What else can the Nuggets and Jokic do?

Welcome back to the Shisan Arena.

Everyone knows that the Nuggets' season has ended and Jokic's peak has been wasted another year.

This season, Jokic is still an absolute MVP player. He played 70 games in the regular season, averaged 36.7 minutes per game, scored 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks, with a shooting percentage of 57.6% + 41.7% + 80%.

Average triple-double, scored 2 three-pointers per game, ranked fourth in the league in playing time, and ranked in the top three in the league in scoring, rebounds, assists and steals... Jokic was really burned out.

In the playoffs, the Nuggets, with a weak lineup, played two rounds of tiebreakers, facing the entanglement and encirclement of Zubac, Chett + Harten, averaging 40.2 minutes per game, scoring 26.2 points, 12.7 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, and 0.9 blocks, with a shooting percentage of 48.9% + 38% + 77.2%... It really gave it all.

To be honest, even if the Nuggets lineup is airborne, it is probably impossible to do better than Jokic.

So the Nuggets, what should I do next?

At present, they have three most realistic problems:

1, head coach candidate;

2, Braun's contract renewal;

3, reconstruction of core rotation. Let's talk about it one by one - the choice of the head coach is likely to make Adelman Jr. become a regular.

After all, in the playoffs, his joint defense arrangement effect is still very obvious, and the Clippers and the Thunder both played very uncomfortable;

At the same time, as an old friend of the club, he can be regarded as a good relationship with the players, and his relationship with the players is also good - whether he can get the support of Jokic is the most important consideration.

And the famous coaches in the market, such as Budenholzer, Jenkins, Vogel, etc., all have their own problems, and may not be more suitable for Jokic than Adelman Jr.

followed by Braun's early contract renewal - he has made great progress this season, averaging 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks in the regular season, with a shooting percentage of 58% + 39.7% + 82.7%; although the playoffs has declined, he still averaged 12.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.7 blocks in the game, with a shooting percentage of 45.3% + 30% + 71%.

In terms of this performance, the average salary is estimated to start at 20 million - Bridges' performance that year was close to his current season, signing 90.9 million for four years.

Then it means that the Nuggets' salary space will be completely locked: Murray's maximum salary contract will officially take effect next season, Gordon will have to renew his contract next season's contract year. In addition to Porter Jr. and Braun, the Nuggets will definitely break through the second luxury tax, so there is no room for more operations.

But if Braun is not renewed early and when he becomes a restricted free agent, the Nuggets will be extremely passive and risk losing him in vain - Braun has been the only young man that the Nuggets have successfully cultivated in recent years.

So in terms of lineup reconstruction, the Nuggets probably really have to take action against Porter Jr.

The problem is that Porter Jr.'s performance in the playoffs this year was really bad, his contract was large, and his transaction value was really limited.

is basically impossible to exchange for players of the same price and can play; if it is broken into several small contracts, it is difficult to find the next buyer - and the actual effect may not be better than Porter Jr.

At least during the regular season, Porter Jr.'s performance was pretty good; he was trapped in the playoffs due to a shoulder injury and his poor performance was still a reason.

The biggest motivation for the Nuggets to deal with him is that the team's insufficient salary space and the lineup is too thin - the two contracts of Sharic and Najib are the most deadly and cannot be beaten at all.

And the Nuggets have no draft picks available, and there is only one first-round pick available for trading in the next seven years, so there is really limited operational space.

So, if the market feedback from Porter Little Market is not good, is it possible for the Nuggets to put Murray on the shelves as well?

The possibility of course exists - Murray is actually in good shape in the past two years, but it is no longer magical compared to the year he won the championship; the only non-selling product of the Nuggets is actually Jokic.

And Murray's trading value is always higher than Porter Jr. - players who can take the ball off the ball are always more popular; those teams that lack main control and scorers will probably not have little interest in him.

Even Gordon and Braun may be used by the Nuggets to sign first and then exchange in exchange for the opportunity to reconstruct the lineup;

But the premise is to ensure that the team is still in the window to win the championship so that Jokic will not be distracted after a long setback.

Of course, Jokic has to play a role - even if it is excellent to attract some veterans who are still capable of fighting to invest in the basic salary. After all, the current situation of the team is really limited in operations.

To be specific, the core weakness of the Nuggets' current lineup is that the bench depth is extremely insufficient: so we need to find ways to deal with contracts such as Porter Jr., Sharic, and Najib to replace them with more cost-effective players; Jokic also needs to shake people online and recruit veterans.

The second is that there is a lack of defensive resources. The team's best defenders are Gordon and Westbrook... So in terms of lineup configuration, we must strengthen this shortcoming and make the team's offense and defense more balanced.

Third: Behind Jokic, there is no suitable substitute center, so the team's dependence on him is getting bigger and bigger: so he has to find a spare tire for Jokic so that he will not be over-consuming.

The Nuggets' Reinforcement Ideas are probably these three.

But how to do it and whether it is possible to achieve it depends on what the new general manager who has not yet decided on them can come up with.