….

and trade bait.

Ujiri is one of the 3 best GMs in the league. He gets it. A quality starter making below market value is an asset. He now has several of these guys. This puts him in position to trade for a star when the right one comes along.

The more legitimate concern is whether the lack of an individual premiere scorer will hurt them in the playoffs, when most opponents can force the tempo down to a half-court grind for long stretches. It’s particularly worriesome to a team that struggles to earn easy points from the free throw line, even when they do get there with regularity. Denver has to make up for it with consistent defensive intensity, which allows them to generate chances to run. They have the personnel to do it, and have shown that they can play good defense when they’re focused. They don’t always put it together for 48 minutes like they’ll have to in the playoffs, though.

Short term, they can be a very tough out if they can get their roster healthy and get some chemistry– particularly on defense. Or a pretty easy out if they struggle to score in the half-court, and miss a ton of free throws.

Long term, it will be interesting to see if they continue with this model, or at some point try to effectively reverse the Anthony deal by packaging some of their assets to try to acquire another legitimate star. Of course, that may be tough in the NBA these days when you’re not NY or LA. They should be a fun team to watch over the next few years, in any case.