Barring an improbable but not impossible finals run, this summer will bring a renewed look at whether the organic growth of young players is enough to take the next step or whether it is the time to rely on external talent accumulation around Wembanyama.

With Castle and Harper both blossoming in their young careers, the role for Fox and even Vassell may look very different than originally envisioned when they signed their respective contracts. How leadership values each of them in the coming years will be worth monitoring.

Denver had a great offseason signing highly coveted veterans like Hardaway and Brown, but only to short term contracts. Leadership will need to either retain these key rotation players or find replacements in their young players or in the draft.

The previous leadership traded assets to take many bites at the draft apple in the hopes that they could find the correct rotation players late in the draft to surround and support Jokic and the core. Thus far, this leadership has gone searching for veteran role players to be in the rotation and players like Strawther and Holmes have fallen out of the rotation as a result. This offseason may provide some direction.