Written by Jonathan Peter on Feb. 28, 2023
It’s becoming clearer with each passing day that Western Conference will have to run through the Denver Nuggets in order to reach the NBA Finals.
Despite getting embarrassed by the second place Memphis Grizzlies during last Saturday’s matchup, the Nuggets still sit 5.5 games ahead of them. With only 20 games left in the regular season, Denver appears to be comfortably in control of clinching the first seed in the West.
Yet, after a bizarre trade deadline, many basketball spectators are hesitant to give the Nuggets validation as the team to beat. The Western Conference added a lot of star power. After the implosion of the Brooklyn Nets, Kevin Durant became a Phoenix Sun and Kyrie Irving is a Dallas Maverick. Oh and the 12th seeded team in Los Angeles added some role players.
But none of these trades created a team which was leaps and bounds ahead of the Denver Nuggets. Out of desperation, opposing teams made these moves at the deadline to give themselves an opportunity to try and takedown Denver, whether anyone wants to admit it or not.
Will it matter? Probably not, but the Nuggets still have to figure out how to eliminate some of their few weaknesses before playoff time hits. Here’s a couple of things to watch for as the Nuggets wrap up the regular season.
The New Look Bench
The bench unit has been the Nuggets’ version of a common cold all season long. Just how a cold might not bother you enough to stop going about your daily activities, the Nuggets bench has not dragged the team down enough to affect their overall success. However, the reserves need to be good enough to provide the starters valuable time for rest.
The Nuggets’ front office addressed this problem at the trade deadline by trading away Bones Hyland and Davon Reed, in return for center Thomas Bryant. They also signed guard Reggie Jackson after he was bought out by the Charlotte Hornets.
Bryant provides Denver with an energetic interior presence that the bench unit lacked prior to his arrival. Jackson is a veteran in this league, who has plenty of playoff experience and should be able to take off some of the burden from Jamal Murray being one of the few smaller creators on the team.
In the three games where Jackson and Bryant have been the leaders for the bench, they have struggled mightily. This shouldn’t be surprising given the lack of time the group has had together, but it will be important for them to figure it out within the next 10 games. If there is still a vague identity surrounding this unit by then, Malone needs to look at changing things up.
The Stagger
Another issue surrounding this unit is whether or not a starter will stagger with them. It appears that Malone wants to play Jamal Murray with the bench, but it appears that the same dilemma will arise which happened prior to the trade deadline.
A lineup consisting of Murray, Jackson, and Bruce Brown will result in Denver being poor defensively. They just give up a lot of size and it will be challenging for Denver to matchup with anybody.
Also, Murray and Jackson have a similar role when they play with bench based lineup. Their objective is to be offensive catalysts, but if they share the court, only one of them will get to be the primary option. It would be best to have the two play separately to avoid confusion and for their to be no lack of identity.
Perhaps getting Jackson more minutes with slotted in Murray’s place with the starters could help him get acclimated with his new team. Murray could use more time rest during games as it seems that the workload has taken a toll on him throughout the season. This could happen during the first half of most games and Denver would be able to run their dominant starting lineup more during the second half to close games out.
The Starters Increasing Their Chemistry
The Nuggets starting lineup has been among the best 5-man lineups in the NBA this season. The starters (K. Caldwell-Pope – A. Gordon – N. Jokic – J. Murray – M. Porter Jr.) have posted a 16.2 net rating according to the NBA’s advanced stats.
The only problem is this lineup has only played 26 games together this season for a combined 437 minutes. All of the starters have been in and out of the lineup over the course of the season. It feels like they need to play together more to continue to work out the kinks in order to be increasingly dominate in the postseason.
One tradeoff of this group not playing as much together has been more chemistry being built between Jokic and each of the other starters. Out of necessity, Denver can feel comfortable running any action with Jokic and a starter against any opposing defense. But, it is imperative that this starting five can blowout anybody’s best punch against them in the playoffs. Hopefully, they can get 12-15 straight games together during the closing part of the season, even though it seems unlikely because of lingering injuries.
The Nuggets will be on the road against the Houston Rockets tonight at 6.
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