NBA Season Preview: 5 best asset collections
By John Buhler
1. Denver Nuggets
Hoops heads need to give a round of applause to the outstanding job Tim Connelly is doing as the Denver Nuggets general manager. He had a tough job of replacing one of the best in the business when Masai Ujiri left the Nuggets for the Toronto Raptors gig in 2013. It’s as if the Nuggets haven’t skipped a beat with Connelly on the job.
Denver comes in with 19 players on its roster and the Nuggets are still under the cap by $15,357,278. 14 of the 19 contracts are fully guaranteed. Only three players (Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, and Wilson Chandler) are making over $10 million in 2016-17. Denver has Bird Rights with all three major contributors.
While the Nuggets don’t have any unrestricted free agents next summer, three players on non-guaranteed deals hit restricted free agency. They only have one player with a player option in Gallinari. He could opt out and could stand to make more money on the open market. Denver has team options on Emmanuel Mudiay, Jusuf Nurkic, and Gary Harris.
Faried and Chandler might be the two hardest contracts for Denver to move, but there isn’t a player Connelly absolutely can’t trade. Denver doesn’t have a star player, but would offer prospective trade partners a bountiful crop of high-end NBA players.
Denver crushed it in the 2016 NBA Draft with three first-round picks. The Nuggets have four future picks coming in and two on the way out, highlighted by Memphis’ 2017 first-round pick.
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Denver has a ton of tradable players, only two suspect contracts, ample cap space, and are in the positive with draft pick differential. The Nuggets should be competitive this year. Maybe not quite playoff-caliber, but Connelly has the resources to help Denver make a playoff push if need be. Denver’s bookkeeping is the best in basketball in 2016-17.