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The Nuggets just made an incredible run to the Western Conference Finals that no one predicted would happen before the season started. They did it for many reasons. One obviously was the arrival of Chauncey Billups. Another reason was because Carmelo Anthony finally stepped up and showed that he could be the great player that everyone hoped he could be. Finally Carmelo began to play defensively with passion. He has also started to recover better, which makes him a more complete player. Another reason was the emergence of Nene. Nene played in only 16 games last season, but he has come back and played better than ever.
He was a 15-and-8 player for the Nuggets and a real force in the paint on defense. JR Smith also emerged as a legitimate player this season. He has always been known for scoring himself, but he nearly doubled his rebounding and assist numbers this season. Not to mention, he finally started playing a little more defensively, doing a relatively good job protecting Kobe during the playoffs. The last reason the Nuggets outplayed their competition this year was the midseason arrival of Chris Anderson. Yeah, Birdman was a huge boost to the Nuggets bench, as he’s a great guy with a fantastic engine.
Now the question is who will return and how this will affect the team. It’s a very good question and something that needs to be addressed. The Nuggets this offseason is good news and bad news for their fans. Let’s start with the good news. The top five Nuggets players are Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Nene, JR Smith and Nene. Four of these guys are starters and Smith was their sixth man. All five of these players will return next season. One would have to assume that all five will return as better players. They have the entire offseason to improve their game and all of them, but Billups is still too young to peak him. Billups, on the other hand, can have a full training camp with the team and get to know the system even better.
The bad news is that most of the bench is now a free agent. Chris Anderson, Linas Kleiza, Dahntay Jones and Anthony Carter could be gone. Losing all four guys could be a huge loss for the Nuggets’ bench. Priority number one is signing the Birdman. The team needs Chris Anderson to stay. His shot-blocking has been huge for the Nuggets, his energy lifts teammates and the crowd, he gets junk points and second-chance opportunities and lastly, he hits people in the seats. That said, the Nuggets basically have no wiggle room if they want to avoid the luxury tax. Keeping the Birdman will be a matter of a simple question from the owner and that is, do we want to push the limit again? Remember that the Camby and Iverson deals were solely to be under the tax, so they may want to keep it that way now that they’re there. After that, Kleiza might have a hard time finding a great deal out there. He is a solid player, we can play three or four if a team wants to go small, but he has never been as efficient as one would hope. There is a chance that they can keep you on the cheap end. I would expect them to offer a very small deal, if any, as they also have Renaldo Balkman, who can still play the same position, who does very well in limited minutes this season. Finally, there are Jones and Carter. Both players were minimum contract players like Anderson, however with them, I don’t expect anyone to come in and offer much more than the minimum again. I would expect both of them to return.
If the Nuggets can, in fact, keep Carter and Jones, then they’re closing in on the same team. Yes, that may mean Kleiza is gone, but Balkman would be fine replacing him, at least for all four. It also provides energy that can be lost if Anderson is gone. That said, they can also pick up a decent middle center for the bare minimum again in Theo Ratliff, Chris Mihm or Jamaal Magloire. When you’re just looking for a useful player for the bare minimum, there are usually more options than you think. As I mentioned, Jones, Carter and Anderson had minimum contracts last season.
I’d look for another race next season if they can avoid the injury problem again. This Nuggets team has a lot of talent. It’s a team that’s easy to hate as many of the players are considered “thugs,” as Mark Cuban pointed out, but there’s no denying that it’s a fun team to watch and a team to fear. It will really be interesting if this team continues to grow and if they can keep the bench playing solid. If they can do this, the Nuggets will continue to be gold in the future.