A week ago, Denver Nuggets exec Jonathan Wallace said the team was “further along” than it may have appeared. They had to be “deliberate” in the offseason, he told reporters, but, with the best player in the world on the roster and an elite starting five, their primary concern was depth.
“Now it’s just adding a few more pieces that can just give these guys, honestly, some rest,” Wallace said.
Twenty-four hours into free agnecy, Denver has done that. After Monday’s big trade, which sent Michael Porter Jr. (and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick) to the Brooklyn Nets for Cam Johnson, the Nuggets have added three veterans to their bench: Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas.
Brown, 28, played a key role in Denver’s 2023 title run, but left that offseason when the Indiana Pacers offered him a two-year, $45 million contract. He’s returning on a one-year deal for the minimum, according to The Athletic, and the Nuggets don’t have to worry about how he might fit in. He can run point when Jamal Murray’s on the bench, and he knows how to play off of Murray and Nikola Jokić. He changed playoff games for Denver with his cutting, his defense — sometimes against much bigger players — and his sheer energy.
Hardaway, 33, also arrived on a minimum deal, according to the Denver Post. He is not the defender that Brown is, but, because of the Nuggets’ particular needs, this signing might be even more significant. At that pre-draft press conference, Wallace also mentioned that the Nuggets had to “make sure that we find some more shooting.” This has been obvious for some time, and it was made even more clear when the Oklahoma City Thunder effectively dared the Nuggets’ role players to shoot 3s in the second round of the playoffs. That Denver took the eventual champs to seven games despite making only 31.5% of its 3-point attempts was a feat in itself.
Hardaway’s 3-point accuracy has fluctuated: in the last six years, he has shot a cumulative 37.4% from deep, but that number has been as low as 33.6% and as high as 39.8% in individual seasons. Regardless of whether the shots are falling, though, he is not shy. Last season, no team attempted 3s as rarely as the Nuggets, and reserve guard Jalen Pickett was their only player aside from Jokić, Murray and Porter who attempted at least six per 100 possessions and made at least 35% of them. Hardaway, meanwhile, got up 10.1 per 100, and that that was his lowest 3-point frequency since 2016-17.
Johnson, Brown and Hardaway are going to have the time of their lives playing with Jokić. The 33-year-old Valančiūnas, on the other hand, should help stabilize Denver in the non-Jokić minutes. He is a clear upgrade over Dario Šarić, whom the Nuggets sent to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Valančiūnas, and I am personally looking forward to watching him gobble up offensive rebounds and bully backup bigs. If DaRon Holmes II (who has yet to play an NBA game after tearing his Achilles at summer league) proves to be worthy of rotation minutes right away, then Valančiūnas might be a bit superfluous, but that would be a good problem.
Denver is now slightly over the luxury-tax line with 14 players under contract, per capsheets.com. It has a $16.8 million trade exception from the Porter-Johnson swap, but it might be done dealing for now. If so, the Nuggets’ rejiggered front office has successfully reloaded while getting out of salary-cap hell. If this were easy to do, Denver would have done it last summer.