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Denver Nuggets 2011-12 NBA season preview

Will Nene Hilario, Ty Lawson, and Arron Afflalo get a shot to continue things in Denver in 2011-12?

The annual CelticsBlog season previews extravaganza is back! I have been following Twitter like a madman, hoping and wishing that I'd see, "BREAKING NEWS" in a tweet and we'd be back in NBA business. But for now, the dread has set in. I'm still looking ahead at what the Nuggets might be doing if there were a season, or if there were not a season. Let's take a look ... 

Star-divide

 

Team name: Denver Nuggets

Last year’s record: 50-32

Key free agents: 

Restricted - Arron Afflalo ($2.9 million qualifying offer), Wilson Chandler ($3.09 million Q.O.), and Gary Forbes ($963K Q.O.).

Unrestricted - Nene, Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith, and Melvin Ely.


1. What are your team’s biggest needs this off-season? 

Well, if there is an actual season - the Nuggets will need to field a complete roster. As of now, the Nuggets have just four players that do not have contracts overseas - Andre Miller, Al Harrington, Chris Andersen, and Kosta Koufos. In addition to that, the Nuggets have three players that have contracts overseas with opt-out clauses - Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Ty Lawson (Lithuania), and Timofey Mozgov (Russia). And the Nuggets have one restricted free agent, Wilson Chandler (China), who does not have an opt-out clause if the NBA season does get underway. 

With roughly $35.7 million tied up in salary for the 2011-12 season, in 10 players, the Nuggets have some decisions to make. Rookies Kenneth Faried and Jordan Hamilton need to be signed ASAP once the new collective bargaining agreement is made and that will bring the Nuggets up to 12 players under contract or with cap-holds in place. Decisions must be made on restricted free agents Afflalo, Chandler, and Forbes and I’m not totally sure how Chandler’s salary cap figure will effect the Nuggets moving forward with a new CBA. 

This writer still hopes Nene will be re-signed and moved to power forward, but after Nene turned down a $50 million extension - his future in Denver is certainly uncertain. 

After the Nuggets take care of their rookies and their own free agents, there likely wont be a lot of room to add other pieces. In a doomsday scenario … if Afflalo and Smith are not brought back, the Nuggets will need to find a quick replacement at shooting guard and if Nene isn’t re-signed - the Nuggets will have a large gap at the power forward or center spot as well.  


2. What are the team’s biggest strengths & weaknesses, so far?

The Nuggets will miss out the most on a shortened or missed training camp. With so many new faces and young players, this team really needs time to mesh. The Nuggets were a deep team last season, after they made the big trade with the Knicks, and no matter what happens moving forward - there will be at least three new faces in town (Miller, Faried, and Hamilton) that need to get familiar with their surroundings. 

As we saw last season in the playoffs, the Nuggets biggest strength was also their biggest weakness: depth. With the plethora of depth came a lack of a go-to-guy in crunch time for Denver. The team looked lost in certain situations and without guys like Afflalo being around (health) to lead the team, we saw Denver wilt under the pressure. 

I’m very curious to see how George Karl handles his new cast of players and if he can find the trust to play guys like Faried and Hamilton and lean on big men Mozgov and Koufos. Nuggets Nation is excited for the young players that are in place and with a re-building or re-tooling squad, it’ll be good to get guys as much playing time as they’ll need to gain confidence as the season wears on. 


3. If there is no season in 2011-12, how is your team set up for 2012?

If there is no season, the Nuggets will have oodles of room under the salary cap as Andre Miller’s deal comes off the books ($7.8 million in his last season) and Gallinari ($5.58 million Q.O.) and Koufos ($3.2 million Q.O.) will both be restricted free agent, along with all the free agents listed above. I don’t know how restricted free agents’ rights will be handled, but hopefully the Nuggets will retain the rights for Afflalo, Chandler, and Forbes. 

The good news, the Nuggets will have enough dough to go out and sign Dwight Howard. The bad news, he likely will get more than just an offer from the Nuggets … maybe.


4. If you could make one change in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), what would it be?

If I could make one change to the new CBA - it would have to be actually printing it out and getting the damn thing signed already! How difficult is this process? Just divide up the millions or billions or trillions - throw some my way - and let’s play ball! 


5. Will the Denver Stiffs be moving to China? 

If there is no season, the biggest question becomes: How will we get our basketball fix? Well, with three current and former Nuggets signing in China, it makes sense that Andrew, Jeff, and I get our passports stamped and head overseas to see some familiar faces. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nate_Timmons on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/Nate_Timmons
ntimmons73@yahoo.com 

Comment 37 comments  |  0 recs  | 

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New rule:

If it isn’t a valid comment or some sort of witty retort to something in the post, it doesn’t count as being first. Just saying. :)

"Such a strange predicament we find ourselves in / Baby, it's a long way to South America"

by Fly Agaric on Oct 5, 2011 7:31 AM MDT up reply actions  

New Rule:

Changing back to old rule: nonsensical comments do count. This is the internet… there are no rules.

by InboundingLobPass on Oct 5, 2011 5:05 PM MDT via mobile up reply actions  

Actually Karl helps

In this situation. He is used to coaching in crazy circumstances. So having no preseason.. half season. Half a team.. Nene, no Nene, out of shape Nene, and who know what else probably won’t phase him too much.

