Rebuilding is the dirty little word general managers love to avoid and team marketers love to hate. Something about it just says “nothing much to see here,” and if you’re trying to get fans in the seats that’s not the message you’re hoping to send.

As such, the Nuggets have been living in the middle; not giving in to utter the word “rebuild” but also not promising playoffs.

“I fully expect to be better than last year,” Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said. “I don’t want to put any concrete barometer on what’s good or bad this year. But we’ll be better.”

It, by all rights, has been a good summer for the Nuggets. The trick is convincing everyone that, in fact, there is a lot to see.

After a combined 66 wins over the last two seasons, the myriad of moves the team made this offseason appears to have the organization pointed in the right direction. Connelly’s definitely bullish on his team’s future.

“I’m beyond excited about where we are right now,” Connelly said. “We have a long way to go, but I think we have some foundational pieces to really build off of.”

So just what did the team accomplish this summer? This is an in-depth look at the state of the Nuggets a couple of months before training camp begins.

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FINANCIAL

The Nuggets did not look outside the organization for free agent help. One, they didn’t have the cap space to be able to be a real player in free agency. But most importantly, they wanted to retain some of the players they already had. So they put all of their efforts there.

The Nuggets agreed to over $100 million in new money on the extensions and re-signings of Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Will Barton and Jameer Nelson. That number does not take into account the expected signing of Darrell Arthur.

“I’m excited about the guys who have chosen to be in Denver,” Connelly said. “These guys have effectively chosen to be here and shown their affinity for the organization and the city. It’s exciting.”

But if you’re thinking the Nuggets have extra cap room for 2016 with the Lawson trade, think again. They’ve already soaked up Lawson’s salary spot over the next couple of seasons with Gallinari’s extension. He’ll make at least $14 million in each of the next three seasons.

But it doesn’t mean the Nuggets are in dire financial straits. Far from it.

An NBA salary cap on steroids is the biggest help. The Nuggets, as most other teams in the league, should have room to hand out a max contract next summer to a free agent if that’s the route they want to take. Final numbers on max contracts are based on the salary cap and years of service for the player involved.

The cap rose 11 percent this year to a higher-than-expected $70 million. The expectation is it will rise over $90 million next season with the luxury tax well over $100 million. The Nuggets’ all-inclusive salary figure for next season (i.e.: all options and non-guarantees included) is around $65 million next summer — and that number includes the near $6 million qualifying offer, which could be extended to recently acquired Kostas Papanikolaou. Waive him this year? The savings grow.

In other words, next summer they can back up the Brinks truck to whomever will take the cash.

As of the end of July, headed into this coming season, the Nuggets were right up against the cap, but in no danger of hitting luxury tax territory. In fact, the Nuggets haven’t been a tax team since the 2009-10 season. So from the Masai Ujiri/Josh Kroenke duo to the Tim Connelly/Kroenke duo, the Nuggets have done a nice job of staying away from the dreaded repeater tax.

Additionally, the Nuggets have plenty of assets in the form of four first-round draft picks for 2016. One of those is the right to swap picks with the Knicks as the final piece of the 2011 Carmelo Anthony draft, which could be huge if the Knicks fall apart again the way they did in 2014-15.

ROSTER

The average age of the Nuggets roster on opening day last season was 26 years old. So, no one was calling a team with just two players at least 30 years old a bunch of gray beards anyway. But when the Nuggets open the season this year, they’ll be that much younger with an average age of 25.14, not including the players acquired from Houston in the Ty Lawson trade. The roster will have just six players with more than five years of experience. Six more will be in their first-or-second year in the NBA.

Last season, the Nuggets didn’t have a top-50 athlete in the player efficiency ratings. Lawson was the first Nugget to check in at No. 60, with Kenneth Faried on his heels at No. 62. Faried’s PER was a drop from the year prior, when he topped the Nuggets at No. 31.

The selection of heralded point guard Emmanuel Mudiay should change that quickly, giving them the kind of player that eventually rates among the elite in the league and that the team can build around.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets are particularly concerned with getting back to high-efficiency play on offense. That begins with proper ball movement. Last season, the Nuggets did not move the ball with real purpose. Only 57.7 percent of their field-goal makes were assisted. To put that into perspective, Golden State was at 65.9 percent, Atlanta 67.6 percent; even Boston had a 62.9 percent of its makes assisted. The last time the Nuggets made the playoffs — 2012-13 — they had assists on 60 percent of their makes.

So is this now a better ball movement roster? Many parts of it have proven to be. The addition of Mudiay, a pass-first point guard who has already shown great vision and ability to deliver the ball on-time and on-target, is the difference maker. Rookie center Nikola Jokic, who can stretch defenses and pass from the top of the key or down court after a rebound, will help as well. At his healthiest, Gallinari can make plays from the wing and Wilson Chandler has been so unselfish in the past that he had to be forced to shoot the ball. So the pieces for the Nuggets to get back to consistent ball movement are there. The system also has to help in a more effective way than in it did the last two seasons.

One way the system can help is by generating more high-percentage shots. The Nuggets took 3,730 jump shots last season — the most they’ve taken in a season in 11 years — and made just 31.6 percent of them, according to NBA stats. From the 3-point line, the Nuggets shot 1,946 attempts and made just 627 (32.2 percent). Meanwhile, they took just 389 driving layups — but made 73 percent of those. The Nuggets had 168 dunk attempts (149 makes).

Contrast that with two seasons ago, when the Nuggets took 518 layups (making 64.3 percent) and 250 dunks, making 230. There were only 2,972 jump shots and 1,464 3-point attempts. Those Nuggets made 34.2 percent of them.

