pretty obvious since Cancar and Jokic share an agent, and this is likely a wink-wink act of good faith with Jokic extension talks looming in July of 2018. However, the problem isn’t why they took Cancar. It’s that Cancar was probably the third best player they could have taken to do this. Ognjen Jaramaz, picked 58th, and Alpha Kaba, picked 60th, offer the same end goal — both are Mega Leks players under the BeoBasket umbrella — and both offer better NBA potential than Cancar does, between Kaba’s potential rim protection and Jaramaz’s off-the-bounce scoring.

At the 51st pick, the Nuggets took their best value pick: Monte Morris of Iowa State. The pure point guard could potentially become a decent backup point guard behind Jamal Murray. But Morris has limited upside as a four-year senior without notable athleticism, making it a challenge to expect him to have long-term value for a roster that’s crowded in the backcourt.

This clearly isn’t how the Nuggets wanted the night to go, and their front office said as much after the draft. The Lyles deal was a decent one, but apparently it was not the only chance the Nuggets had to move the pick.

That’s understandable. A deal fell through, leaving the Nuggets in a precarious situation. But there were certainly alternatives to drafting two power forwards in addition to the one they got in the trade. Getting flustered is understandable, but a simple look at the Nuggets’ post-draft roster makes one question how they could have ended up here.

They certainly could have kept the 13th pick, for one thing. Donovan Mitchell, who the Jazz ended up with, is a solid fit next to Jamal Murray on both ends of the floor. There are a lot of guards on the roster, but that pairing is a strong one, and he fills needs that the Nuggets have as currently assembled. If Lyles was the main attraction of the night, though, that doesn’t mean they needed to double down with Lydon. Drafting a wing who could play three, such as Wesley Iwundu or Davon Reed, certainly would have been a better move. Even opting for a more traditional big that could handle rebounding and defensive responsibilities would have been a better option.

These moves are all fine if considered separately. Lyles and a 1st is certainly worth the 13th pick. Lydon was probably one of the best players available. Cancar accomplishes a long-term goal. Morris is a fine pick at 51. But together, they present problems for Denver. The Nuggets now walk into the offseason with five players on roster who should be spending a majority of their time at the five — Faried, Lydon, Lyles, Hernangomez and Darrell Arthur. They have no options at small forward with Danilo Gallinari hitting free agency, and still have depth issues even if they find a decent replacement. And they head into Jokic’s third season with only one real long-term backcourt option in Murray.

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There’s a lot of work to do on this roster still, headed into what will be a pivotal season for coach Michael Malone and Jokic. The Nuggets haven’t made the playoffs since 2013,  but they got close last season, and they have a near star-level talent in Jokic. The pressure’s on. That’s what makes this draft so potentially damaging — not that things didn’t work out how they wanted, but that there were preventable problems created throughout the roster, with better potential solutions available.

How the Nuggets fair in free agency is even more important to their success now.