The future of Kenneth Faried’s career is hard to predict. Through his 5 years in the NBA, he has been known as a hustler and a beast on the boards. He had a breakout moment when he dominated the 2013 Rising Stars Challenge where he dropped 40 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Many thought he was going to blow up and take over following this game, but it seems that his career hasn’t quite taken that lift off.
Kenneth Faried’s tenure with the Denver Nuggets has been slowly coming to an end. They’ve been shopping him for the past 3 years and as reported by ESPN’s Zach Lowe, he’s still on the trading block:
The Nuggets will also be at the epicenter of the trade market. They’ve been dangling Faried off and on for three years, and continue to now, sources say. They could deal in either team-building direction: turn young players and extra picks into a bigger name, or go full rebuild by flipping their established veterans for more picks. You can win 30-something games for only so long before ownership jolts you in one direction — even if this ownership gave its entire front office contract extensions over the summer.
Faried’s game doesn’t really mimic the norm of the NBA. He’s always been a bruiser and an energy guy but has never been much of an offensive threat. His highest scoring season was back in 2014 where he averaged 13.7 points, shooting .545 from the field and averaging 8.6 rebounds per game. It makes sense for the Nuggets to try and get rid of Faried to make room and build around their younger guys.
The downfall of Kenneth Faried’s game is his lack of shooting. Just last season, he only took 64 shots outside of the paint, and of those shots, 62 were mid-range, where he shot 32.3 percent (20/62). That’s pretty bad. As he gets further from the basket, he becomes less of a threat. In this pace and space game, the last thing teams are looking for are undersized forwards who clog the paint. I don’t see much of a market for Faried simply because of that exact matter. If he doesn’t develop some type of jump shot then his career could be over sooner than later.
For a guy whose career is built strictly off of his athleticism and energy, as he gets older in age, his capabilities will begin to fade. And with his lack of offense and lack of size, what can he do for a team in his latter years? I can see a team possibly using him off the bench with the second unit to provide hustle points but that’s about it. The market is slim for Kenneth Faried and that’s why the Nuggets are having a hard time getting rid of him.
