Denver Nuggets

One of the best things about the summer is getting to sit back and say, "Wow, just think of what could happen!" I'm stealing from George Costanza and calling this THE SUMMER OF NATE! This is gonna be my time and here is what I'd do if I were the GM for each and every team in the league ... To give this a little order - we'll use the order of the first round of the NBA draft to break things down ... 1. Cleveland Cavaliers Restricted Free Agents: Omri Casspi, Wayne EllingtonUnrestricted Free Agents: Daniel Gibson, Shaun Livingston, Marreese Speights (P), Luke Walton Season review: Kyrie Irving broke out this season, but the team only got 24 wins. Anderson Varejao suffered a season ending blood-clot and a team that might have made a playoff run was doomed. Off-season plans: I'd consider drafting Otto Porter out of Georgetown to pair with Irving and Dion Waiters. Porter could be that nice two-way player the team needs to lock-down the small forward spot. The team also needs some help in the front-court - inquiring into some trade talk might help, but making a run at Nikola Pekovic would be a priority. 2. Orlando Magic RFA: DeQuan JonesUFA: Hedo Turkoglu (ETO), Beno Udrih Season review: A dreadful 20-win season, but Rob Hennigan, Orlando's GM, did a great job getting some young prospects with the Dwight Howard and J.J. Redick trades. Off-season plans: It'll still take another season to clear more cap room - there's no way Hedo turns down $12 million - and there isn't a clear choice for the No. 2 pick. I'd try to move the No. 2 pick to trade back for a pick or to gain another pick for 2014 (if it were possible). The Magic should roll the dice with what they have, let their young guys grow, maybe buy out Al Harrington and try to trade Glen Davis (two years and $13 million left), and hope the ping-pong balls fall right for Andrew Wiggins. 3. Washington Wizards RFA: Garrett TempleUFA: Trevor Ariza (P), Leandro Barbosa, Jason Collins, Cartier Martin, Emeka Okafor (ETO), A.J. Price, Martell Webster Season review: When John Wall came back and Nene got healthy, this team looked like it could have made a playoff run. Wall played in 49 games and looked like he was beginning to make a leap with his play on the court. This was a pesky team that needs some help. Off-season plans: The No. 3 pick was a nice surprise for the Wizards. I'd hope that Otto Porter falls to me here to pair with John Wall and Bradley Beal in the starting lineup, but Nerlens Noel would be nice too (even though I don't believe he'll be a star in the league). Okafor can't turn down the $14.4 million that awaits him next season and the same can be said for Ariza and his $7.7 million. Another wing player needs to be targeted and some depth off the bench - hopefully that'll be addressed in the draft with Porter. 4. Charlotte Bobcats RFA: Gerald Henderson, Byron MullensUFA: DeSagana Diop, Ben Gordon (P), Josh McRoberts, Jannero Pargo, Reggie Williams Season review: Bleh. Bringing in Mike Dunlap for one season and then firing him shows that there is still no plan in Charlotte. Off-season plans: Keep the people focused on the Hornets name coming back. 5. Phoenix Suns RFA: Diante GarrettUFA: Wesley Johnson, Jermaine O'Neal Season review: The Michael Beasley signing already looks like a mistake ($6 million next season and a buyout option for the 2014-15 campaign) and bringing in O'Neal and Luis Scola were both head-scratching moves; not good. The Suns should be happy that the Hornets Pelicans matched the max-offer for Eric Gordon last summer. Off-season plans: Try to move Scola and let the Morris Twins get some serious playing time in the front-court. Moving Marcin Gortat could also be a wise move and drafting a project big man like Alex Len, Cody Zeller, or maybe a riskier pick like Steven Adams (could trade back to get him) could be the move in the draft. The Suns are a mess. 6. New Orleans Pelicans RFA: None.UFA: Al-Farouq Aminu, Lou Amundson, Xavie

Mar 10, 2012; Las Vegas, NV, USA; New Mexico Lobos guard Tony Snell (21) attempts a three point shot against the San Diego State Aztecs in the first half of the finals of the 2012 Mountain West Tournament at the Thomas Sports Illustrated released its 2013 mock draft Wednesday morning, after Tuesday night’s draft lottery. With the No. 27 pick in the draft, Chris Mannix of SI, has the Denver Nuggets selecting Tony Snell, an athletic wing man out of New Mexico. Mannix calls Snell a “safety net” with the future of Andre Iguodala still up in the air. “Snell is a rangy 2-guard with decent offensive skills,” Mannix writes. “And the physical tools to be a solid defender.” The Nuggets will surely be looking to bolster it’s outside shooting this off-season in wake of its disappointing first round exit against the Golden State Warriors. In that series, Denver struggled to shoot the ball from range against the Warriors’ 2-3 zone. The Nuggets’ best perimeter shooter, Danilo Gallinari, tore his ACL a couple weeks before the playoffs and long-range shooting became a huge weakness in Denver’s offense. Snell, a 6-foot-7 junior out of New Mexico, shot 39 percent from 3-point range in his final season with the Lobos. He’s displayed a smooth shooting stroke at the draft combine and could be available when the Nuggets select at No. 27. Mannix also writes that Providence’s Ricky Ledo could also be an option at No. 27. Ledo, who never played a game for the Friars after he was deemed academically ineligible before the season, is a 6-foot-6 guard who’s comfortable scoring from anywhere on the court and would provide good ball handling to go along with it. *** Thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter @lashy.

