The Denver Nuggets capped off a miserable season by finishing ten games under .500 and a whopping 23 games behind division winner Oklahoma. The Nuggets woes were especially evident on road trips as they were 13 games under .500 when playing away from the confines of home.

Much of the Nugget’s woes could be blamed on the injuries that simply savaged their lineup and basically sabotaged head coach Brian Shaw’s first season behind the bench. JaVale McGee played a whopping five games all season, J.J. Hickson tore his ACL in late March, Ty Lawson missed a quarter of the season due to various ailments and to cap it off Danilo Gallinari sat the entire season after a second surgery to repair his ACL.

Heading into this offseason the Nuggets aren’t entirely sure as to what to make of their roster. Will Gallinari return to form after more than a year away, will Hickson be his explosive self and what will McGee contribute for his $10 million annual salary. There is little question that the most valuable commodity in Denver right now isn’t even a player; it’s in fact Brian Shaw who is rumoured to be courted by Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks. Seeing as the Nuggets fleeced the Knicks once already on the Carmelo Anthony trade it is somewhat surprising that they don’t let Shaw go and take further compensation from the struggling Knicks.

The Nuggets have made some decent personnel moves over the years; however, few of those have come via the draft. In fact the Nuggets have fared remarkably poorly in the NBA Entry Draft since 2006. The lone bright spot in that stretch of futility has been Kenneth Faried who was taken 22nd overall in the 2011 draft.

The Nuggets landed the 11th pick in this draft courtesy of the Knicks and the Carmelo Anthony trade. With this pick the Nuggets need some immediate help as they are facing yet another season of rebuild in Denver. Not only are they facing the prospect of being a non-playoff factor again next season but that privilege will cost the club over $68 million in salary. They won’t be landing a franchise changing player here at this draft slot, but they need a consistent and a solid contributor nonetheless.

Biggest Draft Day Need:

The Nuggets have a point guard in Lawson and they have a solid player in Faried. Outside of those two there are roster questions at every spot and every player. The Nuggets don’t need another point guard and they don’t need power forwards as they have Hickson too, they don’t really need a center with McGee and they are probably anxious to see Timofey Mozgov progress even further. Assuming the Nuggets are confident in Gallinari regaining his form at small forward; that leaves one roster hole that needs addressing.

Grabbing a shooting guard here has to be a priority and the Nuggets should have a deep pool of talent to choose from with this pick. The most likely candidates here are former Michigan State Spartan Gary Harris and former Michigan State Wolverine Nik Stauskas.

While some draft pundits are higher on Harris, he didn’t measure as well at the combine when compared to Stauskas and is certainly going to be an undersized two-guard in the Association. While comparisons have Harris being as good as O.J. Mayo; those comparisons are way off base.

First off Mayo was a third overall selection who averaged 18.5 ppg and 17.5 ppg in his first two years in the league; Harris won’t come close to that level of production in his first two years and maybe not in his entire career.

I’m not going to say that Nik Stauskas will either, but his game seems to allow for the potential over that of Harris. Stauskas is a dead-eye knock down shooter who will come into the league and immediately demand respect everytime the ball gets rotated out to him on the perimeter. Stauskas would give the Nuggets a much-coveted shooting specialist who can flat out score the ball.

His shooting stroke is as natural as they come and to land a prized shooter like this outside of the top-ten picks in a draft is really unheard of. Stauskas has that shooter mentality that breeds success. Every shot is going to be good, every release is the same, footwork is the same, body square up is exact and the follow through is merely the proverbial bat-flip on a deep homerun.

I see Stauskas as a Kyle Korveresque player except with starter minutes attached. Their measurements are fairly similar in terms of reach and vertical jump. Albeit Stauskas is going to have to improve his core-conditioning to take the abuse and rigors of the NBA schedule, but this young man has the absolute potential to be a tremendous draft pick.