Denver Nuggets: How the playoff rotation might look

Denver Nuggets: Bench mob

The ranks of the backcourt bench have been picked bare like a pound of lemon pepper wings from Magic City thanks to injuries to PJ Dozier, Will Barton, and Jamal Murray, which have forced Denver’s top bench guards into the starting lineup.

However, there’s still a lot of talent on that Denver Nuggets pine, as evidenced by the play of a few of those reserves in what essentially amounted to try-outs over Denver’s final few regular-season games.

The three aforementioned guards will be missed greatly, but at least Denver got back the services of Monte Morris last week after the guard was thought to be out indefinitely with a hamstring issue. He has not played more than 18 minutes in any of the three games he played in since returning, but he looked good moving out there.

Morris remains the picture of efficiency off the bench, and that 12-game absence did nothing to blur that image. Morris is one of the best bench guards in the league because he can create his own shot, get to the basket, and shoot with efficiency from deep, but he also takes great care of the ball, which is what you want from a bench mob that we expect to be defending a lot of big leads during this postseason.

Morris has shot 55 percent from the field with a 4.5 assist-to-turnover ratio since returning, and those numbers will do just fine for Denver. As he works back to 100 percent, we would expect to see Morris bumped up to 25-30 minutes per game off the bench, and, considering his superior offensive ability, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in there as part of the close-out group to finish off games.

Shaquille Harrison and Markus Howard are another pair of reserve guards that should expect to see 15-20 minutes a night moving forward. Howard has proven over the past few games that he has a bag of tricks that will allow him to come off the bench and be an effective offensive weapon even in limited playing time, as evidenced by his 14.2 points per game on 52 percent from the field and 44 from deep in just 20 minutes per night over his past four outings.

Harrison doesn’t quite have the same medley of offensive skills, instead doing his best work on the defensive end, where he will likely pick up the less-than-ideal job of chasing around the likes of Lillard, McCollum, and Powell, who boast three of the best, most varied offensive arsenals in the NBA. If Harrison can find a way to lock up one of those three, he could emerge as a crucial figure in the series.

Big man JaMychal Green has been excellent all-around off the bench as well and can expect minutes in the high teens. We think veterans JaVale McGee and Paul Millsap will get the lion’s share of the reserve frontcourt minutes against the Blazers, however.

Both of these guys have been around the block once or twice, and McGee has been on three championship teams: they have been there, and they know how to win. And considering how much time seven-footers Kanter and Nurkic spend on the floor for Portland, head coach Mike Malone might have no choice but to give McGee specifically a lot more run out there with the second unit than usual.

As Malone has done often this season, we would also expect MPJ to get a lot of minutes leading the charge for the second unit, while Morris can expect to get a decent amount of run with the starters on any given night.