Hanifan's Offseason Outlook: Evaluating the Denver Nuggets' 2024 offseason

Hot Hot Hoops senior writer Matt Hanifan will provide his take on the offseasons of all 30 teams for the next 30 days! Today, we are looking back on the Denver Nuggets’ offseason!

Previous Offseason Outlooks:

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Additions: Russell Westbrook, Dario Saric

Subtractions: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Jackson, Collin Gillespie, Justin Holiday, Braxton Key

Re-signed: Jamal Murray, DeAndre Jordan, Vlatko Cancar

Draft: DaRon Holmes II (No. 22 overall)

Hanifan’s Take: No Nugget fans want to remember Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, blowing a 20-point second-half lead inside Ball Arena. As a result, there was a new champion for the sixth time in six years–parity! The offseason didn’t off to a great start as Caldwell-Pope signed a three-year, $66 million deal in Orlando; while he didn’t have the impact that Jamal Murray or Nikoa Jokic did, he was an integral piece. Replacing him won’t be easy. The Nuggets drafted help behind Jokic in DaRon Holmes–who they were incessantly linked to pre-draft. Unfortunately for him and Denver, he tore his Achilles in his first Summer League game, ending his rookie season well before it even started. Saric can be a fine stretch-4/5, but he’s undersized to play the latter heavy minutes. I’m not high on Jordan at this stage of his career, for obvious reasons. They added to their bench by replacing Reggie Jackson with Russell Westbrook. I’m interested to see how his chemistry with Jokic develops. All in all, I wish Denver would’ve done more. It is asking a lot of Christian Braun, Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson; I’m a believer in Denver’s young core, but if it has any hopes of winning another title this upcoming season, at least two of those three players must have sizable leaps in 2024-25.