Nikola Jokic has loads of accolades, together with three MVP trophies, an Olympic bronze medal and an NBA title. However subsequent season he might have one thing he is hardly ever skilled in his NBA profession: depth.
Denver signed Tim Hardaway, Jr. to a one-year contract on Tuesday. The 32-year-old guard began 77 video games for the Detroit Pistons final season and made 168 three-pointers, which might have ranked second on final yr’s Nuggets crew.
Hardaway’s addition follows Monday’s signing of one-time Nugget Bruce Brown and the Nuggets’ commerce for ahead Cam Johnson, and Tuesday’s swap of little-used Dario Saric for veteran middle Jonas Valanciunas.
None of those new Nuggets are superstars, however all 4 are dependable gamers with distinct NBA expertise. That is a marked distinction to final season, when the Nuggets struggled to search out reserves who they might belief with taking part in time within the postseason.
Solely six gamers even noticed the ground in all 14 Nuggets playoff video games and the crew was pressured to depend on 36-year-old Russell Westbrook for 36 minutes per sport.
Valanciunas can rating and rebound effectively sufficient to carry down the fort when Jokic rests, a time when the Nuggets typically get killed by opponents. Brown provides on-ball protection, rebounding and sensible slicing and passing. Hardaway and Johnson are glorious exterior shooters for the usually three-point-averse Nuggets, and can assist take the strain off rising wings Julian Strawther and Jalen Pickett. These two could also be stretched because the seventh or eighth males on the roster, however ought to be strong because the ninth and tenth males.
And whereas this is not a signing, the Nuggets bought excellent news about 2024 first-round decide DaRon Holmes, who tore his Achilles in his first Summer season League sport and by no means noticed the ground for the Nuggets. The Nuggets appreciated him sufficient to commerce as much as get him, and now he’ll be capable of come alongside slowly and maybe present a brand new dimension as a shot-blocker and lob menace.
With these additions, the Nuggets are firmly within the Western Convention’s prime three groups together with the Houston Rockets and the defending-champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. Having Jokic offers the Nuggets the prospect to upset anybody. Having precise depth will tremendously bump up their odds of pulling it off.
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