Kenneth Faried’s back: Is there more than meets the eye?
By Tim D'Elia
Kenneth Faried. The man who divides Nuggets and Basketball fans alike. An obvious fan favourite, with the energy he brings night in night out and with his ability to produce highlight reel dunks, it’s no wonder why. There were rumours last year that the only reason Kenneth retained his starting position was because it would cause uproar amongst the fans if he was benched.
The ‘Manimal’ as Faried likes to be known as, has been a headline player for the Nuggets throughout his career, from his initial rookie season where he looked like he could be the next star, to the Rising Stars game in his 2nd year where he won MVP, after dropping 40 points and grabbing ten boards.
Dempsey quoted Malone “He never mentioned anything about his back,”
Faried represented Team USA in the basketball world cup and was selected to the All-tournament team, a very big honour considering Team America won the World cup. What I’m trying to say is, Kenneth is good, really good.
This is where things start to get a little murky, Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post reported there were differing opinions on why Faried sat out the majority of the 2nd half of the Orlando Magic game three days ago. Dempsey quoted Malone ‘He never mentioned anything about his back,” Malone said. “Aaron Gordon got going against him to start that third quarter; that group was not playing well.’ However, rumours had emerged that Faried’s back had caused him to sit out the remainder of the game.
Faried’s minutes have been in flux all season, with the emergence of Nikola Jokic and the logjam of big men that Denver now has, Malone hasn’t been afraid to cut the Manimal out of games even when he’s performing. This is what has me wondering, is there more behind Kenneth Faried’s back than first thought?
I’m not saying Faried isn’t injured, I highly doubt he would let someone tell him to sit out the last couple of games unless he was feeling something.
This isn’t a question about Kenneth Faried’s effectiveness either, when Faried tallied his 100th double-double this season, Denver was 67-33 in games where the Manimal had a double-double. Therefore, showing when Faried plays well, Denver plays well. This leads me to think that Malone has used the excuse of Faried’s back to potentially explore other options and line-ups he could use without Faried.
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There is constant rumours that the Manimal will be shipped out of the mile-high city, for example the Blake Griffin rumours. It’s obvious that if the Nuggets were to acquire Griffin, Faried would have to make way and end up leaving. I think it’s come down to the fact that Faried doesn’t fit into Malone’s system.
Faried isn’t a good enough one-on-one defender, can’t really switch onto other players off screens and offensively he can’t stretch the floor because he can’t score further out than the distance of his hook shot.
That’s why recently Faried has been testing a jump shot, I think it was Malone’s way of telling him to ship up or ship-out. I’m not saying that day one of the trade period Faried’s gone, Malone needs Faried for now.
He’s a high energy guy and he has been invaluable for the Nuggets this season. Malone is just assessing Faried’s impact on this team and is using the back complaint as a way to see what things would be like with a stretch-4 starting in his place.
There is a bit of doubt in this theory though, against Golden state in the final minutes Faried went down with a back injury and had to be wheeled off the court, since then Faried has had multiple back complaints which has caused him to miss multiple games.
So is there more to Faried’s injury than meets the eye? Or am I just reading in between the lines, that’s up to you.
Let me know how you feel on twitter @tdelia96 or in the comments below.