The first two games have been extremely ugly for the Denver Nuggets. They got completely outclassed in their opener, at home against the Thunder. Most of the game wasn’t competitive and the Thunder look like one of the best teams in the league.
The second game was more competitive but against a lesser opponent. The Nuggets got down big at home against the Clippers, battled their way back, but ultimately lost in crunch time. The Nuggets haven’t lost many games at home over the past few years, especially not back-to-back games, especially not games that come down to crunch time.
So far, the team has shown that they have a laundry list of issues, but they aren’t going to fix everything at once. Some of these issues may just come down to roster construction, but some of the things can be cleaned up with better play.
They’ll get another chance to get off the schneid on Monday night when they travel to Toronto to take on the Raptors and they desperately need to get into the win column. Here are 3 areas where the Nuggets need to change and see improvements immediately, starting tonight.
Change #1: Shoot more 3-pointers
This is obviously easier said than done. It’s not just a matter of shooting up threes with no regard. The Nuggets need to work to create good looks and when those looks appear, players cannot hesitate to pull the trigger.
The Nuggets need to do a good job of designing sets for their best shooters like Murray and MPJ, and when the other players are open they need to shoot with confidence. Right now, teams are daring half of the Nuggets rotation to shoot; guys like Braun, Watson, Saric, and Strawther need to be more aggressive.
Change #2: Less Russell Westbrook
Going along with the first change, the team needs to start limiting the minutes of Russell Westbrook. This may seem like an overreaction after just two games, but let’s face it, we’ve seen this for years. A tiger can’t change its stripes and Russ can’t change his game.
He’s actively hurting the team on both ends and he is the one guy who should not be shooting threes without hesitation. But he’s playing with too many non-shooters, and it’s leading to far too many possessions ending with him launching. Malone can mix and match lineups and try to pair Russ with more shooters, but he needs to start playing fewer minutes ASAP.
Change #3: Mix and match lineups
Going along with the Westbrook issues, the entire Nuggets’ bench has been a disaster. Malone needs to get more creative and smarter about how he employs his bench units and how the team gets by when Jokic is on the bench.
Maybe this means finding minutes for Trey Alexander, maybe it means finding minutes for Zeke Nnaji, and maybe it just means differentiating the substitution patterns. But it’s clear that something needs to change in very short order.