Nuggets A+ Offseason

The Denver Nuggets front office has completely transformed the roster this offseason with several high-impact moves that address key weaknesses while maintaining championship aspirations. New co-GMs Ben Tenzer and John Wallace have executed a brilliant strategy despite being hired just days before the draft, making moves that restore depth, add versatility, and relieve salary cap pressure.

• Trading Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson brings a more complete player who can dribble, cut, and defend while maintaining elite shooting
• Acquiring Bruce Brown on a veteran minimum contract returns a key championship piece who understands Denver's system
• Trading Dario Saric for Jonas Valanciunas potentially solves the longtime problem of backup center play behind Jokić
• Adding Tim Hardaway Jr. provides veteran bench scoring and shooting from multiple positions
• New roster construction gives coach Malone lineup flexibility, reduces starter minutes, and better develops young players
• Front office moves address prior tensions between management and coaching staff
• Team now positioned for title contention with improved depth and future financial flexibility

Let's start the season now! When can October get here? This has been truly, truly exciting.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & New Nuggets Management
• 4:48 Draft Night Strategy
• 5:32 The MPJ-Cam Johnson Trade
• 9:09 Bruce Brown's Return
• 10:47 Valanciunas & Hardaway Acquisitions
• 14:16 Newfound Depth & Title Contention

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar. This is probably the most excited I've been to do an episode in quite a long time. A lot has happened since I've recorded While I was on a family vacation, lying around doing nothing. The Nuggets were quite busy and I am absolutely excited to talk about all the different moves that they've made and why I think they have been pretty amazing, and I am absolutely excited to talk about what's upcoming for the season and just how these moves I think are going to make a huge impact on the team. So let's just jump right into it. First, the Nuggets hired a GM. Finally, they took quite a long time and this was the first move. So I will say there was some skepticism, not only from myself but also from kind of the Nuggets community. And what they did? They hired Ben Tenzer and John Wallace, so they kind of hired co-GMs and what their plan is is each guy will kind of handle a different part of the job, which it's different, and that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, it's just different and I'm interested to see how it works. Ben Tenzer is supposedly like a salary cap wizard and can run the day-to-day operations of it, while John Wallace is kind of the basketball mind and has the relationships around the league and so in the best scenario, this works out amazing because two minds are better than one and so, while they are inexperienced, I do get the plan and we'll have to see how it works, but right now I like it and obviously I'm looking back on this, judging it from the moves that they've already made, which I've loved. I will say, when the move was first made, it did feel a lot like the cronkies were just going for the inexperienced, cheaper guys and it almost felt like josh wanted to make himself the GM without the title. Now, the way things have worked out, I don't think that is true. It really seems like Tenzer and Wallace are doing great, working well together and had a plan, even though they were hired so late in the process. So it's kind of interesting looking back on it how I felt then and how I feel now, and we'll have to see how the season goes and how these next few years go. But right now it looks like Tenzer and Wallace are really working well together and you have to love what they've done so far. So great start.

Speaker 1: 3:08

They didn't hire these guys until right before the draft and everybody was freaking out, but the way it has turned out as I will probably say it multiple times during this episode I am so excited what they've done. So let's get to it. As I mentioned, the draft came just a few days after they were hired, and so really I wasn't expecting anything to happen. Although Ben Tenzer had been working in that role as a temporary placeholder for the GM until he got officially hired on. It wasn't like they didn't have anything going on as far as talking to other teams and trying to work out any trades or anything like that. The draft came and went and and they didn't do anything, which was fine. I didn't want them to make a panic move and trade a bunch of resources just to get into the back of the first round and take a flyer on a young guy that that maybe they had eyed hopes for, but I was 100% okay with the fact that they didn't do anything on either night of the draft, because now the draft is two nights but we don't have resources, and that was one of the problems that Calvin Booth left us is he traded away almost every single draft pick that we have for the next seven years, and so it did not give us flexibility or options to make moves and so I'm glad we didn't use the remaining resources that we did have just to make a desperation move. So draft nothing happened. That's okay Because free agency actually started very quickly after the draft.

