David Adelman and the Nuggets have been talking about playing bigger lineups this season with all their added depth, and Tuesday night, he took it to another level, playing a lineup featuring Aaron Gordon at small forward, Nikola Jokic at power forward, and Jonas Valanciunas at center.
The team had Cam Johnson on the floor at shooting guard, then swapped him for Christian Braun, both of whom are 6’8” with length. That lineup basically featured Jamal Murray, two forwards, and two centers on the floor.
The Nuggets know they’re biggest issue may be rebounding this season, and this is certainly one way to combat that. Jokic and JV are both elite rebounders, Gordon and Johnson aren’t great for their size, but when playing down a position, that whole dynamic changes.
Big lineups may help with rebounding and defense
AG has been almost exclusively a power forward in Denver, but he played on the wing a lot in Orlando, and he still has those skills to play on the perimeter. He’s always been great at guarding those bigger wings anyway, and now that his three-point shot has gotten so much better, it actually makes a lot of sense to keep him outside.
Denver doesn’t lose much in the sense of ballhandling or shooting, and they gain a lot in size, rebounding, defense, and physicality. We’ll see how sustainable this type of lineup is, and how often it gets used during the regular season and (dare I say) playoffs.
But either way, it’s a nice weapon to have in the arsenal, and it’s great to see Adelman and his staff being so willing to experiment. They haven’t had the personnel to get creative in recent years, and it became a bit of a chicken vs. the egg dilemma.
Were the rotations stagnant and bland because Michael Malone was stubborn and unwilling to change, or was Malone being that way because he had been handicapped by the roster? We may never know, but now, all those parties involved are gone, and the Nuggets have one of the deepest, most versatile rosters in the league.
Adelman has a blank slate to draw on, and so far, he seems like he is open to painting some abstract art. It’s a welcome sight for Nuggets’ fans, and having all this optionality should only help the team. Not every experiment is going to go well, but if they can find some things to go back to, they’ll be that much better suited to take on all comers in the postseason.