Tonight the Denver Nuggets lose in disappointing fashion to the New Orleans Pelicans, 94 - 101.
Just going through some of the team stats in this one:
Denver puts up 5 more assists, takes 6 more steals, turns the ball over 7 fewer times, shot the same field goal percentage at 42.5%, shoots 27% from three point range to New Orleans’ 31.4% and edges out the Pelicans in free throw percentage at 90.9% to 88.9%. The big disparity here is on the boards, where the Nuggets lose the rebounding battle 45 to 58, including 17 offensive boards for the Pelicans.
An impressive night from Peyton Watson and Michael Porter, a bounce back to some normalcy for Dario Saric and a disappointing one from Jamal Murray but individual performances aside, I think Denver has a systemic issue in their current configurations without Nikola Jokic.
My critique of Denver tonight, and something that dovetails with how they’ve played this season, is that they’re a very small team. While the return to form of Dario is a positive sign, we also saw frontcourt pairings of Zeke and MPJ, MPJ and Watson, Vlatko and Watson. It’s my belief that, while understandble in spot minutes that you want to go to a certain look, the persistent lack of collective size and athleticism is not only taxing on the bigs who are being put out there behind Jokic, but also leaving the Denver Nuggets in a state of liability on the boards and in their defensive rotations as the single big on the court is being drawn away from the basket.
We’ve long suffered the reality of starting centers stepping off the court, only to find that the backups behind them spring a gaping hole in whatever lead they had built. My biggest recommendation, not to say that Denver has to listen to me but it’s what I hope happens, is that Denver starts to think about the backup center position as something one player can solve and more as something a combination of players can solve.
When the Nuggets lose Jokic, they lose a lot of rebounding on both the offensive and defensive ends. They lose a pick and roll and dribble handoff partner. They lose a play finisher in the paint and a passer out of it. There’s no way one player can be brought in to replace all of those things. Dario and Vlatko can play with control and awareness to operate reasonably well at all 3 levels, but there’s a physicality and mobility deficit there. Zeke Nnaji lacks a lot of that control and skill, but he does provide a lot of the defensive versatility and energy that the Nuggets need get through 82 games of basketaball. Rather than ask any one of these guys to fill in all ways jokic impacts the court, I hope Denver can find the courage to not only introduce more bigs in to the rotation, but to play them together. Think about the combinations of bigs they can play and move accordingly. Zeke can do so much from a defensive versatility and offensive rebounding perspective. He even shoots pretty well when his role offensively is simplified to focusing on that. Pair him with a Vlatko or a Dario to take those offensive fulcrum responsibilities off of this hands, and so he can relieve them of some of the defensive pressure. That in turn frees up Michael Porter, Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson do and be where they’re most impactful. Mike can focus on being the scorer he is when he isn’t also the best defender on the floor. Aaron can play a bit more as the secondary offensive fulcrum with the bench if he has help from other bigs in the paint. Peyton Watson can have that elite perimeter impact he had in the Dallas game if there are other bigs behind him to collect rebounds and make switching a reasonable strategy.
These are just my thoughts the night of the game. I appreciate you reading. I hope you get plenty of sleep. Drink plenty of water and I’ll see you soon.