The official Denver Nuggets thread.

[famicommander]

Not exactly Nuggets related, but whatever.

It looks like we're gonna get a WNBA team.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was in town yesterday to meet with a potential ownership group, alongside the mayor of Denver and the governor of Colorado. The ownership group took her on a tour of both Ball Arena and DU's Magness Arena (seats 7200 for basketball).

The group
Robert Cohen - Chair and CEO of IMA Financial Group, a brokerage firm that had over 1.3 billion in revenue in 2022. The dude is heavily connected, serving on the boards of like 20 local charities as well as on the Visit Denver sports committee, alongside Kroenke Sports rep Matt Bell.

Navin Dimond - Founder and CEO of Stonegate Companies, a chain of over 65 hotels. Member of the Board of Trustees at DU.

Ashley Dimond - Navin's daughter and chief strategist

Bill Hanzlik - nonprofit partner. Former Nuggets player and coach, current Nuggets broadcaster, well known for his many youth-sports oriented charity works around town.

The group is actively seeking minority investors and celebrity backers.

The fact that these people have their names out there and are meeting with the Commissioner makes it seem really likely we'll be one of the two cities that gets a 2025 expansion franchise.

And, thankfully, they didn't mention the Denver Coliseum as a potential venue. It'll either be Ball Arena or Magness.

My guess is they'll play at Ball if they can entice the Kroenkes to buy a minority share, or if there's unexpectedly huge ticket demand.

If not, it seems rather likely that a DU Trustee could get a sweet deal to lease Magness. It would be the 4th smallest arena in the league, but most teams still average less than Magness holds anyway. And there are a couple teams playing in tiny barns (Atlanta's building seats 3500, Washington's 4200).

[famicommander]

Torn left ACL for Vlatko Cancar. Hurt playing in a meaningless warmup game for the stupid World Cup.

Awful, awful news. Now we're betting a lot on Zeke Nnaji's health and that dude is always hurt.

I hope we make a trade. Send out Zeke Nnaji and Justin Holiday for the best big man they can get, then use the extra roster spot that opens up to upgrade Braxton Key or Jay Huff to a full spot or re-sign Jack White if the Thunder cut him.

[famicommander]

Nuggets have signed 7'1" center Jay Huff to their last two-way spot. The 18 man roster is now set.

PG: Jamal Murray, Reggie Jackson, Jalen Pickett, Collin Gillespie
SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Christian Braun, Justin Holiday, Julian Strawther
SF: Michael Porter Jr., Peyton Watson, Hunter Tyson
PF: Aaron Gordon, Zeke Nnaji, Vlatko Cancar, Braxton Key
C: Nikola Jokic, DeAndre Jordan, Jay Huff

[famicommander]

Excellent performance from all four guys tonight, earning their first Summer League W

Tyson:
31 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, +43

Strawther:
23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 0 turnovers, 1 foul, +33

Pickett:
11 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, +33

Gillespie:
3 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 1 turnover, 1 foul, +27

[Houshmazode]

Nuggets have signed 6'8" PF Braxton Key to a two-way deal. He has played 14 NBA games across 2 seasons and spent time in the G-League and playing pro ball in Puerto Rico. He won championships in college and in the G-League and is considered a defense/rebounding specialist.

Watched his highlights from the last SL game with the Mavs. He looks like good bench depth / developmental potential.

[famicommander]

Nuggets have signed 6'8" PF Braxton Key to a two-way deal. He has played 14 NBA games across 2 seasons and spent time in the G-League and playing pro ball in Puerto Rico. He won championships in college and in the G-League and is considered a defense/rebounding specialist.

[famicommander]

Strawther is the most raw of the kids but he has the highest ceiling. Has some dog in him.

Tyson is a highly developed offensive player but he has a long way to go on defense. Still, he can shoot so he can play in this league.

Pickett finally looked like a point guard last night. The first two Summer League games his handles looked shaky and he mostly deferred to Gillespie and Watson. He also let the other team stop his dribble way too far behind the three point line several times. Last night he looked in control, calm, and like a floor general for the first time. Excellent progress.

Gillespie is making great decisions and looking better with each game, but he's still got a long way to go before he's 100% back in game shape. Just like Murray at the beginning of last season. Gillespie broke both major bones in his lower leg and dislocated his ankle and missed the entire year from the end of last Summer League to the start of this one. In a few months Gillespie's shot will be falling consistently and he'll be a step quicker on defense. But his playmaking is already really good; it's not his fault we bricked every open three he created for us last night.

