OT - Kleiza to Europe. Nuggets weaker?

Does this move weaken then Nuggets at all? Does this make us better than them now?

 

A little. Kleiza is a chucker, who probably hurt their offense more than helped it. When he was on, he could hurt you though

 

http://www.sportstwo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145161

 

Sweet. This undoubtedly makes Denver weaker in my mind.

This is what Yahoo shows as their depth chart:

Code:

 Complete Depth Chart
PG	Chauncey Billups	Ty Lawson			
SG	J.R. Smith	Arron Afflalo			
SF	Carmelo Anthony	Renaldo Balkman			
PF	Kenyon Martin	Renaldo Balkman			
C	Nene Hilario	Steven Hunter			

JR starting with Melo on the wings? There's only one ball. Balkman as both backup SF and PF? Steven Hunter was traded for a second round pick, btw, so they have pretty much zero front court depth.

Edit: hm... guess they have Chris Anderson and Malik Allen as well. But still, that's not very deep.

 

How is that not deep?

Billips, Anthony, Martin, Smith, Nene, Balkman, Anderson, Afflalo, Allen, Lawson........That's a solid 8, with 2 more decent players.

 

I think it's a big hit to their squad.

 

Allen and Balkman are hardly decent. And Afflalo is a downgrade from Dahntay Jones. Lawson is a question mark.

Comparing them to the Blazers, I'd say they're not nearly as deep. We have Blake (better than Lawson at this moment), Rudy (better than Afflalo), Webster (better than Balkman), Outlaw (better than Allen), and Joel (better than Anderson) coming off the bench, with Bayless, and our two rookie PFs riding the pine as our 11-13 men.

 

I swear I looked, didn't see it. Sorry!

But in my defense, your thread was before it was official! It is official now.

 

I think it does hurt them, but not significantly so. I think the addition of Lawson and Afflalo could make up the difference fairly well. Remains to be seen though.

 

Webster is NOT better than Balkman. Balkman is a very good defensive player who only averaged 1 point less than Webster in 2 less shots per game, PER 36 minutes.

Again, PER 36 minutes, the only thing Joel does better than Andersen is defensive rebound. Andersen scores more, blocks a ton more, steals more, assists more.

Our 2 PF riding the pine because they should.

Blake MIGHT be better than Lawson, but we don't know.

PER 36 minutes Afflalo has a better FG% and 3pt% than Rudy does as well. He averages slightly more rebounds, blocks and less TO's than Rudy, while Rudy averages slightly more assists and steals. To me, they seem pretty even.

Outlaw is better than Malik Allen

 

Nuggets definitely got worse this offseason. Kleiza was their Travis so to speak, who could get 20-25 pts or just give you nothing, but he was an offensive threat. Afflalo is not good on O, and Malik Allen is garbage. And Balkman? yuck, just the same type of player as Andersen but not as good. Denver's top five is as good as anybody's in the league, but after that, it's not good.

 

It does hurt them. Kleiza could really light it up, good for playing the 3 and even 4 in a small ball lineup. That's one less weapon they have off the bench. Balkman won't be scoring any 40 pt. games.

 

not worried about denver anymore..the division is ours to lose

 

yeah dont worry about it

 

Losing Kleiza and Dahntay Jones definitely hurts the Nuggets. Last year, the Nuggets had a high scoring bench with J.R. Smith and Kleiza leading the way. With the loss of Jones, Smith moves into the starting role. So, now with no Smith and no Kleiza coming off the bench, where is their bench scoring going to come from? Jones wasn't a great player, but he played solid defense and was consistent (consistently below average, but consistent). J.R. Smith is one of the most wildly inconsistent players I have ever seen. He's exactly the type of player who can score 32 points one game and then 0 the next, or 45 points one game and 5 the next. When his shot is falling, he's almost impossible to stop, but when it's not he will shoot his team right out of the game. It is this inconsistency that has kept him from being a starter, because the talent is definitely there. Inconsistency in a bench player is tolerable. If his shot isn't falling, you just park him on the bench and hope for better the next game. Inconsistency in a starter is more of a problem as the coach and his teammates never know what to expect from one game to the next. Thus, the inconsistency can be contageous.

Also, I don't think their starting 5 is all that great. K-Mart isn't nearly the player he once was. His production has been in steady decline for years. He only averaged 11.7 PPG and 6.0 RPG with a PER of 13.6 last season. Not counting the 2006-07 season where he only played in 2 games due to injury, his PER has decreased 5 seasons a row: 18.7 - 17.5 - 16.7 - 14.7 - 13.6. His PER is dropping by about a point per season and I don't see that trend reversing any time soon. He also hasn't had a post season PER above 12.1 since 2004. He's no longer a quality starting PF. At this point, Chris Andersen and Renaldo Balkman are both probably better players than K-Mart, but those are their two energy guys off the bench. So, it's doesn't make a lot of sense to start one of them over Martin. I also don't think Martin would take the demotion well. He has openly fueded with George Karl in the past, and could become a distraction if he's moved to the bench.

BNM

 

This.

 

You know initially I thought this wouldnt' hurt them much because he plays the same position as Carmello. But then I thought about how last year when New Orleans let Pargo go, and how much that hurt them, and they thought it wouldn't matter much. This may end up the same.

Dahntay Jones was one of the only guys on that team that would defend, plus he had a nasty/cheap side much like Bowen. When he is on your team you love him. When he isn't you hate his fucking guts.

 

Lot of pressure on the starting five to get it done day in and day out, because they shouldn't expect their bench to bail them out very often (unlike last year)

The starting five don't come across to me as the most consistent bunch, so I see Denver going through some rough spots on their schedule . . . I don't see them matching last year's win total.

 

Q about the Hunter trade . . . Denver traded Hunter and a 1st round pick for a second round pick. Was that the deal? Was the salary dump of Hunter so importatnt as to give up a first round pick to a team that has some aging players?

What was behind this trade?