Arron Afflalo Making the Most Out of the Mile High
After being tossed to the wayside by the Detroit Pistons and their financial woes, Arron Afflalo is looking like the next big steal for the Denver Nuggets.
As I have mentioned before, Detroit deserves a lot of credit for Denver’s success over the past few seasons. Detroit chose Darko over Melo in the draft, gave up Chauncey Billups for a disgruntled Iverson, and most recently traded Afflalo and Walter Sharpe to Denver for a future second round pick.
Denver is becoming a rehabilitation site for bargain bin-tagged players to come in and improve. Dahntay Jones and Chris Andersen have flourished and even Renaldo Balkman has shown some flashes of being a legitimate NBA player (although I still think he was one of the weirdest first round picks ever). However, these are also the same Nuggets who gave up Marcus Camby for peanuts not too long ago. That aside, as their record attests, they are not afraid to pull the trigger on multiple trades.
After losing Jones to free agency and the Pacers, the Nuggets acquired Afflalo with the hopes of being Jones’ defensive successor to the team. Afflalo, who was drafted by the Pistons 27th in the 2007 NBA Draft, has fallen in and out of Detroit’s rotation over the past two seasons. He joins the Nuggets with 149 career games in which he’s averaged 4.9 points and 1.8 boards. In eight games with the Nuggets so far, he has upped his statistics across the board, and with his bigger role on the team, has produced with 10.4 points a game.
When watching Afflalo this season, it seems as if he has gained an extra step and is faster with the basketball. He is a mosquito on defense and is successful at pestering bigger guards and making them pick up their dribble more quickly. The loss of Jones is beginning to look like it will hurt more on paper and in scouting reports than it will actually change the dynamic of the Nuggets this season. Afflalo knows his role and embraces it with full force. He is a better shooter than Jones and is just as quick. Another trait that Jones and Afflalo both share is their unlimited motor and never giving up on a possession.
For these sorts of role players, next year is never guaranteed. Jones moved around through the NBA and D-League before landing with the Nuggets after a stint on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Afflalo was a phenomenal college prospect that has had mixed results as a two guard in the League thus far. He now has an opportunity to make a name for himself in the same fashion that Jones did.
Afflalo is going to get minutes this season and on a team as offensively top-heavy as Denver, they need a defensive-minded talent. Whether Afflalo is the answer or not, someone on the Nuggets is going to have to step up and adopt the role of shutdown defender. Otherwise, we might be seeing the no “D” Denver Nuggets once again.
Next up in Denver’s player resurgence: Johan Petro…I couldn’t even get through typing that without laughing.
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October 28th, 2009 at 10:27 am
AdvancedMind says:
Afflalo has always been nice, the fact that he didnt play on Detriot aka “The first rounder cemitary”, doesnt mean he was bad, just means he never really got a chance to be on the court enough. He has enough quickness to guard an average point guard and enough strength to guard a shooting guard, plus he can knock down the open 15 footer and get to the line a little bit. I can see him helping Melo out alot by checking the other teams best front court player, plus Billups is getting a little older and slower.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:51 am
AdvancedMind says:
My bad, the back court player.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Daddy Dollars says:
Spellcheck can bring it on both ends of the court, however he was in a numbers game with the pistons last year (having two many guards) and this off-season (not enough bigs) so he had to be moved. I don’t think Joey Dumars wanted to move him, because in so many ways he’s a poor poor man’s Dumars. Defensive stopper, more athletic than you think and capable on offense. If you look back to last season whenever the pistons made a run in a game afflalo was on the court and normally involved in sparking it. Great pick up by the Nugs.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Kermit The Washington says:
Dumars been makin’ me mad lately. Remember a couple years ago when cats really wanted Afflalo? He wouldn’t give him up, and there were some good offers for him at the time. Now he finally gives him up for a future second round pick and some doritos. GTH outa here man.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
RonNation says:
Gilbert will be out for the season in less than 2 months.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
sh!tfaced says:
Nobody made the most out of the Mile High than Kobe did.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Reddi Red says:
ok……call me crazy, but with what the Pistons have now…I would rather have AA instead of Rip!
October 28th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Mark says:
This guy is going to surprise some people. He fits in perfectly here as a guy who can do everything Dantae Jones did plus he’s a decent option on the offensive end of the court. If he can handle 20-25 minutes a night JR continues in his role of burning the other team’s bench. I really like what the Nuggs did in adding him and Lawson, who is going to prove to be a high impact player as early as this year.