Darrell Arthur Agrees To 3-Year, $23 Million Deal With Denver Nuggets
Darrell Arthur has agreed to return to the Denver Nuggets on a three-year deal.
The Denver Nuggets are not known for making big splashes in free agency. Denver isn’t known as a destination for big-name free agents, leading to the team building themselves up mainly through the draft and through trades.
But one thing Denver is very good at is securing effective role players to team-friendly contracts. Darrell Arthur is the latest to find this out.
In an offseason where it feels like everyone who has ever picked up a basketball is getting $10+ million per year, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports that Arthur has agreed to a three-year deal worth $23 million to return to the Nuggets. Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post first reported the length of the deal.
Darrell Arthur's new three-year deal with the Nuggets will pay him $23M, league source tells @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2016
This is undoubtedly a bargain deal for Denver. While Darrell Arthur isn’t exactly a flashy name, he’s a very solid player who provides valuable minutes for the Nuggets. Arthur averaged 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 21.7 minutes per game last season. According to FOX Sports, Arthur is also third on the team in defensive efficiency, behind only Nikola Jokic and Kenneth Faried.
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Not only is this considered an extremely affordable deal on its own, it becomes even more so when compared to some of the other deals being handed out to similar players. Take Jeff Green for example. He averaged 11.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game and agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the Orlando Magic. He’s being paid almost double what Arthur is getting annually for extremely similar production.
And just to capture the true essence of how crazy this free agency has been and how well the Nuggets made out, let’s compare it to the contract of former Nugget and new L.A. Laker, Timofey Mozgov.
The big man agreed to a four-year, $64 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers despite averaging just 6.3 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game with the Cavaliers last season. Mozgov also averaged just 5.8 minutes per game in the playoffs.
Seeing a deal like that puts in perspective what a bargain Arthur’s contract really is. Before this offseason, it would’ve just seemed like a normal deal, but considering what the cap is doing to the league and how much it’s inflating contracts, it wouldn’t have been surprising at all to see Arthur making upwards of $12 million per year.
Arthur is an important piece of this rebuilding Nuggets team. At 28 years old, he’s actually the second-oldest player on the roster behind only 34-year-old Jameer Nelson. He provides a solid veteran presence and valuable depth at the power forward spot. This new deal also makes Kenneth Faried, someone whose name consistently appears in trade rumors, even more expendable.
The Nuggets have explored trade options for their franchise star for some time now, most recently at this year’s NBA Draft. If Denver were to strike a deal to send him packing, Arthur gives them the depth they would need to survive the deal (assuming a big man doesn’t come to the Nuggets in return).
Nikola Jokic, Jusuf Nurkic, and Joffrey Lauvergne are nice bigs to have, but those three alone wouldn’t be enough to compensate for a potential Faried departure. Keeping Arthur around gives them a fourth competent big man, which they would certainly need in this scenario.
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Agreeing to this team-friendly deal with Darrell Arthur is a great start to free agency for the Nuggets, and there will likely be a few more smart deals to come for this Denver team.