By Jordan Long
The Denver Nuggets and the Washington Wizards are completing a trade. The Nuggets are sending Will Barton and Monte Morris to Washington. Coming to Denver are Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith.
Barton played 71 games for the Nuggets this past season, averaging 14.7 points per game. Those sound great but the problem with Barton was his three-point shooting. When Barton is on, he will make the 3-pointer, keeping the Nuggets ahead or in games. There were times when he would force up a 3-point shot when he should have passed the basketball. Those shots would be misses, allowing opponents to grab the rebound and start fast breaks which helped teams back into games or increase the Nuggets deficit. Barton shot 36.5% from the 3-point line.
Barton was dealt because the Nuggets drafted the shooting guard of the future in Christian Braun. The Nuggets drafted him 21st overall. They have high expectations for him.
Caldwell-Pope was swapped for Barton. He is likely to take his place as the Nuggets’ shooting guard. He shot 39% from the 3-point line this past year, an improvement from Barton. Caldwell-Pope also added 13.2 points per game which is lower than Barton, but at least Denver has a guy who should nail 3-pointers at a better rate. That should take the pressure off of Jokic to be the only shooter on the team.
For Monte Morris, he was the odd man out when it comes to the point guard position. The Nuggets are anticipating a healthy Jamal Murray who will be the starter. Murray missed all of last year recovering from an ACL tear. When healthy, Murray is one of the top point guards in the league. Morris was expendable because of the emergence of Bones Hyland who finished his rookie year this past season. Hyland is expected to improve his game even more being the backup to Jamal Murray.
Smith gives the Nuggets more depth at point guard. He should be behind Murray and Hyland. Smith averaged 8.6 points in 22 minutes per game for the Wizards last year. He is just a body when the Nuggets are either up or down big. He is not expected to have a large role with the Nuggets.
Denver has more work to do. Free agency in the NBA begins tomorrow. Denver Nuggets’ General Manager Calvin Booth will do what is best for the team moving forward. He will decide what areas the Nuggets need to improve to become an even deeper threat to win the NBA Championship.
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