Denver Nuggets: 2016 Offseason Grades

Draft Pick No. 3

At No. 19, the guard slots and big men spots were already all but full. Adding yet another shooting guard with Denver’s third first round selection makes things interesting for Gary Harris and Jamal Murray, but Malik Beasley might have been a lottery-level talent if not for the stress fracture he suffered in workouts.

A 6’5″ 19-year-old from Florida State, Beasley is an athletic wing who shot 38.7 percent from long range in his lone collegiate season.

The stress fracture prevented him from showing the world what he could do at Summer League (aside from world class bench celebrations for his teammates), but his shooting, athleticism and ability to defend multiple positions makes him another great, young asset for this Nuggets team.

How he finds minutes in a backcourt featuring Mudiay, Jameer Nelson, Murray, Harris, Mike Miller, JaKarr Sampson and Axel Toupane remains to be seen, but having such an infusion of young talent and sorting the rest out later is a good problem to have.

Mike Malone will have his hands full with the rotation once Beasley is ready to play, but even if Denver has to trade its way out of its positional logjams, they’ve got plenty of assets to put to good use and strengthen an already promising roster.

At the very least, the Nuggets wound up losing out in the Dwyane Wade sweepstakes, preventing that backcourt rotation from being completely overloaded after the Beasley pick.

Grade: B-

Next: Draft Pick No. 4