Mason Plumlee had an interesting season to say the least for the Denver Nuggets.
Mason Plumlee of the Denver Nuggets, came off the bench for Nikola Jokic this past season. Fresh off a new contract with the Denver Nuggets, he seemed serviceable, though he did struggle at times.
For one, he needs to significantly improve his free throw shooting. Not to mention, he was way too streaky as a back up center. A solid back up center needs to be solid enough to be reliable enough night in and night out.
The problem with Plumlee this season seemed to be, he’d have a very good game one night, then struggle the next. He had a hard time stringing together solid games.
However, he still had some aspects where he was efficient. Per basketball reference, Plumlee averaged an effective field goal percentage of 60.1% to go along with a true shooting percentage of 58.6%. Both improvements in these categories from the year before.
His value over replacement player rating also took a bit of a jump as it went from 0.6 to 1.4. Plumlee also slightly improved his defensive rating as it was at 107 this season and also possessed a block percentage of 4.7%. Still room for improvement in those particular areas, but they could also be much worse.
Plumlee has a big job ahead of him as he will have to be ready to be a serviceable back up to Nikola Jokic for the remainder of his Denver Nuggets tenure. However, if he can become a bit more consistent, then he should have no problem settling into the Mile High.
Do not forget, he did not get to Denver until the trade deadline the previous season. As a result, he had to get used to a new scheme and everything in the middle of the year.
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Hopefully, Plumlee is in for a solid campaign next season