Denver Nuggets: Grading The Offseason

Heading into the offseason, it felt like the right time for the Denver Nuggets to fully, finally turn their back on the Masai Ujiri era. While it brought 57 wins and the third seed in the Western Conference only two years ago, the well-balanced roster without a superstar never made it past the first round post-Carmelo Anthony.

Once Danilo Gallinari tore his ACL and George Karl left, the Nuggets were doomed to obscurity with a roster advertised as “three deep at each position” and an incompetent head coach who had no idea how to manage it. Even with Gallo on the court last season, Denver underwhelmed yet again, leading to Brian Shaw‘s firing, Michael Malone’s hiring and a summer full of questions.

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Was it finally time to blow this thing up? Just how historically bad would a team built around second-year center Jusuf Nurkic be if the Nuggets did opt to blow it all up and rebuild from scratch? Were Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried all on the way out?

In order: yes, pretty darn bad, and apparently not.

After re-signing almost all of the key players from last year’s 30-win team, most people are fully aware that this will be a transitional year of sorts, but the Nuggets seem to be investing in Mike Malone and the chance that he can internally improve the team from bad to mediocre.

Following a busy summer, here’s a look at how the Nuggets made out with comprehensive offseason grades.

Next: The Draft