Isn’t it about time the Nuggets grow a hero of their own? Are you as sick and tired as I am of watching former Denver players be named MVP of the NBA Finals?
It was cool when Chauncey Billups, one of Colorado’s own, led the Detroit Pistons to the championship in 2004, once you got over the fact that the trade by Dan Issel that sent Billups packing in 2000 was among the dumbest moves in Nuggets history. And don’t even get me started about the sight of Andre Iguodala, who had one eye on the exit door the first time he stepped in the Pepsi Center, hugging the MVP trophy for the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. That was nauseating.
But between now and the NBA draft June 25, Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly has a chance to remake the roster and change the fortunes of a downtrodden franchise. It might not be fair, but whether Connelly succeeds or fails as GM could well be determined in the next week.
The Nuggets own the No. 7 pick in the first round. Do they trade up, stand pat or move back? It doesn’t matter how he does it, but it is essential Connelly finds a new basketball hero worthy of Denver’s faith.
Here are humble suggestions for each scenario:
Trade up
In the lottery, the philosophy of best player available needs to be tweaked. In an era when a 20-year-old player qualifies as mature by standards of the NBA draft, what a general manager must determine, by a combination of advanced metrics and gut instinct, is which prospect has the most potential to be a superstar within five years.
Duke center Jahlil Okafor will be selected no later than second in the first round. But he doesn’t much interest me. Why? Although 6-foot-11, Okafor plays below the rim, his defense is blah, and he cannot stretch a defense. I see a very solid pro but not a player who leads a team to a championship.
The Nuggets are aching to have a top-five selection in this year’s draft. You can hear the ache in the voice of team president Josh Kroenke. The player with superstar potential that Denver desperately needs is Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell.
How to get him? It won’t be easy. It might well be impossible. The slim hope is Russell slips to No. 4 and then the New York Knicks do something stupid, which has been known to happen under the ownership of James Dolan. At age 69, maybe Knicks president Phil Jackson doesn’t have the time or patience for his team to grow around 31-year-old star Carmelo Anthony.
Would some combination of trade bait involving point guard Ty Lawson, forward Kenneth Faried or Denver’s first-round pick tempt the Knicks to deal? The Nuggets can only pray. Chances of it happening: 10 percent. At best.
Pick at No. 7
In 2009, Golden State lost 53 games and with the seventh pick in the opening round took a slender guard named Stephen Curry. In 2015, the Nuggets lost 52 games and with the seventh pick need to make magic of their own.
After young Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic recently finished a slow walk around the team’s practice court while rehabilitating from surgery on his torn patella tendon, he stopped for a chat. When Nurkic was asked if he had any opinion on what player the Nuggets should take at No. 7, his face lit up with enthusiasm.
“Mario,” Nurkic said. That would be “Super” Mario Hezonja, a 6-8 swingman from Croatia, a 20-year-old with shooting range beyond the 3-point arc and hops that allow him to posterize any defender with a dunk.
Nurkic insists the athleticism of Hezonja has peers in Europe buzzing.
If new Sacramento Kings executive Vlade Divac doesn’t grab Hezonja with the No. 6 pick, his selection seems like a no-brainer for Denver. At the risk of being wrong, wrong, wrong, I believe the Nuggets would be making a mistake by drafting Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein or Duke forward Justise Winslow.
Trade down
While Nuggets fans were clamoring for the team to draft Doug McDermott out of Creighton a year ago, Connelly wisely ignored the noise, traded back in the first round and nabbed Nurkic.
If Denver is unable to find a way to trade for Russell, if Hezonja goes to Sacramento and if the gift of teenage point guard Emmanuel Mudiay doesn’t somehow fall in the lap of the Nuggets at No. 7, Connelly should seriously consider trading back again this year.
Frank Kaminsky might look goofy, but I love how the 7-1 Wisconsin senior can stretch the floor, pass from the paint and hit the 3-point shot for any NBA team that’s inspired to copy the Golden State trend of positionless basketball.
The Nuggets, however, drafted a player with some similar characteristics to Kaminsky in Nikola Jokic a year ago and are waiting to see how his skills translate from Europe to Colorado.
So here are two prospects to keep in mind should the Nuggets find a trade partner that allows Denver to drop back from No. 7 in an effort to stockpile talent: Devin Booker, an 18-year-old guard whose shooting touch makes him the most intriguing Kentucky prospect not named Karl-Anthony Towns, and Cameron Payne, the Murray State point guard whose stock has been steadily rising because of his ability to create jump shots off the dribble.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or
