In case you got caught up in all of the other trade news, you might have missed the fact that the Denver Nuggets just traded Nene to the Washington Wizards for JaVale McGee and Ronny Turiaf. What this means in the future is something we'll get to later. More importantly, it means that either Timofey Mozgov or Chris Andersen is starting at center tonight.
It's not a huge deal on the surface, since Nene was never a gigantic factor against the Thunder when he played against us last year. But the Nuggets are clearly losing their main post option, with Mozgov, Anderson, and Koufos all averaging below 5.7 points. Granted, the Nuggets will spend plenty of time driving the lane anyway, so they won't be at a loss of how to score from the paint. Still, this should free up Perkins and Ibaka to do a bit of the help defense that we've missed so much.
I would say that the Thunder have no real excuse for losing tonight, but Nene didn't play in their OT win to the Nuggets earlier this year, either. In other words, get ready for a fantastic re-match.
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