The Denver Nuggets got their NBA free agency off to a roaring start on Monday night, when they sent Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Cam Johnson. Denver has the best player in the world at their disposal in Nikola Jokic, the kind of talent that most teams are lucky to see once in several generations. The Nuggets owe it to that talent to push all their chips in while they can, and swapping MPJ for a younger, cheaper, more well-rounded version was the right decision in order to maximize what's left of Jokic's prime.
But while Johnson is an upgrade over Porter, one that comes with added financial flexibility to continue upgrading, Denver knew that its work was far from done. There was one glaring flaw that still remained on this roster, and the Nuggets used the added wiggle room from the Johnson deal to address it with the shrewd under-the-radar signing of Tim Hardaway Jr. on day two.
The Nuggest have a math problem last season
The Nuggets managed to push the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7 in the Western Conference semifinals, and they did so with a 6.5-man rotation and Aaron Gordon hobbling around on one healthy leg. That feat gets all the more impressive when you consider that Denver had basketball math working against them all year long: Not a single team took fewer 3-point attempts this past season than the Nuggets did.
In fact, it wasn't even close. The 29th-place team, the Los Angeles Clippers, were closer to the Sacramento Kings in 24th than they were to the Nuggets in dead last. It's very, very tough to win games in the modern NBA that way, even as talented as Jokic and the rest of this Denver starting five is. You have to be otherworldly efficient from 2 to not lose the math battle in the aggregate, and while Jokic is a cheat code in that regard, there's very little margin for error.
With Hardaway Jr. aboard, that margin for error gets a little wider. He's not a perfect player by any means, but his one genuine NBA strength just happens to be the one thing the Nuggets need from him.
Tim Hardaway Jr. is exactly what the Nuggets need to round out free agency
Across 28 minutes per game with the Detroit Pistons last season, Hardaway Jr. got up an average of six 3s a night. Jamal Murray was the only Nuggets regular who took more than five, and Murray and Jokic were the only two who took more than four. That's a significant difference, one that should make life a lot easier on what was already one of the most lethal half-court offenses in the sport.
Hardaway Jr. isn't much of an on-ball creator, and he's at best neutral defensively. But he remains lethal on catch-and-shoot opportunities, and his skills as a movement shooter will mesh well with Jokic and put even more strain on opposing defenses. This is the sort of player that Jokic hasn't really gotten to enjoy before; for all his shooting ability, Porter was never quite as active off the ball as you would've liked him to be.
Hardaway Jr. knocked down 37 percent of his treys last season, and he's at over 36 percent for his career on a high volume. No longer will the Nuggets have to operate at a high degree of difficulty in close quarters all the time. Now, they'll have Hardaway Jr. ready and willing to fire away, one more thing that defenses can't afford to ignore.