ON THE LOOKOUT FOR HIRED HELP
Denver has “selectively aggressive” game plan for acquiring hired help
Denver’s brass says the team will take a “selective aggressive” plan into the frenzied start of NBA free agency, which begins Friday night in the Mountain time zone. »
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series looking at the Nuggets in NBA free agency. Friday: Are the Nuggets positioned to make a splash? Saturday: Finding the right fit after big names leave the board.
Tim Connelly had probably never been so scrutinized for his body language. The president of basketball operations for the Nuggets was characterized by some as “deflated” after the NBA draft last week, when he voiced frustration the team wasn’t able to complete a trade for a marquee player.
But Connelly, who takes pride in the jovial, engaging manner in which he approaches his work, pushed back this week on the notion that he was down on a draft that netted the Nuggets four new players or on any other part of the team’s offseason.
“That might have been me not working out enough or eating poorly,” Connelly mused after a news conference Tuesday in which the Nuggets introduced draft picks Tyler Lydon, Monte Morris and Vlatko Cancar (who was playing in Slovenia and did not attend) and trade acquisition Trey Lyles. “We talked about so many different variations of deals. A couple that looked to be pretty promising didn’t come to fruition, but I hope that wasn’t what I gave off. We’re excited.”
The point Connelly was making is that the Nuggets remain highly optimistic about a future built around a group of young players who pushed to within one game of the playoffs last year. With Nikola Jokic, a 22-year-old center who finished as the runner-up in the voting for the NBA’s most improved player award, guards Gary Harris and Jamal Murray and forward Juancho Hernangomez, the Nuggets have a group they are truly building behind for the first time since their last playoff appearance in 2013.
Still, there is no doubting the Nuggets need a boost, an injection that could lift both their on-court performance and their numbers at the Pepsi Center turnstiles. Denver has finished last in the NBA in attendance each of the last two seasons. Free agency, and the opportunity it presents to sign a marquee player, offers potential solutions on both fronts.
The Nuggets have the salary cap space to get into the conversation for a big name. Denver heads into Friday’s 10:01 p.m. MDT start of free agency with about $79 million in salary committed to next season, according to Basketball Insiders, with the salary cap projected to sit at $99 million. But that figure includes about $21 million in cap holds for Danilo Gallinari, a veteran forward who opted out of the $16.1 million owed him next season to instead become an unrestricted free agent, and forward Mason Plumlee. The Nuggets extended a $3.3 million qualifying offer to Plumlee, but he likely will refuse that in favor of becoming a restricted free agent, a move that would allow him to command an eight-figure salary from the Nuggets or another team that could sign him to an offer sheet. Also on the books: $3.5 million for veteran Mike Miller that would become guaranteed only after July 12.
There are a number of financial priorities for the team on the horizon, including a potential extension this offseason for Harris. The Nuggets also have said they would like to re-sign Gallinari, though the seriousness of that pursuit will be dictated by how the market forms around the 6foot-10 scorer. The Nuggets also insisted they would like to bring back Plumlee, who joined them in a February trade from Portland.
The bottom line is that Denver will begin free agency as a team that has the ability, if it so chooses, to find the salary to throw at a big name. Veteran forwards Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin and Paul Millsap, each an all-star, probably will command something approaching a maximum contract over multiple years. Kyle Lowry, a 31-year-old point guard who, some reports have suggested, may be looking to leave Toronto, is another player who would command a major salary.
Available money is one way the Nuggets can get themselves in the door with players of this caliber come Friday night. But the question the Nuggets must answer is whether trying to outspend other suitors for players high on the list of coveted free agents is their best course of action. And would that even be enough?
“You always have a sense of urgency to improve your team,” Connelly said. “But we don’t want to paint ourselves into such a corner that at the next press conference we’re announcing a deal that we regret when the paint dries. We’re going to be selectively aggressive. We have to address a roster imbalance. But there’s no gun to our head as we approach July 1.”
The Nuggets have a logjam of players at the power forward position after drafting Lydon and Lyles. They also have to develop a pecking order at the point guard position heading into next season and find the right rotation at the small forward spot should Gallinari leave in free agency.
Nuggets president Josh Kroenke has expressed confidence in the direction Connelly and general manager Arturas Karnisovas have guided the franchise as the duo prepare for their fifth season together in the team’s front office. It’s why Kroenke promoted both men one week before the draft, a move that kept Karnisovas from potentially leaving for the general manager opening in Milwaukee.
“Whenever you have a meeting with a free agent, or even just dealing with their representatives and agents, continuity is one of the more underappreciated things, and simply knowing what to expect,” Kroenke said. “Whenever there is change in different organizations, I don’t know how those people can walk into a room with a free agent and sell their vision if there’s not a body of work to go by. There might have been a body of work elsewhere, but are you building a team or are you building a program? That’s something we talk about across our teams at different points in time. What we’re trying to do as an organization is simply build a program where players know what to expect personally, professionally, offensively and defensively. I think once they know what to expect and know who you are — Tim, Arturas, coach (Michael) Malone and up to myself in ownership — I think that only gives a stronger footing heading into different meetings with different players.”
The Nuggets further committed to their internal vision this week by picking up the option on Malone’s contract through the 201819 season, which would be his fourth in Denver.
The Nuggets believe much of the ground they need to make up in the Western Conference — whether it be defensively, winning close games or improving on the road — can be made through internal development. In that vein, the team could target a number of free agents on the market who may not make the same splash as Griffin or Millsap, but who could complement and nurture Denver’s young group.
Restricted free agents such as Washington’s Otto Porter and Bojan Bogdanovic, Oklahoma City’s Andre Roberson and JaMychal Green of Memphis could represent the type of complementary pieces to provide a lift.