Nuggets' biggest weakness already killing them in preseason action

After last season, it was clear that the Nuggets had to change something about the way they played. Despite their brilliantly efficient offense, the team was lacking in one key area; three-point shooting. Last season they were 25th in three-pointers made as a team and dead last in three-point shots attempted.

The NBA is moving towards an era of pace and space and teams can gain a massive advantage by taking and making more threes in any given game. The two teams that met in the Finals, the Celtics and Mavericks were 1st and 2nd respectively in three-point attempts per game.

And on the bottom of the list, the only teams that made fewer threes per game than Denver were the Pistons, Blazers, Raptors, Bulls, and Magic. Narrowing the three-point gap was a major point of emphasis this offseason. The team needs to add more on offense and take away on defense.

It’s a simple math problem and they can’t afford to be getting drastically outscored from deep every night. That creates almost no margin for error and means the Nuggets must be almost perfect and incredibly efficient in all other areas to make up the gap. 

It’s not impossible, and the Nuggets have shown they can do it in the past. But they make it incredibly hard on themselves and they’d be better off fixing the three-point issues.

Nuggets are getting smoked from the 3-point line in the preseason

And yet, through three preseason games, the issues look more pronounced than ever. In two games against the Celtics and one against the Suns, the Nuggets have attempted 103 threes and their opponents have put up 160. 

Of those attempts, the Nuggets have made just 32 threes this preseason and they’ve allowed 61. That’s a difference of 87 points, almost 30 per game. Unsurprisingly, the Nuggets have lost all three games and the three-point line is a big reason why.

Michael Malone spoke about the issues stemming from the team’s poor one-on-one defense. This leads to players helping and getting out of position which leads to open shot attempts. That explains half of the issue, but the lack of attempts on the offensive end is concerning.

Michael Porter Jr. and Julian Strawther have looked good and willing to fire, but that’s been about it. Jamal Murray really needs to get it going and to start putting up shots. Christian Braun needs to become a much more confident and willing shooter. Dario Saric needs to have a very green light whenever he’s in the game as well. Even Jokic needs to recapture his old stroke and look to put it up more often.