The Nuggets revamped their bench in the offseason, and there have been a lot of early positives. Marvin Bagley looks like an upgrade as a backup center, Alpha Diallo looks like a defensive weapon, DeMar DeRozan can actually run an offense, and Trevon Brazile is an early candidate to be the steal of the 2026 draft.
However, there’s a major issue with this second unit, and it was on full display on Monday night, as the team fell at home to the Trail Blazers, 118-111. Denver played five bench players for a total of 62 minutes, and they combined to attempt a grand total of one three-pointer, which was from Bagley.
Nuggets' bench has no three-point shooting
That’s just not a sustainable way to play basketball in the NBA in 2026, and eventually, that math problem is going to catch up with them. Christian Braun’s crazy heater to start the season has masked this issue a bit, but if he comes back down to earth, it’s going to be a problem.
Monday night, the Nuggets, as a team, shot just 26 threes, making 9, while the Blazers hit 15 of 41. That’s a margin that’s going to catch up with them and is going to be extremely hard to overcome. This team is in desperate need of three-point volume, and as it stands, their only candidates are in the starting lineup.
They need more from Braun, Cam Johnson, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon, but that’s not going to help the bench. Last season, they had Tim Hardaway Jr. coming off the bench and launching almost 7 threes a game, and they didn't replace that volume. DeRozan is a scorer, but he loves to live in the midrange, and at this point in his career, I think it’s safe to say that isn’t going to change.
Nuggets have no clear solution on their current roster
Brazile has been letting it fly early in the season, but I’m not sure that’s reliable on a nightly basis for a team with championship aspirations. Diallo is a total wild card on offense, Bagley averages 0.4 three-pointers made per game in his career, and Tyus Jones may be on his way out of the rotation.
So, where are the threes going to come from? That’s a tough question, and one that David Adelman is going to have to figure out. Maybe that means a shift to the starting lineup, maybe it means staggering the rotations more, or maybe it means some kind of roster move. Heck, maybe it was just a bad night, but that seems unlikely.
This has been a recurring theme for the Nuggets, and early in this season, they’re already in the bottom five in the league in three-point attempts per game. The fix isn’t coming from anywhere obvious within the current roster, so the front office and coaching staff are going to have to get back to the drawing board, because what’s happening now is not a recipe for success.
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