Now almost a week into free agency, the Nuggets are one of only two teams in the NBA yet to sign anyone. The only player the team has added to the roster so far this offseason is their first-round draft pick DaRon Holmes II.
Holmes looks like a nice pick and he should be able to help the team. One of their most pressing issues was frontcourt depth and viable backups for both Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic. They hope to have at least partially solved that issue by drafting Holmes, but that still wasn’t their biggest area of need.
The Nuggets’ biggest priority is adding shooters
What Denver needs more than anything is shooting. The modern NBA has become more and more dictated by the three-point shot and if you’re not keeping up in that department, you’re probably in trouble. At a certain point, it becomes a simple math game and if one team is taking and making more threes, chances are, that team will win.
Last season the Nuggets were dead last in the entire NBA in three-pointers attempted. The team obviously had a good offense, thanks mostly to Nikola Jokic and his absurd efficiency. But by depending so little on the three-point shot, the team is putting itself in a position to demand that absurd efficiency just to compete.
They need to flip the math and attempt more threes and they need more players who can make them. Compounding the issue is that the team has already lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson who attempted the third and fourth most threes on the team. Justin Holiday had the third-highest three-point shooting percentage and he’s also currently unsigned.
Nuggets can’t just expect current players to shoot more
The players expected to fill the void are capable shooters but they’ve never shot at a high volume in the NBA. Asking guys like Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, and Julian Strawther to step in and start firing away is a tough, and risky proposition.
But the bottom line is they need to get more shots up and make things a little easier for themselves; that starts with three-point shots. The Nuggets need to use one of their remaining roster spots on a sharpshooter who can come off the bench and jack up shots.
Russell Westbrook is certainly not that guy, but there are shooters available. The Nuggets need to go out and get one or two before other teams pass them by.
