Who Will the Nuggets Cut With Mike Miller Signed?
May 4, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mike Miller (18) rebounds in the first quarter against the Chicago Bulls in game one of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
It finally happened.
After multiple summers of Mike Miller visiting the Nuggets, the shooting forward finally decided to stay. Miller officially signed a deal with the Denver Nuggets Wednesday.
Now that he is signed, it’s important to ask whose roster spot does he take?
Denver’s roster was at the NBA league maximum of 15 players after cutting point guard Pablo Prigioni, small forward Kostas Papanikolaou and center Joey Dorsey. Now, after signing Miller and three training-camp invitees (shooting guard Matt Janning, small forward Devin Sweetney and center Oleksiy Pecherov) the team is at 19 players, and the front office has a decision on whom to cut before the season starts.
While it is likely Sweetney, Pecherov and Janning will be cut; the team would still need to release one additional player.
Upon reviewing the Nuggets’ roster, there are two likely candidates to be released, and one dark-horse option.
The Likely Options
First, there’s point guard Erick Green.
The 24-year-old floor general has been in and out of the NBA D-League and has always shown his ability to score in bunches. Through the first few days of training camp, Green has apparently been impressive for Denver.
According to the Denver Post‘s Christopher Dempsey, Nuggets head coach Mike Malone said, “Erick Green is playing great basketball. I’ve been very impressed with how well he’s played.”
However, being on a team that already has point guards Emmanuel Mudiay and Jameer Nelson, playing time would be sparse. In addition, outside of the Papanikolaou release, Green’s contract is the only other one that is not fully guaranteed for the 2015-16 season.
If released by January 1, 2016, Green’s contract would only cost the Nuggets $100,000.
Next, and a little less likely, there is the recently acquired guard Nick Johnson.
The 6’3″, 202-pound Johnson was brought to Denver from Houston in the Ty Lawson trade and has been criticized for his size. Many argue he is a shooting guard in a point guard’s body.
However, Johnson does have great athleticism as well as solid ball-handling and rebounding abilities.
Being so young, one may think Denver is afraid of sending a player with high potential to the D-League. Moreover, Johnson is the only remaining player from the Ty Lawson trade to the Houston Rockets still on the team.
Therefore, based on Johnson’s potential and wanting to keep something other than the 2016 first-round pick from Houston, Johnson might be safe.
Dark-Horse Option
One player many expect not to be released but could be is power forward/center J.J. Hickson.
The Nuggets have flirted with trading the 6’9 bruiser, but nothing has come to fruition.
The idea of Hickson being released is unlikely, first because the status of starting center Jusuf Nurkic in question and the Nuggets will want depth.
Also, the final year of Hickson’s current contract is for more than $5.6 million and will result in a full cap hit and total dead money if he were waived. Thus, the power forward’s spot is likely safe.
It will be interesting to see if it is one of these candidates or someone else Denver cuts.
So would you cut if you were in the Nuggets’ front office?