With a roster currently sitting at 13 signed players, and the 14th expected to be Jusuf Nurkic, at a total salary of approximately $70.4 million, the Denver Nuggets didn’t have a lot of wiggle room to retain free agent point guard Aaron Brooks and small/power forward Jan Vesely.
Brooks is expected to ink a deal with the Chicago Bulls, according to Marc Stein of ESPN:
The Chicago Bulls are finalizing a deal with free-agent guard Aaron Brooks, according to sources close to the talks.
Sources told ESPN.com that the Bulls are closing in on the addition of Brooks to give them some backcourt scoring punch off the bench.
In Chicago, Brooks will likely serve as the third guard behind Derrick Rose and the newly re-signed Kirk Hinrich. In 29 games with the Nuggets, Brooks averaged 11.9 points and 5.2 assists in 29 minutes a night. He waived his no-trade clause with the Houston Rockets to join the Nuggets (traded for Jordan Hamilton), to showcase his playing ability. It’s unfortunate that Brooks was not able to land a backup spot, as he looked more than capable of still handling a big workload at just 29 years-old (he turns 30 in January).
Vesely is finalizing a deal to play overseas for the coming season, according to reports on Haberturk.com. And another report from Ben Standig of Comcast Sportsnet Washington had this to say about Vesely:
According to reports, the 6-foot-11 forward from the Czech Republic has agreed to terms with Fenerbache Ulker from the Turkish Basketball League. With the help of Google Translate, the report indicates Vesely is expected to arrive in Istanbul next week to finalize a deal.
Vesely averaged14.6 minutes, 4.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 0.8 steals in 21 games with the Nuggets. Head Coach Brian Shaw was often complimentary of Jan’s game and there was some mutual interest in both bringing Jan back and Vesely wanting to return to Denver, but it’s likely that roster spots, playing time, and money all got in the way of a deal.
He entered the NBA in 2011 as the 6th overall pick of the Washington Wizards and Vesely may find out that once you’re out of the league, it’s hard to get back in. Though, he may be happier playing overseas as his NBA career never much got off the ground.
The Nuggets are still in the market for a third point guard, but no targets have appeared yet. Denver could enter the season with an open roster spot if they don’t sign any other free agents and that could allow them to pick somebody up during the season as insurance for injury, but the team doesn’t sound too concerned about having a full roster if somebody impresses and is available. Erick Green will continue to get a long look from the club.