Through the first five months of the season, Danilo Gallinari showcased the versatility that makes him so valuable to the Denver Nuggets. In a matter of seconds, it was all gone.

One of the biggest talking points around the Nuggets this season was how deep they were. That resulted in a lot of different players scoring points for Denver and naturally with that plenty of assists, as the Nuggets finished third in the league at 24.4 assists per game, just .1 worse than second place Atlanta and less than a full assist behind top ranked San Antonio. Most of those assists came from three players; Ty Lawson, Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala averaged 6.9, 5.9 and 5.4 assists per game respectively. I decided to delve a little deeper into those assist numbers using the awesome assist charts at the great new site hotshotcharts.com. Before I start throwing the charts at you, here is a quick primer on how to read them. The blue bar is how many total assists the player had. So the bigger the bar the more assists a player had. The yellow paths show how many assists a player had to and from a teammate. The thicker the bar leaving a teammate the more assists he had to whichever player it leads too, and the thinner the bar the lower the amount. So now to look at some charts. First up is Andre Miller. What surprised me most about Miller’s assist breakdown is that the majority of them came to Corey Brewer and not JaVale McGee. Two main reasons stick out for this. Brewer gets plenty of his buckets in fast break situations, something that tends to happen a lot less when Miller is running the show. Secondly, Miller loves to throw his oops to JaVale. Like to an unhealthy point. The other thing that should be taken from the chart his how little Miller helps non-McGee bigs. After JaVale the last remaining player that Miller assists to a significant degree more than other teammates is Andre Iguodala. It makes a bit of sense in that Miller tends to pound the ball into the ground in the post. From there if things break down the ball ends up getting kicked to either Brewer or Iggy on the perimeter or Iggy makes a cut and thanks to his fantastic finishing ability he bailed out Miller. Next up is Lawson, the team leader in assists. Lawson’s breakdown is interesting. His most commonly assisted teammate is Danilo Gallinari, second is Andre Iguodala, third Kenneth Faried, fourth Corey Brewer and fifth Wilson Chandler. So, in his top five only one of those players is a big compared to four primarily perimeter players. It makes sense when you look at Lawson’s game. Typically when he attacks the paint he looks to score. If he cannot, dropping a pass to his bigs is a bit tough for someone of such small stature. Instead turning and tossing a pass to an open, spotting up player in the corners or on the wings is much easier. What the chart of the two Nuggets point guards have in common is a bit startling. Neither player tends to assist most of the big men on the team that often. That becomes a bigger problem when none of those bigs can create their own shot. As we look at the third and final chart, Andre Iguodala’s, we see just how that can be a big problem next season if Iggy decides not to play in Denver. As you can see in the chart the top two players that Iguodala assisted this season were Kosta Koufos and Kenneth Faried. This was on result that didn’t surprise me at all. Iguodala was terrific at driving into the paint and throwing dump-off passes to his bigs, letting them finish relatively unbothered. In fact I would venture to gain if the two bigs finished a bit better that Iggy would have ended up being closer to Lawson’s assist numbers than Miller’s, as it seemed like no Nugget had assists lost for him more this year than Iguodala. Iguodala was clearly the best secondary creator on the Nuggets this year, able to take advantage of the lanes a Lawson drive opened up to get a good shot for someone else after a kick out and also being able to help run the break for Denver. The biggest thing to take away from theses charts is the importance of Iguodala to the offense of the Nuggets starting big

It’s been a long time coming for Roundball Mining Company. Over the years since its inception several new faces (err… names) have popped up in our writers catalog. And now, we’re looking to add a few more. If writing for RMC is something you’ve always wanted to do, please send a short e-mail to our home address (roundballminingco@gmail.com) with samples of your previous work as well as some information about yourself and a brief statement as to why you’d be a good candidate for us to hire. Thanks.

