The Denver Nuggets had a rough first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and they were eliminated in six games. The Timberwolves attacked the Nuggets at areas of their biggest weakness, and it's a point of concern to fix moving forward.
The NBA adapted to how the Nuggets play basketball, and the Nuggets were exposed by the Timberwolves for not adapting to the NBA, and the NBA adapted to them. The Nuggets got "complacent," a word thrown around by Nuggets team president Josh Kroenke at the Nuggets' end-of-the-year press conference.
The Nuggets lacked physicality, athleticism, and ball-handling, and the Timberwolves attacked all three. But in fairness, they probably just did a great job watching film, seeing what other teams did to the Nuggets this year, and then did the same.
The Nuggets gave away the blueprints multiple times
The Nuggets gave away plans to beat them many times during the regular season, and it was most evident against a tanking Utah Jazz team. The Nuggets allowed a shocking 84 points in the paint to the Jazz, a game in which the Nuggets somehow came back to win.
And attack the paint is exactly what the Timberwolves did. The Nuggets gave up a bunch of points in the paint, and they had no answer to stop the Timberwolves on the perimeter. No matter who the Timberwolves deployed, they used their speed and athleticism to blow by the Nuggets' defenders on their way to a layup.
The other blueprint the Nuggets handed out was courtesy of the OKC Thunder. The Thunder liked to use their guards to pester the Nuggets and keep them from settling into their routine. The Thunder pressured Jokic, and the Timberwolves read it, sending Rudy Gobert out to guard Jokic one-on-one, and it worked. Very well. Jokic was slowed drastically by Gobert.
The Nuggets are going to have to change their ways
The Nuggets won't be able to run the offense entirely through Jokic anymore. He isn't going to be allowed to set up so easily and distribute. When he is in distribution mode, the Nuggets are a dangerous team. They're getting open looks, and during the regular season, they knocked them down.
Against the Timberwolves, they didn't knock them down because of the added defensive pressure that the Timberwolves were applying. The added pressure cooked the Nuggets, and they struggled to get an answer against the Timberwolves' backup guards.
That made the loss sting even more. The fact that the Nuggets couldn't get past the injury-depleted Wolves in Game 6 truly showed just how much work the Nuggets have to do, because the league went to work adapting to them.
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