NBA Rumors: Nuggets Want to Extend Faried

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Early on in the season, prior to the trade deadline, Faried was involved in trade rumors, specifically to the New York Knicks. The Knicks were hoping to flip athletic two guard Iman Shumpert for him, but that appeared to be talks they were initiating more so than the Nuggets truly being interested in trading Faried. Afterwards, Faried was at his absolute best. He averaged 18.8 points and 10.1 rebounds after the All-Star break.

It took Faried some time, but he clearly found his way in first year head coach Brian Shaw’s system. Faried, the 22nd overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, made $1.36 million last season. He’s entering the final year of his rookie contract, but the Nuggets will have until October 31 to negotiate an extension with him. If they are unable to come to an agreement, the Nuggets will have the ability to issue a qualifying offer of $3.2 million in order to make him a restricted free agent.

Over the second half of last season Faried played like a max player. That alone isn’t enough to justify a max contract, though. Last year we saw those handed out prior to the deadline to more proven players coming towards the end of their rookie contracts like Washington Wizards guard John Wall and  Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins. Wall received a five-year, $80 million deal, while Cousins got a four-year, $62 million extension. That’s likely out of Faried’s range, if he wants to make a deal before the deadline. If he wants that kind of extension, he’s going to have to put up near 20 and 10 for the entire season next year. However, if he wants to cash in now, he could probably expect to net something similar to what Utah Jazz forward Derrick Favors received. Favors’ deal was for four years and $50 million.

The Nuggets have set a precedence for paying their young players who improve in a similar fashion to what Faried has. They locked up Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari and JaVale McGee among others to long-term deals and publicly voiced how much they value Faried as well, from the coaching staff on up to the front office. Negotiations may lead up to the deadline because the price isn’t clear cut in this situation and both sides will look for the other to give a bit, but it does not look like Faried is going to be leaving the Mile High City anytime soon.

As Spears would go on to write, Van Gundy is a Bay Area native, so this would be somewhat of a homecoming for him. Many reports have labeled Steve Kerr as the favorite, but Van Gundy may be the safest hire considering the expectations.

The Warriors cannot afford to take any steps back next season. After letting go of the relatively popular (especially in the Warriors’ locker room) Mark Jackson, the Warriors need to justify their decision by hiring on someone who is capable of pushing the team to the next level soon. While Kerr could be that guy, Van Gundy has been to the Finals before with Orlando and helped groom another team into a championship-caliber one in Miami. Don’t be surprised if this is the job that ends up luring Van Gundy out of his head coaching hiatus.

While perhaps not the direct cause, Roy Hibbert did have a major bounce back performance in Game 2 against the Washington Wizards, going for 28 points and nine rebounds in the victory. His drop off overall did seem to oddly coincide with the arrival of Bynum, a two-time champion center who has clearly seen better days in his career that has been plagued by injuries. Even though Bynum only played two games, it has to be somewhat relieving for Hibbert to know that they just can’t outright replace him with Bynum. The thought had to be somewhat maddening as he was struggling. But, Bynum is out of the picture now, he’s back to playing good basketball and while they’ve lost homecourt for now, the series is tied at 1-1. It could be time for this rollercoaster he’s on to take an upswing.