Denver Nuggets: Turnovers and “soft” play stifled offense

Denver Nuggets: Looking at the big rotation against Cleveland

JaMychal Green

JaMychal Green showed he has all the tools to make it as an undersized center. He is the ideal modern small-ball center and makes the game scrappy and entertaining most nights. However, against the massive lineup, the Cavaliers threw at the Denver Nuggets all night Green seemed to be no match.

Normally, his ability to control the basketball, defend down low, and stretch the floor is a weapon and allows the Nuggets to run a similar perimeter-centric offense that they do with Jokic on the court.

Green is also an incredibly smart screener who knows how to stonewall an opponent in his tracks. He creates plenty of space in the pick-and-roll and works well creating separation for Campazzo to get downhill and turn the corner. Green works well as the backup big or at the power forward spot next to Jokic if necessary.

The Nuggets need him to start fighting harder on the boards. With only five rebounds over the first three games, it is clear he is not doing what is necessary to get loose balls. He has also struggled with turnovers over the first three games with eight.

Aaron Gordon

Aaron Gordon struggle from all over the floor tonight, shooting 5-14 from the field and only 1-5 from beyond the arc. When he is able to get to the rim, he gives the team a spark by attacking the basket and getting tough buckets around the rim. He is such a fun screener to watch, especially when setting a pick for Nikola Jokic and rolling hard.

While the offensive struggles continue for the young forward, his inconsistency defensively is what is the most frightening. He got scored on by Kevin Love with ease from all three levels. Whether it was him getting manipulated by his triple threat moves in the mid-post or getting shot over the top of beyond the arc. Love came in and scored 22 points on an efficient 8-13 from the field.

Aaron has to work on getting up in defenders and using his athleticism to slide feet and stay in front of them. He truly needs to work with Campazzo and take notes from him in that department defensively. He was beaten off the dribble by all the Cavaliers’ starting guards, especially Ricky Rubio. He seemed to be switch-hunted by Cleveland.

His sloppy play continued on the offensive side of the ball; he had a sloppy turnover off the inbounds pass that effectively ended the game with three minutes left. He finished the game with three turnovers. He knocked down a 3-pointer early, which seemed to give him the green light to jack up shots, up until he air-balled a wide-open shot on the fast break.

Nikola Jokic

Nikola got off to a shaky start in this game and had his battles with the turnovers, finishing the game with six. To start the game, he threw a lazy cross-court pass that was stolen by Markkanen and then taken coast-to-coast and was promptly dunked on by the skinny forward.

As now the only consistent offensive weapon, Jokic has to take care of the ball and lead by example of not making lazy passes and coming out of the gates hard and setting the tempo.

Despite his offensive mistakes that seemed a little more common tonight, Jokic was the primary bright spot in the offense. He finished the game with an efficient 24 points on 9-15 shooting from the field. The current MVP really made his mark in the paint tonight, grabbing 19 rebounds and fighting off the gigantic Cavaliers lineup.

In a night where Jokic was worn down in the paint by constantly having to grab every rebound but also keep three seven-footers off the glass. The Cavs started Markannen at the small forward position. Jokic had 18 rebounds through three quarters. The team should have fought harder to box out and made a bigger team effort to grab boards instead of running in transition.

The MVP is such an incredible player to watch, whether he is running the fast break like a guard or tossing lobs off the pick and roll, Jokic is making the Denver offense go around. He also dominated on the block and seemed to score with ease on defensive superstar Jarrett Allen with easy bunny hooks and post moves.