Are the Denver Nuggets dangerous? No, however that’s not going to chop it.
The Western Convention is stacked to the nines with not-bad groups. The Spurs and the Path Blazers are the one comfortably dangerous groups, and the Thunder are the one ones who’re unequivocally good — even the Timberwolves have some stuff to determine. The Nuggets are in a convention the place “not dangerous” would possibly get you within the lottery. So right here’s the place they stand: They nonetheless have three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, at present the perfect participant on this planet. They’ve the perfect homecourt benefit in sports activities. However within the offseason, they misplaced two rotation gamers in Reggie Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope; and changed them with Russell Westbrook and rookie Julian Strawther. They only misplaced to the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers even with 41 factors from Jokic. They’re 0-2, and so they don’t have any reinforcements on the horizon.
That’s… not nice. Even with Jokic, the Nuggets are hamstrung by their once-mighty supporting forged failing to provide at a excessive stage persistently. Jamal Murray — whose pairing with Jokic simply two years in the past had an argument as the perfect duo within the league — is now maybe the streakiest offensive participant within the NBA. Aaron Gordon can now not shoot, and Michael Porter Jr. has hit a wall of growth that has relegated him to an enormous shoot-first, second, third and fourth ahead who offers nothing past the occasional scoring outburst.
Jokic is the large Serbian counterpoint to all of that. He has gotten higher yearly for a decade, and is that this technology’s LeBron James at squeezing each ounce of high quality basketball out of whomever occurs to be sharing the courtroom with him.
This 12 months, they’re betting that working with Russell Westbrook — now in 12 months 5 of being a dropping participant on groups that hoped to contend since main the Wizards to the playoffs in 2021. Westbrook has had a horrible (2-18 from the sector horrible) begin to the season, as his shot and bodily instruments proceed to deteriorate, and there’s no cause to consider that may immediately reverse. Westbrook wants the ball in his palms to be impactful, however the Nuggets are at their finest when all the pieces runs by means of Jokic.
He’s nearer to a candidate for a determined flier than somebody a contender ought to truly rely on. However the truth they are relying on him in any respect reveals how dangerous their hand is. They lack the three most essential issues each contender wants: measurement, capturing and defensive switchability.
It’s arduous to overstate how essential Caldwell-Pope was for this staff. He might guard everybody Murray couldn’t, and continues to be a high quality shooter. Changing him with Westbrook eliminated these two essential traits. Julian Strawther was shooter and rangy defender at Gonzaga, however he’s nonetheless a theoretical at this stage.
In contrast to lots of the different not-bad groups, the Nuggets have Jokic and three different high quality gamers. However they lack the our bodies behind them to show that core right into a contender prefer it as soon as was. They want extra out of Christian Braun than he’s been in a position to give them, and no one has any thought what Peyton Watson goes to be on this league.
There are additionally the whispers of head coach Michael Malone not seeing eye-to-eye with administration, maybe over minutes for younger gamers like Strawther and Braun, whom the group drafted to contribute early, however the grizzled Malone doesn’t but belief. However the Nuggets are simply out of our bodies, and except they intend to commerce rookies — by no means an ideal teambuilding technique — for veterans Malone will truly play, they’re going to should get no matter they’ll out of them.
The Clippers loss was stunning, although not completely unpredictable. They’ll’t guard bigs, so Ivica Zubac went bananas. They’ll’t guard wings both, so Norman Powell went nuts. In Sport 1, Chet Holmgren went so nuts we would should name him Mr. Peanut.
Theoretically, this staff can nonetheless play at a excessive stage with their Jokic cheat code. However their roster has much more query marks than rotation-level gamers. Who’s their backup middle? Dario Saric? DeAndre Jordan? Zeke Nnaji small ball? And who on this staff can credibly guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Anthony Edwards? Who can rebound in opposition to gamers like Zubac? Derek Energetic? Anthony freaking Davis?
The Nuggets merely want an excessive amount of out of too little to be thought of an actual contender. Except Jokic finds one other limitless fount of basketball genius inside his unparalleled superbrain, this staff must make strikes. Plural.
I gained’t speculate an excessive amount of as to what these might be, however Denver has already traded three first-round picks and loads of seconds. Jamal Murray’s new $200 million deal hasn’t even kicked in but, and so they lack the large expiring contract wanted to poach a high quality starter from a tanking staff. Their flexibility isn’t zero, and good NBA GMs all the time determine one thing out supplied possession doesn’t tie their palms. However their choices are very restricted, and this staff should get inventive to repair this.
Is that this Nuggets window closed? It’s solely been two video games, so I gained’t go there but. However this staff has degraded an increasing number of annually since successful the championship, and I don’t see an answer on the horizon. They nonetheless have Jokic, and possibly that will probably be sufficient.
However proper now, it doesn’t appear to be it’s even shut.
