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Signing James Ennis and leaving Torrey Craig would be a smart move for the Denver Nuggets this offseason.
The Denver Nuggets are in the middle of a playoff battle with the Los Angeles Clippers, but as their postseason run continues, it only serves to highlight the team’s needs as they try to upset another team. Lately, their games have shown that they may need to find a replacement for Torrey Craig this offseason.
The player who can do that? James Ennis.
As you can see from this graph, Craig has been the most ineffective player against the Clippers and has been one of the most ineffective players during the postseason. Heralded as one of Denver’s best defensive players, he’s been anything but during the playoffs (as evidenced by his defensive rating) and if he’s not hitting 3s, he’s nearly invisible on the offensive end.
Against the Utah Jazz, Craig managed to knock down 38.1% of his 3s, but has only made 16.7% of his 3s against the Clippers. Craig, while a tough player who plays with a high level of effort, is not a great finisher, facilitator or, so far in these playoffs, defender. That limits his importance going forward and with the Nuggets having big decisions to make this offseason regarding Jerami Grant, Paul Millsap and even Mason Plumlee, Craig may find him expendable.
With that said, there is one player who will be a free agent this summer who is considered a strong defender and rebounder. A guy who’s better offensively than Craig.
Ennis threatens her.
A six-year veteran who was inducted into the All-NBL (Australian Basketball League) first team and was third in the 2014 NBL vote, Ennis is a fairly athletic player who possesses star speed on the track and a pair of significant strengths.
Not only is it easy to imagine him receiving an exit pass from Nikola Jokic, but he is a player whose ability to create an offense on his own, outside of interrupted plays, outside of second-chance points and scoring from all three levels. it can make him an even better player than Gary Harris when you consider the pressure Ennis puts on defensive players.
He has started just 103 of 347 regular-season games, but he has much better career numbers as a starter, averaging 9.0 points and 4.2 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game, shooting 48.3% from the field and 37.0% from three.
Compare that to Craig, who has career averages of 7.1 points and 4.6 assists in 25.8 minutes per game, shooting 45.2% from the field and 31.8% from three as a starter. Or even Harris, who has career averages of 10.5 points and 2.9 assists in 31.8 minutes per game, shooting 42.3% from the field and 33.5% from three.
That is not to say that Ennis is without flaws. He’s not an elite 3s shooter by any stretch of the imagination and he has a tendency to miss shots around the rim when trying to be too acrobatic. Still, replacing Craig with Ennis in the offseason would certainly be an improvement.
His potential starting skills are important primarily because of Harris’s injury history, but also because he may, in fact, be a better player than G.
In terms of the financial implications of adding Ennis, his price shouldn’t be too expensive, as he only won a two-year, $ 4 million deal in 2019. However, he has a player option for the 2020-21 season that you can continue if you want to return to the Orlando Magic.
That said, Ennis seems to prefer the idea of playing for a team that can make longer playoff runs than the Magic, who are in the Eastern Conference with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks, ‘KD and Kyrie’s’ Brooklyn Nets, a revitalized roster of the Boston Celtics. and the tough Miami Heat.
Although the Western Conference has a couple of monsters to face in the playoffs, at least the Nuggets are considered one of the best playoff teams and not one that is at the bottom tier of the conference’s playoff competitors.
Whether or not the Nuggets and Ennis will join in the offseason is uncertain, but there’s no question that he could help the team as a replacement for Craig.
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