Former Denver Nuggets point guard Jameer Nelson, who was officially waived on the opening night of the NBA season and signed a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans four days later, has no hard feelings towards the Nuggets’ organization but says it wasn’t a matter of if Denver was going to move on from him, but when.
“No,” Nelson said at shootaround when asked if he was surprised that the Nuggets waived him after starting 40 of the 75 games he appeared in last year while also helping guide Denver into contention for the eighth seed in the Western Conference. “It was no secret management and ownership wanted the two younger point guards to play. So it’s not a secret, it’s just reality. It wasn’t a surprise it was just a matter of when was it going to happen.”
“It was bad timing, but it is what it is. I have no bad emotions or hard feelings about Denver and their decision,” Nelson added. “It’s a business and like I told Tim (Nuggets’ president of basketball operations Tim Connelly), it’s a business. I understand it is what it is. Never want to complain about a situation. I’m still playing.”
ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported this week that Denver had a deal in place to trade Nelson to a lottery-caliber team in exchange for a protected second-round pick. Instead, Denver opted to waive Nelson out of good faith clearing a path for the 14-year pro to sign where he pleased. He chose New Orleans.
“I appreciate the opportunity that they gave me to play here and extend my career and show people that I can still play at a high level,” Nelson said.
The 35-year-old, who averaged 9.2 points on 44.4 percent shooting from the field and 38.8 percent from three last season for Denver, is playing a key bench role for the Pelicans. Nelson is scoring seven points per game, has seen his field goal percentage dip slightly but is still converting at the same rate from distance.
It’s also no secret that the Nuggets (who host Nelson’s Pelicans Friday night, 8:30 p.m. MST, ESPN) miss the veteran’s presence. Besides his locker room leadership and veteran savvy, Denver has struggled with turnovers this season despite getting off to a rock-solid 8-6 start. Through 14 games both Murray and Mudiay are averaging more than two turnovers per contest and opponents are scoring 20.6 points per game off Nuggets’ giveaways — a mark which ties Denver with Minnesota for the highest average in the league.
Those growing pains are expected with two young points guards who are just 20 and 21-years-old respectively.
“He’s just a stabilizer,” Pelicans’ coach Alvin Gentry said of Nelson who’s averaging 1.5 turnovers per game with New Orleans. “As a coach, you feel comfortable with him in the game. You know that things are going to be done in the right way. He’s not afraid to take a big shot or make a big play and when you’ve been around for 15 years, you know everything there is to know about this game. We got him, he was with us for half a day and we played the Lakers and he made all the big plays down the stretch for us. And he’s a good guy to have around. A very likable guy. He can speak his mind without offending anyone and so those kind of guys are hard to come by. We’ve been trying to get him on our team for the last couple of years.”
Nuggets’ coach Michael Malone, who admitted that it was tough to see Nelson go, said turning over the reigns to Denver’s young point guards made sense.
“He was a great leader for our young players,” Malone said at practice Thursday. “And then on the court, he was playing at a high level for us last year. But at the same time, if you look at the big picture, you give Jamal and Emmanuel room to grow and develop. It was the right thing because I didn’t want Jameer to be here and not be playing. That would have been tough for him, and I understand that. He wants to play, and rightfully so. He showed last year he still has some gas left in the tank.”
Nelson is settling into a new lifestyle in New Orleans, one with a lot more humidity than he had been used to over the past three years he spent in Denver, but he’s comfortable and it has been a relatively easy transition.
Aiding in that process is Pelicans’ assistant coach Chris Finch, who spent last year with the Nuggets and helped Denver to a league-leading offense over the latter two-thirds of the 2016-17 season. Nelson and Gentry agree that while the Pelicans are implementing “some of the same things,” that the Nuggets did last season, it’s taking time for every cut, action, and off-ball motion to mesh together because much of the roster isn’t used to playing that style.
“Some of the things that he did (in Denver) I really liked,” Gentry said of Finch. “Offensively, where you’re not walking the ball up the court and throwing it into big guys but having big guys play out on the floor and become decision makers and facilitators too. I really wanted him on our team and I worked really hard to try and make that happen. I thought he would be a great coach for us.”
After finishing last season with an offense that ranked 26th in the league and averaged 103.3 points per 100 possessions, the Pelicans’ offense has improved by two points and ranks 13th in the league this season, per NBA.com. New Orleans is also averaging 321.3 passes through 15 regular-season games, up from 298.5 a year ago.
The Nuggets are scoring 104.7 points per 100 possessions this season, down from the 110.0 averaged last season, but have had to implement a second-year point guard in Murray, free-agent signing Paul Millsap and Wilson Chandler into their starting lineup.
While Nelson says he didn’t buy into Denver’s offense last year until later in the season because it obliged him to cut, screen and do things he wasn’t used to after playing primarily pick-and-roll basketball throughout his career, once it did work, the Nuggets had fun and excelled within it because nobody cared who scored. He’s seen some of that carry over to New Orleans already.
“We get a lot of open threes. Those two guys are unselfish on and off and off the court,” Nelson said of playing with DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis, both of whom are putting together All-Star caliber seasons with the Pelicans. “The transition for me has been easy playing with these guys. They welcomed me with open arms.”
