While the idea of the Nuggets as the second best team in the Western Conference is unbelievably asinine, they did well to keet their two most important free agents in Nene and Arron Afflalo. 

They may have lost Wilson Chandler, J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin to China (temporarily or forever), but only Nene and Afflalo were irreplaceable for the Nuggets and have been signed to $67 million and $43 million contracts to remain 40% of the team’s starting lineup.

Neither player has made an All-Star game and lacks several of the necessary requisites needed to become a team’s franchise player, but both would be very good third or fourth options on a team that still has a motivated Carmelo Anthony. If Nene and Afflalo are your best players, even on a team that has extraordinary depth, your upside as anything more than a warm-up fight in the first of the playoffs is limited.

As we have seen again this offseason, big men are paid handsomely and the $13.4 million annual average for Nene feels like an appropriate valuation. He doesn’t have very moments where he can take over a game by imposing his will on opponents, but Nene is an opportunistic scorer that converts at the rim quickly and will exploit mismatches against defenders who cannot match his athleticism.

Nene’s scoring efficiency decreased after the Anthony trade and may fall again without having Kenyon Martin setting him up in the underappreciated ways he would.

The Nuggets will get Nene during the absolute peak of his career over the life of his contract, but paid significantly more than he would have signed during the 10-11 season when they low-balled him instead of making a competitive offer.

Grade for Nuggets: C+

Nene was in a weird position with his free agency where the teams courting him (Nets and Rockets) also were attempting to acquire the likes of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol via trade. The leverage Nene had on Denver was dependent on those situations going a certain way.

The gamble Nene made on heading into a new CBA without a contract clearly paid off handsomely. Nene gets to continue to make his home in the Denver area where his wife is from without giving the Nuggets a hometown discount.

Grade for Nene: A- 

While so many players are paid based on longshot potential, or past All-Star performance, it is nice to see a player like Afflalo get such a lucrative deal. Afflalo does so many little things to help his team win in terms of defense, ball distribution and leadership that are easy to ignore since he plays a glamour position where its best paid players are so often one-way scorers.

Afflalo is one of the most consistent defensive players at shooting guard in the entire NBA. He may not be as capable as Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade to get one late game stop when you really need it since he doesn’t have extraterrestrial athleticism, but his commitment on every possession significantly lowers his opponents’ success rate and prevents many of those late game situations from even happening.

Afflalo’s offense has made substantive improvements, but he is no team’s idea of a lead scorer and doesn’t have much room for another jump. He shoots better than 40% from three-point territory, which is excellent, but doesn’t create a whole lot off the dribble. Afflalo’s scoring comes within the flow of the offense and that makes his points less valuable since they can be fairly easily replaced.

There are inherent risks with letting your restricted free agents sign an offer sheet with another team, but it seems like the Nuggets overpaid prematurely. Afflalo received a lot of interest from other teams, but if another team was preprared to radically beat this offer, they would have done so as the Warriors did with DeAndre Jordan

Grade for Nuggets: C+ 

Like Dahntay Jones before him, Afflalo parlayed a supporting role into a very nice contract. Afflalo has a much better chance of meeting those expectations since he gets to continue in the same role instead of taking his game into a new situation as Jones did with the Pacers.

Grade for Afflalo: A 

The Nuggets successfully preserve the relative status quo by re-signing Nene and Afflalo as the main, locked-up nuculeus, but they may find themselves in an identical situation to the Rockets. Daryl Morey has been unable to convert his asset wealth into a legitimate superstar since it is so difficult to trade four quarters for a dollar bill in this league if you’re not the Lakers or Knicks.

Denver already knows what that is like on the opposite end due to their trade negotiations concerning Anthony.

Like Morey did with Kevin Martin and Luis Scola, the Nuggets may be trying to trade Nene and Afflalo for a Pau Gasol-type of franchise player after a few years of remaining a 40 to 45-win team.