NBA Free Agents 2011: Denver Nuggets Must Re-Sign Arron Afflalo To Stay in Hunt

Despite the fact that the Denver Nuggets acquired guard Rudy Fernandez from the Dallas Mavericks earlier in the week, they still have work to do. Shooting guard Arron Afflalo remains unsigned, but the Nuggets must re-sign him to remain in the Western Conference playoff hunt.

Like last year after dealing Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks, the Nuggets appear to have a very deep team. The front line is stocked with big bodies like Nene, Danilo Gallinari, Chris Andersen, Al Harrington and Timofey Mozgov. Also there are plenty of versatile guards like Fernandez, Ty Lawson and Andre Miller.

With that said, the Nuggets lost a lot of their depth during the offseason as well. Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler and J.R. Smith all signed overseas in China and are currently stuck in their respective contracts. That means that losing Afflalo would only further damage what was once the deepest team in the league.

According to Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post, executive Masai Ujiri is "very optimistic" that the team will be able to re-sign Afflalo and that is certainly a good sign. While Fernandez and Corey Brewer may be able to make up a bit for what the Nuggets would lose in perimeter defense, Afflalo is also an incredibly efficient offensive player.

Not only did Afflalo average 12.6 points and 1.5 three-pointers per game last season, but his percentages were impeccable. He shot nearly 85 percent from the charity stripe, 42 percent from beyond the arc and just shy of 50 percent from the field overall.

Without Afflalo, the Nuggets would be seriously lacking a complete guard who competes and excels on both ends of the floor. While Denver does have a full stock of interchangeable players, Afflalo is the rare guy they have that really should be playing major minutes every night.

I wouldn't call the Nuggets title contenders by any stretch of the imagination, but with Afflalo they would be safely into the playoffs. If they aren't able to work something out, however, their playoff chances would diminish more than the casual observer might think.

Statistically Afflalo isn't going to blow anyone away, but the Nuggets are essentially full of players that you can say that about. The reason why it worked so well in the second half of last season is that head coach George Karl was able to rotate players constantly without missing a step.

Afflalo was an integral part of that rotation, so the Nuggets' front office must do everything in its power to get him back into the fold. If they are unable to do so, then some team is going to be pleasantly surprised by how good of a player they brought in.