Denver Added a Wing. The Center Spot Is Still Empty.

Lonnie Walker IV is a Nugget, signed to a one-year, $3.3 million deal that gives Denver a seventh NBA season's worth of perimeter scoring behind Jamal Murray. It's a sensible add. Walker spent last year with Maccabi Tel Aviv and comes back to the league with something to prove, which tends to produce useful minutes.

The problem is that the Nuggets' most urgent need isn't on the wing. As I noted two days ago, Jonas Valanciunas is gone — off to Europe — and nobody has replaced him behind Nikola Jokic. That's still true this morning. Walker doesn't play center. The front office addressed a real secondary concern while the primary one sits unresolved.

The wing situation has its own complications. Watson, Gordon, and Brazile are all day-to-day heading into August, which is part of why the Walker signing made sense — you can't count on that group being healthy when camp opens. But if even one of those three misses significant time, Denver's depth at forward gets thin fast, and Walker becomes a necessity rather than insurance.

Training camp isn't far off. The Nuggets have the core to compete — Jokic and Murray at full strength is still a problem for any team in the West. But the roster around them has more question marks than it did a year ago, and the backup center position remains the one nobody has answered yet.