The Nuggets made their first big splash of the offseason on Sunday night, reaching an agreement on a $90MM deal with Paul Millsap. However, the team may not be done going after top free agents quite yet. According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer (via Twitter), a source says to expect the Nuggets to continue their pursuit of George Hill if they can move some salary.
As O’Connor suggests, the Nuggets don’t currently have the cap flexibility to make a competitive offer for Hill, with nearly $30MM of their 2017/18 cap now earmarked for Millsap. However, Denver has trade options. With Millsap, Nikola Jokic, Juan Hernangomez, and RFA Mason Plumlee looking like the team’s core pieces at the four and five, that leaves several of the other team’s highest-paid players in flux.
O’Connor identifies both Kenneth Faried ($12.92MM) and Darrell Arthur ($7.46MM) as potential trade chips if Denver looks to dump salary. I’d imagine Wilson Chandler ($12.02MM) could also be had in the right deal, though the Nuggets would likely prefer to keep him around, since he has the ability to play the three as well as the four. Trey Lyles ($2.44MM) is also in the frontcourt picture for the club, though moving him wouldn’t create much additional cap room.
The Nuggets were linked to multiple veteran point guards earlier in free agency, with Hill named among their potential targets. Denver reportedly reached out to the Jazz point guard during the first hour of free agency on Saturday morning, and a report later on Saturday suggested the Nuggets and Pacers were among the teams that had gone a little down the road with Hill.
If the Nuggets are able to move salary and get something done for Hill, it all but eliminates a reunion with Danilo Gallinari as a possibility for the club. Given Denver’s frontcourt depth after landing Millsap, I imagine the team isn’t pushing too hard at this point to get a new deal done with Gallinari anyway.