He is good at coaching each game to win.. especially with a bunch of scrappers.

Of course.. that is if the season 2011-2012 does get played. Gonna here lots of barking the next couple of weeks. Deal shouldn’t be too far awhile.. but it only takes the right stubborn person to screw things up.

by djyoung71 on Oct 5, 2011 8:45 AM MDT reply actions  

If there is an amnesty clause

 And the Clippers waive Mo Williams, would the Nuggets trade Andre Miller for Chris Kaman. Both players have expiring contracts…

by teddygreen on Oct 5, 2011 1:38 PM MDT reply actions  

2012

I’m optimistic that a deal will get done, especially with the reporting on the revenue sharing and the news this morning that they are with one or two percent on the revenue split.

That said, if the 2011 season is cancelled, a lot of people have been saying that it will count for contract purposes. I.E. guys under contract for 2011 scheduled to be free agents in 2012, would still be free agents. Is this really true? Or would the contracts all just get pushed back a year, and they wouldn’t be free agents until 2013? Al Harrington still has four years left on his deal, 2 guaranteed, 2 partially. Would the team really get out of the second year entirely? It’s a legal contract, seems to me they owe him those for years regardless of any lockout.

Formerly KS and CS

by ThrowItDownBigManThrowItDown on Oct 5, 2011 2:35 PM MDT reply actions  

Depends on CBA

If CBA doesn’t have language to treat 2012 like 2011 for contract purposes then it will be as if 2011 happend regarding contracts. They’re based on calendar years. So in essence players like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard may have played their last game for their team.

Restricted free agents would have rights retained if they didn’t sign the qualifying offer. I.E. Kleiza and Josh Childress. We had the right to match Toronto’s offer after the year abroad. We choose not to.

We’ll see how it turns out but we may have as little as 18 million on our cap with QOs for Affalo, Gallo, Koufus, and Chandler as options.

by remyrems on Oct 6, 2011 6:31 PM MDT up reply actions  

I'm always up for traveling!

Andrew Feinstein | DenverStiffs.com | denverstiffs@gmail.com

by Andrew Feinstein on Oct 6, 2011 10:43 AM MDT reply actions  

I'm anxious to see who the Nuggets will sign when the free agency period starts

this might be the first time in a number of years where there’s some serious roster changes, especially factoring in the new guys we brought in in February and in the draft. For many seasons the only roster change was “what scrub are the Nuggets going to sign for SG under the over-hyped spin that he is a defensive stopper?” (Greg Buckner, Diawara, etc (although I did like Dahntay Jones)). It is interesting to think what the Nuggets can do with a little money. It’s also a weird thought that, if I’m not mistaken, Ty Lawson, Afflalo, and Birdman could be the only guys on the team from like 2 years ago (if we don’t resign Nene, Kmart, or JR).

by NugNugz on Oct 6, 2011 12:34 PM MDT reply actions  

Yea it should be interesting

especially with all the cap space we have…..

I liked Dahntay too, with exception to all the missed layups…

by JBnuggs on Oct 6, 2011 1:23 PM MDT up reply actions  

Anybody that takes it to kobe and cp3wussy is ok in my book.

"All you fuckers who think we won't be good anymore, fuck you" - GK
Afflalo is Boss.

by love4nuggets on Oct 6, 2011 2:14 PM MDT up reply actions  

yeah i like that edge that Dahntay had

don’t get me wrong, Afflalo is a way better player and a top defender, I just want him to have that nastiness that Jones had.

by NugNugz on Oct 6, 2011 3:43 PM MDT up reply actions  

Yeah we're going to be a little short

in the “Thugg” department here soon.

"All you fuckers who think we won't be good anymore, fuck you" - GK
Afflalo is Boss.

by love4nuggets on Oct 6, 2011 4:28 PM MDT up reply actions  

Guess, it'll be the age of the Baby Nuggets

Considering how much younger the team has become

by TyLawesome on Oct 6, 2011 10:12 PM MDT up reply actions  

Absolutely.

"All you fuckers who think we won't be good anymore, fuck you" - GK
Afflalo is Boss.

by love4nuggets on Oct 7, 2011 8:06 AM MDT up reply actions  

So? He's a strange one,

but not a thug.

"All you fuckers who think we won't be good anymore, fuck you" - GK
Afflalo is Boss.

by love4nuggets on Oct 9, 2011 10:18 AM MDT up reply actions  

Unagree.

