In the last 20 minutes of his Lowe Post podcast with Kevin Arnovitz today, ESPN columnist Zach Lowe named the Denver Nuggets as the second-most intriguing team heading into free agency, behind only the Toronto Raptors.
As Lowe pointed out, the Nuggets have $34 million in cap space, and clear points of need at the power forward and point guard positions. He also mentioned that the Nuggets seemed to appear on his list every year, and "We say this every year, [but] it feels like something's going to break here." After briefly recapping the details of the rumored Cleveland-Indiana-Denver trade that would have sent Kevin Love to the Nuggets, Lowe offered Arnovitz a hypothetical: if the Cavs offered Love to the Nuggets for Gary Harris, Kenneth Faried, and a top-5-protected first-round pick, should the Nuggets take it?
Arnovitz said no, because, while he liked Kevin Love as a player, and found the prospect of him and Nikola Jokic playing together an "incredibly fun" idea, he felt that Harris's timetable and upside coincide better with the Nuggets' long-term plans than two years of Kevin Love. "There will be power forwards in the future," he said. "The Nuggets might even develop one." At this point, every Nuggets fan listening to the podcast probably thought back to the Nuggets' draft and silently agreed.
Lowe slightly pressed the issue, pointing out that Cleveland wasn't using Love at the levels he was capable of in Minnesota, and that the certainty of Love's good play could be more valuable than the possibility of excellent play from Harris in the future, but on the whole thought Arnovitz's objections were reasonable. He and Arnovitz moved onto the question of whether the Nuggets should offer Blake Griffin the max (a question that became obsolete about an hour ago, as Griffin now plans to re-sign with the Clippers), and after some back-of-the-envelope math, both he and Arnovitz agreed it would be worth the gamble, as a 4-year max would leave them room to extend Jokic, Harris, and Jamal Murray in the coming years. "Sure, why not," Arnovitz said, "and while you're at it, offer the same deal to Millsap."
From your mouth to Tim Connelly's ears, Kevin Arnovitz.
Other topics touched on included the Nuggets possibly playing Murray at the 1 ("I don't see the problem; you've got other players on that team who can make plays"), and whether Jokic is underrated as a defender (Lowe says yes). The whole podcast is worth a listen, even if many of the announcements made today have already dated it--it's fun to hear Lowe predict the Rubio trade a full day before it happened!
