There were plenty of concerns about how the fit of DeMar DeRozan was going to work out with the Denver Nuggets when they signed him as a free agent to anchor the bench scoring. DeRozan's the leading scorer off the bench, but he's also dragging down the offense like a boat anchor scraping the bottom of the lake when he's on the court. The Nuggets haven't been the Nuggets fans have come to expect, and unfortunately, some of the issue has to be pointed at DeRozan's fit.
Everybody knew DeRozan's defense was going to be pretty poor, and he's backed that up, especially when he's paired on the court with backup point guard Tyus Jones. Per Databallr, the Nuggets have a defensive rating of 117.1 per 100 possessions when DeRozan is on the court. Not great.
But offensively, something more has to give. The Nuggets have a 124.5 rating with DeRozan off the court over 143 minutes. In 150 minutes on the court, that drops 18.5 points to 106. The Nuggets won't win many games at that number, and as Jovan Buha said in his appearance on The Game Theory podcast with Sam Vecenie, DeRozan's fit has been "abysmal."
DeRozan clogs up the spacing worse than anticpated
Spacing was going to be a major concern with DeRozan in the midrange, along with Nikola Jokic operating out of the same space. But the drop-off is so bad that the Nuggets went from the number one offense last season, with an offensive rating of 121.2, to number 16 at 112.6 through the first six games.
As Buha points out, the Nuggets have been a top-seven offense for 10 straight seasons. Thanks, Joker! But at the moment, not even Jokic, with his sky-high basketball IQ, can figure out what to do with DeRozan on the court. The two have shared 89 minutes, and the offensive rating is 107.1.
The Nuggets have to figure out a lineup combo that works
The Nuggets need to figure out how best to utilize DeRozan. They can't keep rolling him out in the mid-range when Jokic is on the floor. Sure, DeRozan gets buckets. We know he can. But when he's getting double-teamed in the same space as Jokic and others within arm's length of the paint, it's not going to end well. Especially when there's no three-point threat on the floor with him.
One thing the Nuggets haven't done is try DeRozan out at the backup point guard spot, and it needs to happen. Head coach David Adelman needs to put Cameron Johnson and Trevon Brazile on the court with DeRozan for three-point spacing, and let Jokic or Marvin Bagley III roam around the nail or the elbow. Let DeRozan work out of the distributor role.
Sure, we all knew DeRozan would have an adjustment period as he comes off the bench for the first time in his career. But the coaches need to start working on scheming to fix the problem just as much as the players on the court.
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