Shot selection is a player and coach combination. The Xs and Os help get players clean looks and the players exercise good judgment in shot selection. George Karl’s system put the emphasis on getting to the rim first, driving and kicking to the 3-point line second. Brian Shaw’s system generated a ton of jump shots, many of which the team did not hit. And while the Nuggets did get to the free throw line a ton last season (24.3 attempts per game) they’ll have to do better than just making 73.4 percent of them, which ranked 24th in the NBA.

In his introductory press conference, new Nuggets coach Michael Malone identified defensive rebounding as a top area of concern, and while the Nuggets did rank a very average 17th in defensive rebounding percentage, they were in fact sandwiched between the NBA Finals participants — Cleveland (16th) and Golden State (18th).

Overall, the Nuggets were still one of the better rebounding teams in the league, at 44.7 per game, which ranked seventh in the NBA. On the defensive glass, the Nuggets ranked a respectable 12th, grabbing 32.4 of those per game. If the Nuggets improved by two defensive rebounds per game next season, which should be able to happen, they’d likely be in the top five in the NBA in the category.

A bigger problem was clearing the board after the initial shot missed. The Nuggets allowed 14.1 second chance points last season. Only five teams were worse in the category. Thus, the Nuggets defensive boards deficiency mainly had to do with finishing off good defensive possessions by securing the first rebound.

Working in their favor is the fact that the Nuggets return the bulk of the players who were solid on the defensive glass. Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Jusuf Nurkic were three of the top four Nuggets in the category (Timofey Mozgov was the other).

Better focus should be all the Nuggets need to shore this up, and there will be extra help. Will Barton proved to be a very capable and willing rebounder when he joined the Nuggets late in the season. Gallinari rebounded better toward the end of the season. And Mudiay, at 6-5, has already shown he’ll hit the glass as well. Joffrey Lauvergne and Nikola Jokic should help as well. This roster is well-equipped to improve on the defensive glass.

The biggest question surrounding a great many of the players on the roster is just how good they are and will become. It seems crazy to say, but, for instance, this is a big year for second-year guard Gary Harris, who has to prove he’s capable of being a starting level shooting guard or risk being viewed more as a reserve player. Can Lauvergne translate effective summer league play into the regular season?

Short of Mudiay, Gallo and Chandler and Faried, who else is a bonafide NBA starter and consistent contributor? Or are the Nuggets stocked with a bunch of individuals who might be good but never great? Talent evaluation and how that shapes moves made to improve the roster may be the biggest area to watch. Teams like Golden State, Cleveland, Atlanta, L.A. Clippers, Houston and San Antonio are barometers for the level of overall talent a team needs to possess to truly be a contender. This season will reveal how close the Nuggets are to procuring — or developing — high level players, top-to-bottom.

The Nuggets won’t have to worry anymore about character in the locker room. While this is the final subject in the roster analysis, it definitely wasn’t in the Nuggets’ front office. The organization got a clear view in the last two seasons of how bad things can get when leadership and professionalism are largely absent in the locker room. In seven months, the Nuggets have completely changed the face of the character, accountability and leadership in the locker room. It is arguably the most significant thing they’ve done.

INTANGIBLES

The Nuggets were smitten with Michael Malone.

To say they’d searched far-and-wide in their search for a new coach would do a disservice to the phrase “far-and-wide.” Even in the midst of constant head-scratching by fans and some media about the length of the process, Nuggets’ brass took its time. When the dust settled there were 13 candidates interviewed, and one of them — Malone — twice.

While the first Malone interview eased any fears execs might have had about how the offense would flow under Malone — he put together a detailed video presentation about what the system would look like under him — the second was a glorified victory lap. That one took place in the comfort of Josh Kroenke’s living room, complete with Malone petting the Nuggets president’s bulldogs.

“Everybody thought he would be back in the league soon because he showed that he can coach,” Malone’s father, Brendan, said. “There were general managers in the league that had to see that, and if there was an opening he should be a prime candidate.”

Everyone was able to see what the Nuggets saw in him as early as mini-camp practices in advance of summer league in July. Crisp and organized, the sessions were also detailed down to the most minute points — and were as tough as any of those players had ever experienced.

Defensively, even limited days of tutelage still showed up well in summer league, where rotations were solid and results were quick to see. Away from the summer league team, Malone had already begun to endear himself to the veterans by getting in touch with each and every one of them to introduce himself, answer any questions, and begin forging relationships.

“He sent me an email two or three days after he signed with the Nuggets,” Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari said. “So I thought it was a very good sign from him to talk to me right away.”

The remainder of the staff is stocked with sweat and smarts. Assistants Ed Pinckney, Chris Fleming, Wes Unseld, Jr., Micah Nori, Ryan Bowen and Dee Brown are be a big boost to the basketball team from a hard-work, IQ and relationship-building standpoint. The Nuggets had some holes on the staff in support of the head coach under Brian Shaw.

Meanwhile, the organization sank millions of dollars into a complete makeover of their locker room, which started in July and is expected to be done about a week before training camp begins, bringing it up to state-of-the-art status. It will not only keep the players they have happy, but could also be a selling point when free agents in the future are recruited. Small tweaks to the current uniform are in store, and upgrades in the game night experience are on the docket.

The return of Pete D’Alessandro to the front office bolsters the Nuggets from a salary cap and business knowledge standpoint, shoring up any deficiencies the organization felt it may have had there. And they did it with an individual they know and desperately wanted to return.

In all, this has been a pretty sizeable makeover, inside and out. And there’s more to come. Connelly and Kroenke pledged to take a hard look at all areas of the franchise and make the necessary changes and to this point have stayed true to those claims. There’s more to be done, but the Nuggets appear to be off to a nice start.

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost