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Nearly every contender in the Western Conference has made a major splash in order to shake things up heading into the 2019-20 season.
Both teams in Los Angeles got serious, with the Clippers adding both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and the Lakers making the big play for Anthony Davis. Houston acquired Russell Westbrook. Even the Utah Jazz were extremely aggressive, trading for Mike Conley and signing Bojan Bogdanovic.
One team that mostly stood pat were the Denver Nuggets, who finished with the second-best record in the Western Conference. But Nuggets president Tim Connelly would still give himself an A+ grade in free agency:
Tim Connelly on the Nuggets’ offseason compared to the Clippers, Lakers, rest of the West: "We can’t control what happens elsewhere. We can’t control where we are geographically and how appealing we are to other free agents. But we can control the culture and the team success." pic.twitter.com/Wicl5ov52s
— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) July 11, 2019
Denver just as easily could have gotten involved in all the madness. Had they decided to decline Paul Millsap's $30 million team option, they would have had full cap space in order to make a run at one of the premium free agents on the market.
However, Connelly and the rest of Denver's front office were insistent from the beginning that they wanted to bring Millsap back, and that he was part of the team's future.
Instead, the Nuggets made smaller moves. They traded draft picks in order to acquire former Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jerami Grant, a stretch four who provides tremendous depth and shot-blocking in the frontcourt.
One of the biggest moves that Connelly made was done internally. The Nuggets signed budding star point guard Jamal Murray to a five-year, $170 million extension after extending center Nikola Jokic last summer.
With both Murray and Jokic locked down, the Nuggets are counting on their young stars to take the next step as Denver hopes to rise above the heap in the West.
