Denver Nuggets Interested in Jrue Holiday and George Hill
The National Basketball Association (NBA) free agency period has officially began. It has started off with a bang with Blake Griffin agreeing to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers and Paul George getting traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
The balance of power in the league has shifted further to the Western Conference after Jimmy Butler was shipped to the Minnesota Timberwolves last week. And now that George is joining the Thunder, some teams in the conference are going to find it difficult to challenge for a playoff spot next season.
The Denver Nuggets are one of these teams. They plan to pursue some of the biggest names in the open market this offseason as they continue to build a team around Nikola Jokić, but luring them to the Mile-High City isn't going to be an easy task.
Sporting News' Sean Deveney has reported that the Nuggets are expected to aggressively pursue free agent point guard Jrue Holiday, but ESPN's Marc Stein said there's a "growing resignation" among interested teams that he will sign a lucrative five-year deal to stay with the New Orleans Pelicans.
With Holiday likely to re-sign with the Pelicans, the Nuggets will have to look elsewhere if they want to make an upgrade at the point guard position.
According to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune, the Nuggets have expressed interest in signing George Hill.
Hill may be 31, but he's a solid contributor on both ends of the floor and he's an upgrade over Emmanuel Mudiay and Jameer Nelson. The Nuggets have given Mudiay a lot of chances to prove that he can run their offense, but he has failed to show improvements in many areas of his game during his two seasons with the team. In fact, some have said that he actually regressed last season.
Jamal Murray may move to point guard eventually. But right now, the Nuggets need someone like Hill.