Speaker 1: 4:44

That is where the nuggets plan took place. Free agency kind of started and normally you'll get moves the first minute free agency starts you. The league doesn't really like that because it obviously shows that the teams have been tampering with players and talking to each other behind the league rules. So I think probably just for show. But this year nothing really happened the first half hour or so free agency and so I was refreshing my phone constantly just kind of wondering what was going on, which technically those are the rules. So I guess that's how it is. But the Nuggets kind of made the first big move of the night and it was a pleasant surprise. It was kind of shocking, it was truly amazing. They traded Michael Porter Jr and our first round pick in 2032 for Cam Johnson. Now this is an unbelievable reset and has so many positives for the Nuggets.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Just some pros I think Cam Johnson is a better all-around player. It gives us salary cap flexibility. Michael Porter Jr was not any fault of his own, but he was extremely overpaid and it's just a fresh start both for Michael Porter Jr and for the Nuggets. The only con is giving up an unprotected first round pick in 2032, because at that point Nikola Jokic is going to be 37, and who knows if he'll be playing by then. But it's well worth the risk.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Now I mentioned Cam Johnson. I think is a better all-around player. Michael Porter Jr is one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, but in game action he's very inconsistent. His overall numbers look great, but Mike will have games where he just can't hit a shot to save his life, and if he's not doing that, he doesn't bring much else to the table. Now Cam Johnson he can actually dribble, he's a great cutter, his basketball IQ is off the charts and he plays better defense. I would say the only area that he is not as good as Michael Porter Jr is rebounding and, truthfully, mpj was inconsistent with that as well. So I love this move so much.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Cam Johnson is one of those guys that Nuggets community has just been dreaming of. This has been kind of like a dream trade that we've always thrown out there for the last couple of years, just because Cam Johnson is such a good fit around Jokic Murray, really all of our starters and so, as I mentioned, mpj is a fantastic shooter. Cam Johnson is probably just as good a shooter, especially if you look in game action. His numbers are the same and he hasn't had the chance to play with Jokic yet, where you just get better shots. You get more wide open shots when you play with Jokic, and so the fact that he can actually dribble the ball, that's going to open up our offense so much more, because it won't be all on Jokic and Murray to get the ball moving. The fact that he's an amazing cutter he will get easy baskets from Jokic. The fact that his basketball IQ is so high that's going to help both on offense and defense. It's just a dream fit. And the fact that he's $17 million a year cheaper gives us a chance to add other players, which obviously we're going to go over as well to the team to give us just a better all around team. So this was an A plus trade.

Speaker 1: 8:35

I love MPJ. I might have to do an episode just solely on MPJ, just because what he did and what he accomplished with the Nuggets is absolutely amazing and I don't want to just rush it and just kind of throw it in here at the last second, so I'll probably do a separate episode. But MPJ amazing Nugget, but it was maybe time to move on, and the fact that we were able to do this it's truly amazing. So that got the night off to a wonderful start and if we just did that alone it would be an amazing offseason. But Tenzer and Wallace, they had more plans and while the MPJ move was extremely surprising, bruce Brown coming back was the least surprising move of the offseason.

Speaker 1: 9:24

He loves Denver. He never wanted to leave. He only left because if someone's offering you $23 million and another team can only offer you $9 million, that's a pretty easy decision. No matter how much you want to stay, you got to go get that money. And so Bruce has bounced, bounced around the league the last couple of years. But it was almost a foregone conclusion that once he was able to come back, he was going to come back and the fact that he already had made all that money made it that much easier for him to sign for the veteran minimum. And he just wants to play in Denver and play with Jokic again and you can't blame him. That was the best basketball of his career. He won a championship with us. I think he just loves the city in general. He's kind of become a cowboy and he's going to provide depth for us. He's technically our backup point guard, which it's great. He can do that. I would love to see them maybe add a true point guard in the future. But Jalen Pickett is going to get that chance as well, and so I love Pickett. So we'll have to see. But Bruce Brown coming back Awesome for the locker room, awesome for the floor, a plus move again.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Now, the next day, in another huge surprise, we somehow traded Dario Saric for Jonas Valanciunas. Dario. We signed him last offseason. I had high hopes that he could be a good backup center. He's kind of like a garage sale version of Jokic, where he's a big man that can pass and shoot and do all things. But he may be past his playing ability. He's gotten older, he's had a bunch of injuries, so he just was stuck at the end of our bench all year and was kind of a huge miss for the Nuggets. Last year we somehow traded him for Jonas, or his nickname is Big Val, and Big Val will be the best backup center that the Nuggets have had during the Jokic era.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Big Val will be the best backup center that the Nuggets have had during the Jokic era. He's perfect for what we need. He could start on quite a few teams in the NBA. He's still that good. He's on a pretty good contract. He's going to allow Jokic to sit and rest for a little bit and the team will not fall apart. On his own he can create offense, he can score by himself, he's a good passer, he's a good shooter. He again, he's exactly what we need Like these moves. The Nuggets are making everything that we've been hoping for the last two years.