It's a foregone conclusion that the Nuggets must retain Masai Ujiri as GM. If they don't, all other questions about the Nuggets potential moves are moot. With the assumption that Ujiri gets a new contract from the Kroenkes, there are three big questions waiting for him... 1. Will Andre Iguodala opt out? Andre Iguodala is currently signed through the 2013-2014 season with a player option on a potential $16,154,750 salary. There's no question that Iguodala provided a massive upgrade to the perennially below-average Nuggets defense. He was a stalwart throughout the year, asked to defend the opposing team's best player on most nights and he came through more often than not. Despite his ugly free throw shooting and struggles on offense, Iguodala is a heady, tenacious player and his experience was invaluable to a still-maturing Nuggets team. He stabilized the Nuggets when they needed it most, and was a catalyst for the fast break in many situations with his active hands in the passing lanes. There have been rumblings that Iguodala may wish to test the free agency waters a year early, but with both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard potentially on the move, there are virtually no contending teams with the room for the salary cap hit that Iguodala would probably command on the open market. He certainly wouldn't find any takers willing to offer him a $16 million dollar salary. Unless, of course, Iguodala wants to leave Denver badly enough that he's willing to take a significant reduction in pay to play somewhere else, especially if a potential contract ended up being a long-term deal... I personally believe that barring any behind-the-scenes issues with the coaching staff, Iguodala will likely be retained. Ideally, Iguodala would opt out of his salary with the understanding that Masai would then offer a long term deal with a smaller per-year salary with the Nuggets as described above - but I still (irrationally, I suppose) fear Iguodala somehow being poached or swayed by another team in the process, should that happen. Even if Iguodala didn't opt out, I wouldn't be upset - I think he truly does justify his worth on the defensive end, despite what a certain Denver hack sports journalist might believe. Andre Iguodala has become the lynchpin of a Nuggets defense that struggles mightily without him, and losing him would set the Nuggets back on the defensive end immensely. 2. What will happen with Corey Brewer and Andre Miller? It's no secret that Corey Brewer and Andre Miller were badly exposed in the Nuggets first round loss against the Golden State Warriors. Combined, Brewer and Miller took 47 three pointers in the series and hit just 14 of them. I'm going to go ahead and believe that this was due to Brewer and Miller's irrational hero-ball confidence and not part of the game plan, because George Karl letting career 30% and 21% three point shooters shoot that much as part of the game plan is ... well, I guess it isn't that shocking. In any case, I certainly enjoyed Brewer's frenetic energy and ability to win games through pure hustle, but he is simply not a good enough shooter for the volume of shots he takes - especially in the playoffs. While I understand that Brewer was trying to help make up for the scoring chasm left in the absence of Danilo Gallinari, Brewer did not seem to understand that he would have helped his team far more by getting the ball into the hands of better shooters like Ty Lawson or Wilson Chandler. He gambled very often on the defensive end, resulting in open looks and mismatches as frequently as he forced turnovers. It's been a fun few seasons with Brewer and his goat, but he's likely to get a decent contract offer elsewhere and the Nuggets have an eager Evan Fournier and Quincy Miller waiting in the wings. I'm excited to see both young players get a chance in the Nuggets freewheeling offense. As much venom has been directed Andre Miller's way - and much of it deservedly so - I still think

The Colorado Sports Guys had the distinct pleasure of having Denver sports veteran Les Shapiro, of the Les and Tom Nalen Show on 102.3 ESPN Denver, join us in the Colorado Sports Guys studio (high above the streets of beautiful Denver, Colorado, don't ya know) for a whacky and zany podcast filled with much laughter and sarcasm. In the Podcast we discuss Nuggets Vic President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri's contract situation with the Denver Nuggets. We discuss how the people at Kroenke Sports Enterprises need to end their tradition of underpaying their executives and pony up for Masai Ujiri. Les has some great thoughts on the issue, and talks about former Nuggets executive Tim Leiweke (current president of Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment who run the Toronto Raptors) and his "go for it" attitude. We also do Ross Martin's (Hipster Glasses) favorite segment, Headlines! Then we discuss Les Shapiro's background and talk about Arizona State University the party school. We wrap up the podcast with a discussion of our top five favorite sports movies of all time. We would like to thank Les Shapiro for a very entertaining podcast. Listen to the show here. If you haven't already, add us on iTunes (easiest way to listen) or if you have an Android you can always use Pocket Casts app ... well worth the two bucks or so the app charges (the podcast is always free). And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @Nate_Timmons @hirossco = Ross Martin @jmorton78 = Jeff Morton.

