The Numbers
- NBA Rank: 17
Conference Rank: 12 
Denver Nuggets
The Brief
Last season the Nuggets bounced back from having their best regular season in franchise history by missing the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. A lot of this was inept management. There was also some inept coaching. The Nuggets did their best to bring Nuggets fans back to the late 90s. Will this season look any better?
The Story
What happens when you lose two of your top players to injury, another to free agency, and a third to a stupid trade? You go from a franchise high 57 wins to 36 wins and no playoffs.
Last Year
| Player | Minutes | Age | WP48 | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Randy Foye | 2,485 | 30 | 0.098 | 5.1 |
| Ty Lawson | 2,222 | 26 | 0.173 | 8.0 |
| Kenneth Faried | 2,178 | 24 | 0.208 | 9.4 |
| Wilson Chandler | 1,927 | 27 | 0.038 | 1.5 |
| J.J. Hickson | 1,859 | 25 | 0.099 | 3.8 |
| Timofey Mozgov | 1,770 | 28 | 0.118 | 4.4 |
| Evan Fournier | 1,503 | 21 | 0.006 | 0.2 |
| Darrell Arthur | 1,161 | 26 | -0.095 | -2.3 |
| Nate Robinson | 866 | 30 | 0.048 | 0.9 |
| Aaron Brooks | 841 | 29 | 0.021 | 0.4 |
| Quincy Miller | 789 | 21 | -0.001 | 0 |
| Jordan Hamilton | 670 | 23 | 0.116 | 1.6 |
| Andre Miller | 570 | 38 | 0.146 | 1.7 |
| Anthony Randolph | 527 | 25 | -0.014 | -0.2 |
| Jan Vesely | 306 | 24 | 0.150 | 1.0 |
| JaVale McGee | 79 | 26 | -0.213 | -0.4 |
Indicates that the player is no longer with the team.
The Nuggets lost their general manager Masai Ujiri to free agency. In Toronto the Raptors managed to flip both Bargnani and Rudy Gay and become a good team again. The Nuggets decided the best move was to undo most of Masai's work, and did they ever! Andre Iguodala left the Nuggets in free-agency. It's easy to see why a veteran would ditch a team without a general manager or coach to go play for the Warriors. The Nuggets also lost Corey Brewer, which should have been a good thing. However, to replace Iguodala and Brewer they picked up Randy Foye and Nate Robinson, which wasn't even close in value. The Nuggets also inexplicably traded away Kosta Koufos for garbage. They then replaced Koufos with J.J. Hickson, who's skills overlapped with Kenneth Faried. In the end, the Nuggets were a hot mess.
This Year
| Player | Position | Minutes | Age | WP48 | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arron Afflalo | 2.0 | 2,231.9 | 29 | 0.061 | 2.9 |
| Ty Lawson | 1.0 | 2,139.2 | 27 | 0.144 | 6.4 |
| Kenneth Faried | 4.0 | 1,993.5 | 25 | 0.161 | 6.7 |
| Timofey Mozgov | 5.0 | 1,990.5 | 29 | 0.086 | 3.6 |
| Danilo Gallinari | 3.0 | 1,984.7 | 27 | 0.135 | 5.6 |
| J.J. Hickson | 4.0 | 1,498.8 | 27 | 0.094 | 3.0 |
| Randy Foye | 2.0 | 1,482.3 | 31 | 0.079 | 2.4 |
| Wilson Chandler | 3.0 | 1,411.0 | 28 | 0.063 | 1.9 |
| JaVale McGee | 5.0 | 1,326.3 | 27 | 0.104 | 2.9 |
| Gary Harris | 2.0 | 1,002.0 | 0 | 0.096 | 2.0 |
| Alonzo Gee | 2.5 | 937.7 | 28 | 0.034 | .7 |
| Nate Robinson | 1.5 | 822.0 | 31 | 0.094 | 1.6 |
| Darrell Arthur | 4.5 | 807.7 | 27 | -0.050 | -.8 |
| Jusuf Nurkic | 5.0 | 507.7 | 0 | 0.133 | 1.4 |
| Quincy Miller | 3.0 | 482.5 | 22 | 0.024 | .2 |
Indicates that the player is new to the team.
The Nuggets did onething right in the offseason in ensuring Kenneth Faried stays on board. Also, at a less than max contract over five years, when the salary cap balloons, expect Faried's contract to be the best veteran deal for many years. If the Nuggets can also get lucky and get semi-healthy Gallinari and McGee to play some minutes, they'll improve. Arron Afflalo is a decent shooting guard. For whatever reason the Nuggets have been obsessed with overpaying older, mediorce guards the last two seasons. The Nuggets only real hope for improvement this season is if some of their older better players can come back healthy.
The Wrap
Faried and Lawson are a great way to start an NBA team. You just have to surround them with decent talent. Luckily, the Nuggets have the cap space to do that in future season. This year though? Expect a moderate improvement from last year. They may even stand a shot at the playoffs if Shaw uses some good rotations. I'm not holding my breath though.