Right now, the Nuggets are channeling their inner Nik Wallenda.
We’re witnessing them at their most uncompromising. They’re walking the tightrope of beginning steps toward a future roster course change while still keeping their eyes on a run at the playoffs.
While you were looking past this season after two recent trades, the Nuggets weren’t. And they still aren’t. They’re going to need more proof that this season is a lost cause, and to this point they have not received that on-court intel.
And so they press on.
“I want to win, man,” JJ Hickson said. “I want to make the playoffs. I’m tired of not making the playoffs. So I’m playing for the person next to me, I’m playing for the four guys on the floor and all of my teammates, actually. So I’m trying to make the playoffs and do whatever it takes.”
Hickson’s view is shared in the Denver locker room.
Ears were closed when Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly insisted any trade made was a sign of the team running the white flag up the pole to start the tearing down of the roster. But he didn’t actually have to say a word. All anyone had to do was take a closer look.
The Nuggets traded a starting center. That center, Timofey Mozgov, averaged 8.5 points and 7.8 rebounds. He was replaced by rookie Jusuf Nurkic, and all he had to do was equal that output. Going into Saturday night’s home game against Minnesota, Nurkic was averaging 8.3 points and 6.8 rebounds as a starter.
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And so, without giving up any production on the court, the Nuggets got two first-round draft picks. It’s arguably the savviest deal of the still-new Connelly era.
Then the Nuggets traded Nate Robinson, who had a skill set the team no longer needed.Plus, Robinson and his agent pushed for a trade to get him an opportunity to play more minutes for a different team in his search for a new contract next season.
But he was a scoring guard on a team that needed another playmaking guard. So the Nuggets replaced his average of 5.8 points per game with Jameer Nelson, a veteran playmaking point guard who scored 14 points Friday night at Dallas in his first game with Denver.
So what the Nuggets have done is not only keep things intact, but improve the team while collecting a couple of assets for future roster building. Not bad.
This isn’t to say that a roster overhaul isn’t coming, because the reality is it’s more likely than it isn’t. The Nuggets are in a tight spot. The record needed to get to 49 or 50 wins — the fewest a team in the Western Conference probably would need for a playoff berth — would require the Nuggets to play .720 basketball the remainder of the season.
And that’s climbing a fourteener with others trying to knock them off it.
But this has been a smart approach midway through this season. The Nuggets aren’t buried in the standings, so giving up so soon doesn’t make sense.
We’ll know a fire sale when we see it — the Nuggets’ biggest producers will go without others coming in to fully replace them. Right now, however, the Nuggets are walking that tightrope with precision.
Wallenda would be proud.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