[Spice 1]

Good job on the Strawther pick. Good pick. Two way player who will be able to play 2 or 3. Shooter who can put it on the deck. Athletic enough to finish and should be really good in transition as well. Seems like a really high IQ player, and the three consistency should only improve playing in Denver's system.

What's cool about the Pickett pick is the potential offensively. Normally everything you do is based on Jokic, and he plays around 34 minutes a game now. When he's out the offense completely changes. Pickett is a passer who can apply the same kind of pressure inside if he's guarded by smaller players. Not saying it'll play out that way, but you could do similar things offensively with the second unit if you utilize Pickett that way. And it creates matchup problems otherwise. Down the road, of course.

But Strawther's the pick I really like. I think you guys got a good one for where you took him. Right now I'd say the steal of the draft though is Keyonte George, and hopefully the ankle isn't too bad. I've been saying it for years. Can't stand Danny Ainge, but he's one hell of a GM.

[famicommander]

Tyson:
19 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 4 turnovers, 3 fouls

Pickett:
12 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 0 steals, 3 blocks, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls

Strawther:
21 points, 3 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 0 turnovers, 0 fouls

Gillespie:
10 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover, 4 fouls (2 intentional)

Much better showing across the board for our kids tonight.

[DenverBlood]

Not sure who needs to hear this but all championship gear is listed on the NBA store for half off. Surprisingly a lot still left.

[famicommander]

Game 2 reaction:
Watson: good offensive game, invisible on the glass, still more fouls and turnovers than you want
Pickett: played a good game for the most part. Still mostly playing shooting guard, doesn't seem to have NBA PG.
Gillespie: still a bit out of rhythm but in command of the offense, better on defense, shot lights out. Looked like the floor general for the most part.
Tyson: worst defensive player on the floor tonight, not enough rebounds, very good offensive game
Strawther: nightmare shooting game, actually good everywhere else
Kamagate: still invisible

[beastlyskronk]

First summer league game went down the other day. It was about as I expected. Tyson and Pickett struggled to create separation off the dribble. They’re tough shot makers though, so if they can figure out how to be effective defensively they can have a shot. Strawther struggled defensively, but he’s as advertised shooting.

The real draw for us here is probably Peyton Watson. He got to the free throw line a lot, shot 50% from the field and 33% from 3. 3 steals, 3 blocks, and 6 fouls. He was ultra aggressive on offense and when he was one on one on defense. Off ball defense was a bit lackadaisical, transition defense was nearly nonexistent with 1 or 2 good efforts getting back. I’m sure some of that is just not wanting to overexert in the summer league, but I would like to see better screen navigation from him defensively. I thought KCP and Bruce Brown’s screen navigation last season was a million times better than what we had been seeing from guys like Will Barton in previous seasons. If he wants to be a top notch defender, he’ll need to make sure he gets that part of his defense right.

Gillespie had a few nice drives, but the size seemed to really bother him on offense and his lack of size didn’t bother anyone when he was on defense. But he’s smart and generally finds a way to the right spot. Kamagate looked like he wasn’t ready yet so he’s probably not getting bought out of his new overseas contract anytime soon.

Grant Golden was impressive. I will say I don’t think he has the athletic ability to make it, but I can’t say he didn’t look a bit like Jokic out there. He had some dribble handoffs, a nice pass to a cutting Tyson with maybe an inch of space, he hustled hard, put his body on people, and showed some touch around the basket. I read the hype pieces and thought it was just that but seeing is believing, I think he’s going to make a strong case for a 2 way spot

[famicommander]

Pickett's deal has a team option for a 4th year, and they just signed Hunter Tyson to the same deal. So that's all 15 roster spots used.

My guesses for the two-way spots:
1. Collin Gillespie
2. Grant Golden
3. One of Funk, Franklin, or Stanley

[famicommander]

Jalen Pickett has been signed to a 3 year deal.

We have one main roster spot and one two way spot left, assuming that Gillespie and Tyson are two-ways. Hopefully nobody tries to poach Gillespie like OKC did with Jack White.

[Houshmazode]

Nuggets have a trade exception from the Morris / Barton / KCP / Smith trade that expires soon, tomorrow I think. Can't find anything about it online but I think it's around 9 million? Hopefully they use it.