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We had Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post reporting recently that the Nuggets were working to bring the 55th pick of the 2013 draft to the team ASAP. Well, it looks like Dempsey's reporting is coming to fruition as Shams Charania, of Real GM, just posted this tweet:
Joffrey Lauvergne finalizing 2-year guaranteed deal with Denver worth more than minimum salary, source tells RealGM. Third year team option.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 11, 2015
And this Tweet from David Pick, from Eurobasket.com:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>French forward Joffrey Lauvergne - who left Khimki Moscow - signing long term pact with the Denver Nuggets, according to source.</p>— David Pick (@IAmDPick) <a href="https://twitter.com/IAmDPick/status/565637254090338304">February 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Joffrey Lauvergne, 23 years-old, has been compared to Nick Collison by Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly on the Colorado Sports Guys podcast. He's believed to be a high IQ player that has some grit to him, and some offensive skill. The Nuggets have an open roster spot from the Timofey Mozgov trade, and Lauvergne can fill that roster void.
King Joffrey had been playing this season in Russia with BC Khimki. In his 27 games with the Russian club, Joffrey was averaging 9.4 points and 4.4 rebounds. Before that, Lauvergne was playing ball in Serbia for KK Partizan, where he became the first non-Serbian captain for the proud franchise. Perhaps Joffrey's leadership skills will translate well to the Nuggets. He also has to adjust to the NBA game and it will be very interesting to see how he develops.
This is perfect timing for the Nuggets and Joffrey as the team is on a nine day All Star break. The team's next game comes Feb. 20th in Milwaukee against the Bucks. This will give Lauvergne some time to meet his new teammates, get some practices in with the coaching staff, and hopefully find a level of comfort with the Nuggets.
The Nuggets had been rumored to be working on a three year deal with a team option for the third. Shams is reporting it could be a two year deal of guaranteed money (so possibly a third option season), stay posted for the details as soon as they are released.