Denver

Nuggets ROSTER

The Denver Nuggets signed Facundo Campazzo from the Real Madrid Basketball Club in Spain. The 29-year old Argentine will be playing his first ever season in the NBA after quite a storied career in Spain and Argentina. The point guard is last year's Spanish League Finals MVP and a two-time Argentine League Finals MVP.

The Denver Nuggets were trying to fill a couple of holes in their lineup this offseason. With the departure of Mason Plumlee and Jerami Grant, the frontcourt had a huge hole they tried to fill by adding JaMychal Green from the Los Angeles Clippers. They also re-signed PJ Dozier and Bol Bol to make sure their frontcourt is, at the very least, competitive behind Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap.

Their backcourt also needed an upgrade, which they tried to address on draft day by drafting 19-year old point guard RJ Hampton and proven international playmaker Facundo Campazzo. One would think that the Nuggets needed to sign a bigger name if they wanted to contend this year. In the offseason, they were linked to stars like Jrue Holiday, Bradley Beal, and James Harden to try and beef up their backcourt, but for now, they'll have to settle with the pieces they currently have, especially with Holiday traded to the Bucks and Harden going to the Nets.

Most recently, the Denver Nuggets were part of a four-team trade which included the Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans, and Oklahoma City Thunder. It was the blockbuster deal that sent Jrue Holiday to the Bucks while Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams were sent to New Orleans. Denver, for their part, sent a future first-rounder to OKC and gained draft rights to this year's 24th overall pick from the Bucks. With the pick, the Nuggets landed guard RJ Hampton fresh from a one-year pro stint in New Zealand.

The best Denver Nuggets roster of all-time has to be the 2008-09 squad. Led by 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony, the ‘08-09 Nuggets were two games away from making it to their first NBA Finals appearance. Anthony was joined by other perennial members of the starting unit like Chauncey Billups, Nene, Dahntay Jones, and Kenyon Martin. Denver also had a resurging Allen Iverson in the line-up as well as a young JR Smith - the team's leading three-point shooter at that time.

The team finished with the second-best record in the West (54-28) and took care of business early in the postseason. They only dropped two games in the first two rounds against the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks before running into the Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol-led Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The Nuggets lost that series against the Lakers in six games with LA eventually winning the 2009 NBA Finals against the Orlando Magic.

The Denver Nuggets' salary cap for the 2020-21 NBA season is currently at $127,368,106 (via Spotrac), which puts them around $17 million over the league's 2020-21 salary cap. They've locked up their two main superstars Nikola Jokic (until 2022-23) and Jamal Muray (until 2024-25) for the next few years, which means they have little to no room to simply add another superstar anytime soon without trading away members of their current payroll.

Will Barton will be the Denver Nuggets' 6th man this season. Barton has been in and out of the starting lineup since coming to Denver, but he was a staple in the starting unit for the Nuggets all of last season. Unfortunately, Denver missed Barton's services in the bubble, which saw the rise of second year forward Michael Porter Jr. Barton's ability to create his own shot and light up the scoreboard should be key for the Nuggets' second unit all-season long.

The Denver Nuggets' starting unit consists of Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Michael Porter, Jr., Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic. Porter Jr., who started just eight games for the Nuggets last season, has earned the starting nod with the departure of Jerami Grant, while the rest have been a staple in head coach Michael Malone's first five for the past few seasons.