As we head into the homestretch of the 2017-18 NBA regular season, the Denver Nuggets have a lot of questions that will need answers.
The roster, for the first time since Carmelo Anthony left Denver, is in pretty good shape. The Denver Nuggets should be wary to look to the draft for the wing they need. This squad is already full of developing, young talent. So much so that talented players are having trouble securing playing time.
Denver Nuggets
The front office shows no signs of strife or insecurity. There isn’t scrambling or false support for the players or coaches. Ownership has retreated to the shadows as Josh Kroenke appears to have let Arturas Karnisovas and Tim Connelly run the show.
Sellout crowds have returned to The Can. A fan base that can be maddening with lack of support for the Nuggets or, worse, support for whichever opponent is in town has bought in, at least for now on the exciting, young Nuggets team.
It seems like all is progressing well in Denver and for a franchise that is (or should be) on-track if you look at their development as a 5-year plan.
Let this team miss the playoffs this year, though and watch all of those “best laid plans” come tumbling down. The Nuggets can’t return to the basement of NBA attendance. They can’t be perceived to squander The Core’s potential. There is a war zone ahead for the Nuggets this summer, if they miss the playoffs, and it is going to be filled with knee-jerk mistakes.
Foremost among those mistakes will be the release of Head Coach Michael Malone. The Nuggets don’t seem to be unhappy with Malone but an increasing urgency from fans wont just be ignored.
First, what we can look forward to, Post-Malone (heh):
- Another new Coach, our fourth since the end of the 2013 season.
- Roster turnover to conform to “New Coach”, the loss of several popular players.
- New Coach promising Denver that we’ll see defensive improvement.
- No defensive improvement.
- Jokic starting at the Power Forward spot.
- Jokic relegated to a back-to-the-basket shell.
The last two aren’t a certainty but what is certain is that Nikola Jokic is something else, entirely. Something that must confound coaches.
I live in Colorado. In 2012, the State voted to make recreational marijuana sales legal. Even though the product is legal and available in Colorado, I have trouble shaking the feeling that it is “naughty”. It has been illegal my entire life, it’s a slow adjustment.
That’s what coaching Jokic must feel like. You’ve worked, been taught and passed along, for your entire life, how Centers and big men should act. You know how to coach footwork in the post, how to work an inside-outside game. You know where your Center should be defensively. Then along comes this kid that does things nobody has done. With apologies to Hakeem and Dirk, Sabonis and Pau, Nikola does things nobody before him has done.
Michael Malone came to the Denver Nuggets with a reputation for defense. Everywhere he has coached, his team has improved, notably on the defensive end. When the Sacramento Kings parted ways with Malone, DeMarcus Cousins expressed that his team would have made the playoffs and were doing things the right way under Malone.
He gave Gary Harris his first look starting at the Shooting Guard spot. He figured out that Jokic was the Unicorn and that Jokic and Nurkic could not coexist. He was right about Mudiay, by far the worst defending Point Guard in the NBA (stats from fivethirtyeight.com). He’s been patient with Chandler and Barton and it’s paid off. He promoted and then stuck with Jamal Murray through the ups-and-downs of a rookie season.
No, he hasn’t used Jokic correctly all the time but that’s less a testament to Malone’s understanding of the Serbian big and more an indicator of Jokic’s will. Nikola has said, repeatedly that he feels no pressure to put up shots. He decides when it is necessary, he decides which role is most effective for his team. Sometimes the best thing Malone can do is get out of Nikola’s way. That takes us full-circle back to that hard to coach thing.
It’s not that Nikola is defiant or unwilling to take instruction. It’s that he knows himself better than anyone and his Coaching staff is tasked with the daunting task of inventing the position Jokic plays. Point Center. Not in the way they try to say Porzingis is a Point Center. KP is a brilliant talent but the vision and (yes) leadership of Jokic set him apart.
What remains for Nikola is to accept his role and solidify himself as the leader and face of this team. The opportunity is there. Malone has backed-off of his style, has tinkered, almost to the point of destruction, trying to find the right mix, the right motivations for this team.
He may need look no further than to his 23-year-old phenom, like Boogie, it seems Jokic recognizes the value in Malone. If the two can put their heads together, this could be a hell of a show.