Kosta Koufos started at center for the entire regular season, but he was benched in the playoffs for good reason. Koufos was serviceable during the regular season, he did nothing great and he played good solid defense. Towards the end of the year he fell apart. He was no longer playing good defense and without that he is basically useless. He is not an exceptional rebounder or scorer. He should not be a starter in the league and the Nuggets need to find him a new role.
Javale McGee as oodles of potential, but it does not look as if he will crack into that potential well. The team started playing better in the playoffs when he was the starter, but he still did not get a lot of minutes. He does not have a refined post game and has a hard time scoring on anything except alley oops and dunks. He is not a good defender. He sucks at guarding players in the post, other centers can do what they want. I dont think he will ever be more than a mediocre center. He is a pretty good backup though.
Timofey Mozgov was thought to be the starting center before the season, but for some reason Koufos took over the job and Mozgov ended up being a bench warmer. I like Mozgov, he can shoot and play decent defense. He can make an 18 footer which stretches out the defense. None of the other Nuggets big men are capable of doing this. He is also be a big guy who is good at boxing out. I don't know why he was ostracized, but he should not have been. The Nuggets would have had a better season if Koufos was not starting.
There are no centers that the Nuggets are capable of going after that would be worth the money. They have to improve with what they have. There are three centers that stand out in the draft, Gorgui Dieng, Jeff Whitey, and Lucas Norgueira. I would prefer Dieng because he is the most developed player. He has a decent mid range jumper and plays great defense. Whitey is mostly a shot blocker, but he plays good post defense unlike McGee. Norgueira is more of a a project, but I dont know enough about him to comment further.
The fact of the matter is that the Nuggets need to upgrade at center in the worst way and the best way to do that is through the draft.
No comments:
Post a Comment