The Nuggets’ season has seen some serious ups and downs, but despite their ugly loss to the Lakers on Saturday night, it’s hard to say the team hasn’t met their preseason expectations. Coming into the season much was made about their lack of depth, lack of talent, and other holes throughout the roster.
They had a very solid foundation with Nikola Jokic, but after that, the roster was nothing but question marks. Jamal Murray was coming off months of injury and poor play, Michael Porter Jr. was being relied upon to take a leap, multiple young players were being counted out to step into bigger roles, and veteran free agents were brought in to bolster the bench.
Overall, most of the question marks have been answered in a positive way and Michael Malone and company have made things work. But one problem that has plagued the Nuggets for several years is an issue they still haven’t solved; their lack of three-point shooting.
The team has plenty of guys who are capable shooters and several players are shooting a solid percentage, but the overall volume is still concerning. Denver is still dead last in the entire NBA in three-point attempts per game, putting up just 31 a game. For context, the Celtics lead the league with over 47 attempts per game.
Lack of shooting threats creates problems for Jokic
Try as Malone may, this is just a personnel problem. Jamal Murray and MPJ can actually force a defense to react to their gravity, but nobody else is moving the needle. Jokic has been forcing himself to take more and he’s making them at a high clip, but he’s hardly a floor spacer.
Gordon, Watson, and Braun will shoot when they’re wide open but again, they aren’t exactly pressuring a defense. Most teams are happy to sag off of those guys and allow them to shoot. Then you’ve got Russell Westbrook, whose spacing is nonexistent to the point that teams are essentially daring him to shoot.
This all boils down to contributing to the same issue; the Nuggets’ spacing on offense is mud. The Lakers put it on full display the other night and teams are going to copy that, especially come playoff time. They are going to pack the paint, stay connected to Jokic, and live with the results.
Teams are more than happy to live with anyone on Denver outside of Jokic, Murray, and MPJ beating them. If the Nuggets are going to make any noise in the playoffs, it’s going to be behind their elite offense. But if teams have figured out an exploitable weakness, it’s going to be hard for Jokic and the offense to dominate consistently.
There is plenty of time for Malone and his staff to make adjustments, but it’s going to be hard to change the personnel and turn players into volume shooters. They need counters and they need to figure out a way to put players in advantageous positions. If not, we are in for a lot of ugly games that resemble what we saw on Saturday night.