As was first reported by Yahoo!Sports.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Toronto Raptors are targeting Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri for their vacant GM position after having dismissed Bryan Colangelo earlier this week. According to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, the Raptors are more than willing to make Ujiri one of the top paid executives in the league at over $2 million per year. Stein also claims Denver’s front office is confident in its ability to re-sign Ujiri to a new deal. Ujiri was rumored to be the lowest paid GM in the NBA under his previous deal that expired this year. Prior to coming to Denver, Ujiri worked under Colangelo from 2008-10 as director of international scouting and later as assistant GM. According to SportsNet.ca’s Michael Grange, the Raptors have not fully eradicated Colangelo from the team, and should Ujiri be hired both the executives’ roles will have switched with Ujiri taking the responsibilities of head GM and Colangelo playing the part of the assistant. For Nuggets fans this dilemma has a plain-as-day resolution: sign Ujiri to the contract he deserves and do not hesitate in the process. Make him the top paid GM in basketball and get on with life. There should be no delay; there should be no thought put into even considering letting him go. Good NBA GMs don’t make a lot of money when contrasted with players and in actuality are fairly underpaid considering how responsible they are for the direction of the team. Paying a couple million bucks more to retain the reining Executive of the Year is THE no-brainer of all no-brainers this off-season for the Nuggets. This is not a matter of frugality; it’s a matter of common sense. Let’s just hope the Kroenke’s feel the same way. Stay tuned as more information comes to light. And as always… Follow me on Twitter

After establishing himself as one of the top rebounders and hustle players as a rookie in 2011-12, Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried raised his game in his first season as a full-time starter.

We've written ad nauseum since the dawn of Denver Stiffs about the two basic "have to's" to win an NBA Championship in the modern NBA. First, you "have to" have at least two - if not three - Hall of Fame players on your roster. And, secondly, you "have to" be located in one of the NBA's top-10 markets based on metropolitan area, because that's where the modern NBA players want to be. If you have both things going for you - as virtually every NBA Champion has had since 1980, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Boston (right on the cusp as the 10th biggest metropolitan area in the United States) Celtics and Miami Heat - an NBA title is well within one's grasp. If you have just one of those things going for you - such as the San Antonio Spurs from 1999-2007 and the Detroit Pistons from 1989-90, each of whom won with Hall of Fame talent despite being from a non-top-10 market - you can still win it all but it's less likely. And yet, with just four teams remaining in the 2013 NBA Playoffs, only one fits the mold of the first two "have to's": the 2012-13 Miami Heat who feature two Hall of Fame players plus one perennial All-Star and the NBA's eighth biggest market. And only one fits the mold of the second "have to": the 2012-13 San Antonio Spurs who feature three Hall of Famers playing at the tail end of one of the NBA's all-time great runs for a single franchise. The remaining two conference finals participants are, of course, the Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies, representing the NBA's sixth and fourth smallest markets by size, respectively (Denver, in case you're curious, ranks as the 13th smallest NBA market). Not only are Indianapolis and Memphis tiny (combined, the two metropolitan areas are smaller than Minneapolis), but neither team features the requisite two Hall of Famers necessary to compete for an NBA Championship ... in fact, there may not be one Hall of Famer on either team combined. Now granted, Indiana and Memphis may be conference finals participants due more to good fortune than prudent professional basketball team-building, but this is why you make the playoffs in the first place whenever possible: anything can happen. Memphis, for example, appears to be the direct beneficiary of the Oklahoma City Thunder (another small market team like San Antonio that featured perhaps three Hall of Fame players on the roster before this season began) losing James Harden via trade and Russell Westbrook via injury. But before besting the Thunder in Round 2, the Grizzlies were able to take out the giant-market Los Angeles Clippers who feature a Hall of Fame point guard in Chris Paul, a potential Hall of Famer in power forward Blake Griffin and a deep bench that only a big market team can buy. Meanwhile, the Pacers have the privilege of playing in the Leastern Conference. A conference so bad that Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin can get out of the first round despite losing Game 5 at home and virtually collapsing in a closeout Game 6 on the road. (Sorry, had to.) But while watching the Grizzlies take on the Spurs now and the Pacers about to take on the Heat this Wednesday, Nuggets fans everywhere can't help but have an "it could've been us" feeling. In fact, it feels worse than that. It would be one thing if every conference finals participant were laden with Hall of Fame talent - as we saw last season when the Final Four consisted of Miami, Boston, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. But instead, we have two participants in Indiana and Memphis doing what Denver was supposed to do. Remember, it was our Nuggets after all that were supposed to be the small market, no-Hall-of-Famers team that marched through the NBA playoffs and turned NBA tradition on its head. Conversely, our Nuggets showed so much respect for the regular season that they forgot to respect the post-season. So maybe next season, the Nuggets should concern themselves more with competing in the playoffs than racking up regular season wi