"All you fuckers who think we won't be good anymore, fuck you" - GK
Afflalo is Boss.

by love4nuggets on Oct 10, 2011 12:22 AM MDT up reply actions   1 recs

NBA Lockout Rant

As I think about the nba lockout I get extremely irritated by the foolishness and greed of both sides. The arrogance and audacity of these people to prolong a labor dispute like they actually control what is going on. When I say this, I want people to listen and to actually for once take control of the situation. The NBA is only what it is because of the fans. If the fans were finally to decide that we are sick and tired of paying outrageous prices to see some of the crap that we have had to deal with over the last several years and actually boycotted going to games, maybe, just maybe these idiots on both sides of this labor dispute would realize that they are not as important and powerful as they believe they are! Why do we pay and continue to enable such spoiled and out of touch with reality pre-madonnas? NBA players play 82 games a year, which is half as much as MLB players, yet some of them get paid so much more for so much less production. The worst part is that these entitled players get paid more than most NFL players, who actually put much more on the line on a game to game basis than NBA players and NBA players have guaranteed contracts, how many in the NFL have guaranteed contracts? And to hear someone like Carmelo Anthony cry about the physical abuse of having to bang down low with post players when he played with Denver is hilarious! Really, you are 6’8" maybe 220 or more? Try taking a hit from Ray Lewis who is considerably not much bigger than you, makes less money than you, and plays less games than you, yet you never hear him complain about physical abuse. Or how about a man named Karl Malone? Same size, same sport, better player, didn’t complain about physical play, and actually stayed his whole career in a small market city. I don’t remember, but didn’t he get paid quiet well?
I am amazed at how much a group of men playing a game that they presumably love complain about what they are being paid, when there are millions of people working real, important jobs making so much less. NBA players get a dose of reality and remember who really pays your salaries. It is not the owners you are fighting with that pay your salaries. It is Joe Fan!
Lets review how this league has treated fans over the past several years. Yes David Stern listen up, because you allowed this! First, the amount of criminal behavior that goes on throughout the league. Dope smoking, gun toting, gambling, whoring, fathering many children out of wedlock, fighting, violence, game fixing (sorry but if you watch a game and the refereeing it seems pretty clear), outrageous ticket prices, stars controlling their destinations and how a game is called, it all is insulting to a fan who actually might love the game of basketball. No player, yes you Lebron (I am not good enough on my own to win) James, yes you Carmelo (my hack wife controls me) Anthony, and You! Chris ( I am a spoiled little b@#$%^ that wines all the time) Paul should dictate anything like they have been allowed to the last few years! You say you are doing it for the future of the league? Who do you guys think you are? All three of you are so willing to dump the hand that feeds you? How would you respond if people just quit watching and quit coming to games. There would be no revenue that you believe that you have the right to. Your owners would not be able to pay your bloated salaries! I remember when players played for one team and had some loyalty because they played the game for what it was and were grateful that the team’s fans held them in such high regard. They took the money offered them, which at that time was not as ridiculous, and stayed with their team because the fans loved them and put them on a pedestal. What if you actually had to work for a living, what would you do then?
And David Stern, quit trying to sell us the next Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Dr. J or whoever. I am not going to believe the hype, and I plead to the rest of the basketball fans around the world not to buy it either. Just play the damn game. Mr. Stern you have brought this on yourself as you keep trying to hype the next big thing. Now all of your players think they are bigger than the game and they are more worried about branding their name and product than winning a championship!
I am actually glad this has lockout has lasted this long and I actually hope it ends up cancelling the season. Maybe some fans will realize we are spending money on a scam and start to think about how we are really making these idiots (on both sides) rich, when they don’t even realize that that it is us who are funding their dream lives. Maybe this time the fans won’t come back and the revenue won’t be there to support their little meaningless games.

by BigHarold on Oct 8, 2011 11:58 PM MDT reply actions   1 recs

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Metta resorted back to Ron Ron last Sunday by clubbing James Hardenwith an "inadvertent celebratory elbow", landing him a 7-game suspension. Apparently, changing his name didn't prevent NBA commissioner David Stern from overlooking Metta's past behavior problems.

2. CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

The 'Cats are on the verge of securing the worst winning percentage in NBA history. Given that the guy who runs the team - Michael Jordan - had previously drafted Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison, should this really be a shock?

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The team that was supposedly built to overcome the lockout-shortened season managed to lose 7 of its last 14 games, ceding the Western Conference's 1-seed to the Spurs in the process. Their reward might be a first round matchup with defending champion Dallas.

4. BILLY HUNTER AND DEREK FISHER
With report after report coming out about NBPA union head Hunter's shady, nepotistic dealings and questions arising about Fisher's own role in dealing with NBA owners behind Hunter's back during the lockout, this off-the-court scandal could prove to be more exciting than the playoffs themselves!

5. STEVE NASH AND THE PHOENIX SUNS
The Suns are on this list for squandering the last few great seasons from Nash. Nash is on this list for his stupidly stubborn loyalty to a franchise as awful as the Suns.

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