The Nuggets were coming off of a terrible past two seasons and after trading away two starters, it did not look like 2015-16 had much in store for the Nuggets. But they have been pleasantly surprising this season. They come into the All-Star break with a 22-32 record and are in the race for the eighth seed in the West, 5 games back from the Jazz. They are also not too far away from having a top five pick in the 2016 draft. I don't want them to have a top pick and if they do end up getting one that isn't in the top three, they should trade it away. There are enough young players on this team that are showing potential, that I feel that another mid-lottery pick would just clog up the rotation.
Nikola Jokic has improved throughout the season and has become an important part of the offense and is often the second option behind Gallo who has played phenomenally through the first half of the season. Jokic is going to be a major weapon for the Nuggets in coming years because he scores with ease from both inside and out and is a pretty good rebounder as well. The only aspect of his game that is lacking is his defense, but he should be able to improve on that in the coming years. Look out for Jokic to have a very successful two months post All-Star break.
Gallinari is the surprise of the season for this Nuggets team. He has made major strides in his game since his injury and has put up almost 20 points, 5 rebounds and almost 3 assists per game this season. Many thought that it was a mistake to sign him to an extension last summer, but now that is looking like a bargain.
Emmanuel Mudiay has had a tough first season so far, but he does seem to be improving on his game throughout the season. He has limited his rookie mistakes as of late and is becoming a more efficient player. He still needs to work on getting good shots because he has a good shooting stroke, but he takes too many contested looks. He is shooting an abysmal 33% from the field. Over the past 17 games, he is shooting 38% from the field. It's not great, but it shows that he is improving his shot selection. His turnovers are also down from about 3.9 per game before to 2.9 over the past 17. He should start looking like the player many thought he would be coming into the season after the All-Star break.
Jusuf Nurkic took longer than many thought it would for him to get healthy and once he was finally healthy, he was hurt again. He has been coming off of the bench because of the emergence of Jokic. Those two should be able to play together in the future, but as of now, Jokic is the starter and Nurkic is forced to come off of the bench. He finally had a good game against Detroit on Wednesday, putting up 16 points and 11 rebounds. He is the best interior defender on the team, but he needs to be able to stay on the court for the rest of the season.
Will Barton has been the biggest surprise for the team this season. He went from an energy guy off of the bench to the biggest scoring threat on the bench and the third biggest scoring threat on the team. He is scoring 15.5 points on 45.5% shooting and grabbing 6 rebounds per game. The Nuggets signed him to a very cheap three year $15 million deal last summer and the the front office is probably rejoicing that they have him on such a cheap deal for the next two years.
Gary Harris has blossomed into one of the best wing defenders in the league and has improved him offensive game immensely. His improvement on the offensive side of the court earned him more minutes, which has allowed him to showcase his defensive abilities. I wish he would shoot a little bit more than he does. He does a good job of getting to the rim and finding good shots.
The Nuggets will make a playoff push in the second half of the season and the player discussed above are going to play a big role in ultimately get them there. They have over preformed this season so there is no reason that they can't over perform some more. Everyone involved in the team has the incentive to make the playoffs because, as I said earlier, another young player will just mess with the rotation. It will be interesting to see if they do anything before the trade deadline. I don't see anyone that they could trade for that would immediately improve the team, without losing some important young pieces.
This is about as excited as I have been for the second half of a basketball season since 2013 when the Nuggets finished in third place. They do have an easy schedule down the stretch because they had the third hardest in the league pre All-Star break. They play LA twice, Cleveland, San Antonio and Oklahoma City once. The rest of their games are against middling to bad teams, which gives many fans, like myself hope that they will be in the playoffs.
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