Nuggets Troubled with Inconsistencies
By Jack Malloy
Last night’s victory in Toronto was huge for this Nuggets team. Not only did they snap their eight game losing streak, but they did it against one of the best in the east and a team gunning for a conference championship. Hopefully a quality win like this propels their play as we get deeper into December.
Thursday’s win was Denver’s first on a back-to-back this season, but it was also part of a difficult east coast road stretch. More good news for the Nuggets, in their next five games, they face the 76ers, Magic, Timberwolves twice, and the Rockets. All of these games are winnable and have the potential to keep signs of growth moving forward. That’s what’s important. Don’t forget, we are rebuilding here.
Even with this great win, watching last night’s game showed me a big problem the Nuggets are dealing with, and have been all season. The players that should be leading this team are not.
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Will Barton played great, as he has a number of times this season, taking advantage of all the time he gets on the floor. Darrell Arthur easily had his best game of the year, just what Denver needed to pull out the close victory.
Normally, seeing role players stepping up like this is a real benefit and an added bonus to a team’s. The Warriors are the most contemporary example. Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson get their numbers night in and night out. While it’s important for Andre Igoudala, Harrison Barnes, and other rotation spots to play well, most nights, they don’t drive the team to victory. Don’t get me wrong, they help the team win, maybe even make clutch buckets down the stretch, but they aren’t true difference makers over 48 minutes like the other stars are.
Unfortunately for the Nuggets, they don’t have their star players competing consistently enough to achieve this formula. Instead of role players to adding value, they ARE the value.
Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Danilo Gallinari will be the team’s leading scorer, but still hasn’t performed well enough each night to be the impact player the Nuggets need. In their seven wins, he is averaging just above 22 PPG, but in their 13 losses, he is only at 14.8.
Faried, the Nuggets other star, has had much of the same disappointment. He’s shooting 67 percent from the field in wins and just under 54 percent in losses. A drastic difference not able to be made up.
Mudiay gets a little less blame being a rookie, but he is still asked to be the ball handler and playmaker every time he’s on the court. So far, he’s struggled in that role and still has a lot of growing to do this season. We know he has the skill, but it isn’t shining bright just yet. It’s no surprise the team is struggling when their best talents can’t seem to get their game going.
In general, the Nuggets have been a drastically different team between wins and losses. They have about a 20 PPG difference between the wins and losses, while shooting over 10 percent higher in field goal percentage in wins. These tell the story for how their season has gone. We know these players can perform, but the consistency has to develop. Not just for determining wins and losses, but for competing.
Every night, Barton, Arthur, Jokic, or Harris have to produce above their averages or else the Nuggets get run out of the gym. This creates a really tough dilemma for the coaching staff. From a coaching standpoint, you are forced to find the hot hand each night, instead of knowing who to run the offense through. This effects ball movement, limits their aggressiveness in transition, and slows the offense down overall. So far when that’s happened, we’ve seen players making poor shot selections, creating the fallout in defeat.
Mike Malone needs to get his core three of Mudiay, Faried, and Gallinari back on track and in rhythm. Maybe this means changing rotations or running more set plays early to get easy baskets. Either way, those three playing up to their true skill levels each night is the only thing giving this team a chance to succeed. When that happens, the contributions from the rest of the team will feel exponentially more powerful.
I don’t mean to say this would help them win every game. Bottom line is, there are better teams in the western conference and around the leagues. Until Denver’s talent catches up to that, they will get beat by those teams. But I know this team can compete with those squads and their +/- in those losses should be a whole lot better than -14.5.
Grinding and making teams work. That’s fun basketball, and win or lose, that’s what we want to see from our Denver Nuggets.
Note: All statistics from NBA.com/stats