Speaker 1: 11:56

The Nuggets are doing this offseason. Now there is a little bit of controversy. He might not come and play for the Nuggets. He wants to go back over to Europe and play for a Greek team and I hope that gets worked out and he comes to play because, like I said, it's such a perfect fit for what the Nuggets need and it sounds like it's going to get resolved and he will come play. But I really I want him to want to be there. We don't want another Nurkic situation where he's just kind of pouting on the bench and it's just counting down the days till the season's over. So I hope it all gets worked out, because this move is another A plus move and if we can get it all worked out and both sides are happy, I think it's going to be such a huge addition.

Speaker 1: 12:42

And just getting Saric off of the salary cap and just replacing him with a quality player like this I cannot tell you how excited I was when this move happened. And then, just to top it off, the Nuggets got Tim Hardaway Jr on another veteran minimum contract. So they've been adding quality players. They've been going the right direction with the salary cap to give them more flexibility. But Hardaway Jr is exactly what the Nuggets needed on the bench A veteran who's not scared of the big moments, who's an excellent shooter, who can handle the ball, he can play multiple positions. It's just. It's almost like you gave Tenzer and Wallace a dream checklist and they're just like, yeah, I'll do that, I'll do that, I'll do that. And I couldn't be happier with the moves they make. They still have some flexibility to do one more move, not even counting if they're going to pull off some dream trade again.

Speaker 1: 13:38

But these moves give the Nuggets depth. And if you've listened to any of these episodes last couple years, we've been dying for the Nuggets to have some depth. They had good players last couple years, but they were so set on one specific plan that if anything happened whether it be an injury, whether it be the drama that we found out about later it just sunk the team. With this newfound depth, there's less pressure on the starters, there's more flexibility in lineups. Adelman's going to be able to mix and match these guys and they all fit so well together, which means there's going to be less minutes for the starters, which will hopefully mean that they're less worn down come the playoffs, when we need them to be fresh and ready to go. This will allow us to develop the young guys. It was not a good situation for the young guys to try and develop in last year when we're putting them out there with guys that might they might be on other NBA teams, but probably not and when you're getting destroyed by six points every minute when the starters are out. That's not a good way to develop, because every shot is then high pressure, because if you don't break the run that the other team is on, coach Malone's going to call time out and put the starters back in, and so this newfound depth with with the veterans, the flexibility, just all of it works in just perfect harmony together and it's going to.

Speaker 1: 15:16

I'm so excited for the season. There's going to be so many possibilities that we can do and I feel like we've upgraded at so many positions and the off season is not over yet. So who knows what the Nuggets will do from here on out? Or it gives them flexibility to kind of play the first half of the season, see how everybody's fitting together, and now we have flexibility around the trade deadline. So this could not have gone better. What they've done so far and what they have the possibility to do in the future. It puts them right back into title contention. It gives Jokic, I think, maybe a little bit of weight off his shoulders that he does not have to carry everything. There's still going to be pressure on Jamal because he needs to be that number two guy for us, but I really think it just shows Calvin Booth's plan could have worked. Michael Malone would have loved to have coached a team like this, but they were just butting heads and they kind of destroyed each other that it would have been so nice to see them pick one path or the other, or work together to provide a team like this for Jokic and Murray and see what could have happened the last couple of years for Jokic and Murray and see what could have happened the last couple of years. But it's over now. We have this team now and it's just so exciting what they've done this offseason.

Speaker 1: 16:39

So quick episode today, but I wanted to share my thoughts and I am so excited what is going to be happening for the Denver Nuggets. Let's start the season now. When can October get here? This has been truly, truly exciting and we'll have more episodes. Like I said, we need to give a shout out to MPJ for what he did for the team and we might have more moves to talk about in the future, but for now, that is it. Thanks for listening everybody.