Denver Nuggets Bench Unit Power Rankings: No. 5

We believe the Denver Nuggets have the best bench in the NBA, so we decided to rank their five best bench players in order.

Heading into the 2019-20 season, it would be reasonable to say that the Denver Nuggets are two-deep at every position. And though their frontline depth was bolstered by the offseason additions of Jerami Grant and to a lesser extent Bol Bol, Mason Plumlee was the first big man off the bench in 2019.

Because of the ease of which one can find a backup center, Mason Plumlee comes in at No. 5 in our Bench Unit Power Rankings but he will be even more important as the Nuggets try to keep Nikola Jokic fresh for an NBA Finals run.

2018-19 Review:

Plumlee was great in the 2018-19 season, averaging 13.2 points and 10.9 rebounds per 36 minutes. He has never been an awesome defensive player but he did give a solid effort last season.

The Plumlee-Jokic two-man lineup finished with a +7.7 net rating and (per NBAshotcarts.com) Plumlee’s Defensive Real Adjusted Plus/Minus was 6th best on Denver. His strong defensive rebounding numbers played a big part in his defensive metrics coming out on the positive side.

Over the 2018-19 season, Plumlee posted an impressive 22.5 percent defensive rebound rate which was second on the Nuggets among qualified players and the highest defensive rebound rate of his career.

Obviously, there is no duplicating Nikola Jokic but Plumlee allows the Nuggets offense to thrive as he is a very good playmaker for his position. Plumlee averaged 3.0 assists per game last season, the second-highest average of his career.

Plumlee is not a big man who is going to facilitate from the low post. He prefers to work out of the pick-and-roll /short-roll where he can explode towards the basket and utilize his basketball-IQ to find open shooters.

Between Plumlee’s pass-happy nature and the fact that he always hustles around the court despite any shortcomings on defense (tied for fourth on the Nuggets in deflections), it is easy to see why Spurs and Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich referred to Mason as an “ultimate teammate”

2019-20 Outlook:

Plumlee is one of the key players on the Nuggets that gives them a clear advantage over most bench units. With the shallow nature of the center position in today’s NBA, Plumlee is a center who likely would start on over half of the league’s teams. Heading into the 2019-20 season, he does not necessarily need to get better, which is a relief since he is due for some regression in his age-29 season.

When Plumlee came over to the Denver Nuggets from Portland in the 2016-17 season, his workload was cut down from just over 28 minutes per game to just over 23 minutes per game. He has played at or around 20 minutes per game in his last two years with the Nuggets and has posted an above-average PER in both seasons (17.2 PER average over three seasons in Denver).

His versatility has allowed him to flourish in lineups as the primary center or on the floor in a secondary big man role next to Jokic, and the success of those 549 Jokic-Plumlee minutes should entice head coach Mike Malone to give those units more playing time.

Malone has increased the playing time of the Jokic-Plumlee duo year-to-year and with new frontline player Jerami Grant on the roster, Malone will have yet another permutation he can use to keep Plumlee on the floor. Grant will allow Plumlee to continue to guard traditional centers in lineups where Jokic is off the floor and offensively, Grant’s added floor-spacing provides Plumlee with an opportunity to improve on his 2019 average of 4.7 offensive rebounds per 100 possessions.

Ultimately, Plumlee will try to help keep the Nuggets near the top of the league in offensive rebounding for the fifth-straight season. He and the Denver frontcourt’s focus on the offensive glass led to a top-10 offensive rating in 2019 despite being one of the slower-paced teams in the league.

The Denver Nuggets will have that same advantage in the paint next year with little-used Trey Lyles as the only frontline body on his way out. If the result is more minutes for Mason Plumlee, expect the Nuggets to be better while simultaneously easing Jokic’s workload.

Key statistic: 1.4 Points Per Possessions on the Pick-and-Roll

Mason Plumlee averaged 1.4 PPP as the pick-and-roll man last season, a figure that ranked in the 96.8th percentile in the league. Despite having six years of NBA experience under his belt, Plumlee still possesses enough vertical pop to be a problem for your average backup center.

We here are Nugg Love believe there is a big leap coming from Jokic and Jamal Murray–not to mention young contributors Grant, Malik Beasley, Monte Morris, and Michael Porter Jr.–and this will bring on an even stronger season from Plumlee in pick-and-roll actions. Each of the young players we mention has different strengths in the pick-and-roll, but each one is well-suited for Plumlee’s rim running ways.