Arron Afflalo won’t be the primary option for the Denver Nuggets this season like he was with the Orlando Magic in 2013-2014, and the career-best numbers he compiled then will surely suffer as a result. After playing two years with a franchise still in the early stages of a ground floor re-building process, though, Afflalo is thrilled to be back in Denver. And despite an absolutely loaded Western Conference and the Nuggets’ disappointing 36-46 record last season, he believes his is “a championship caliber team.”
Afflalo’s optimism is courtesy of Basketball Insiders’ Cody Taylor. He even makes vague reference to the Nuggets’ wholesale leadership change that saw the departures of GM Masai Ujiri and coach George Karl last summer as being a positive for the franchise.
“Being traded for me is a positive experience… I’m happy to be back in Denver, I got some very familiar teammates. I believe this is a championship team under the right mindset and coaching…”
“It feels good because at the end of the day that’s why you play the game,” Afflalo said. “You play the game to win it all. Individually you want to improve as a player and all of us it’s a job, it’s a career and that’s very important but it’s a team sport and you want to play for a championship and there’s nothing else to say.”
The jury is still very much out on Denver’s new regime. GM Tim Connelly and coach Brian Shaw were held in very high esteem before 2013-2014, but the Nuggets’ season muddied the luster their names carried. But Denver rebounded nicely last year after a horrific November and December, as Shaw looked increasingly confident juggling rotations and adjusting his offensive sets to the strengths of his personnel as the season wore on. And many consider the Nuggets one of the draft’s biggest winners after Connelly turned the 11th pick into Jusuf Nurkic and Summer League standout Gary Harris.
Denver’s championship, let alone postseason, season hopes hinge on more than front office and sideline influence, of course, and Afflalo’ wide-eyed optimism isn’t as wishful as it seems on the surface. Though their roster has maintained a semblance of continuity over the past couple seasons, the Nuggets are still green – incumbent core pieces Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, JaVale McGee, and Danilo Gallinari are all 26 years-old or younger.
It’s easy to forget that Gallinari missed all of last season after suffering a torn ACL late in 2012-2013, too. Denver heaped more responsibility on Gallinari’s shoulders by parting ways with Andre Iguodala, and had no contingency plan in place once it became apparent that he’d miss all of 2013-2014. While you could argue that’s an indictment of Connelly and Shaw, few teams could ably withstand the sudden loss of its primary wing creator – that the Nuggets couldn’t hardly deserves consternation. Gallo should be fully rehabilitated this season, affording Denver crucial offensive dynamism and lineup flexibility that it sorely missed last year.
And though McGee’s development has stalled, Lawson and Faried remain an impactful yet promising inside-outside tandem. Like the rest of their teammates, the Nuggets’ young stars drastically improved as last season progressed and they became more comfortable with Shaw’s system. It’s fair to expect more growth from Lawson and Faried in 2014-2015, too.
It was just two seasons ago that Denver won a franchise-record 57 games and had realistic hopes of a deep playoff run before Gallinari was injured. The West is stronger now than it was then and the Nuggets still miss Iguodala defensively, but there’s still some reason to believe that Denver could join the conference’s burgeoning middle class of sub-contenders this season. Few teams in the league boast such a collection of proven, talented players.
If Afflalo can play like he did in Orlando and Lawson, Faried, and Gallinari build on their respective games, there’s at least a chance his sanguine hopes won’t prove so fruitless come next Spring.
What do you think of Denver’s chances next season?
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