David Adelman definitely has his work cut out for him as he tries to traverse his first playoff series as a head coach. We knew, long before he took over, that the Nuggets were an imperfect team, which is in part why his predecessor, Michael Malone (along with GM Calvin Booth), were fired in the final week of the regular season.
The organization had higher expectations than what was being put out there, considering they have the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, squarely in his prime. Still, it’s not like Malone was a bad coach; he was simply working with what he was given, which frankly, wasn’t good enough most of the time.
Adelman masterfully managed the team to a game one victory over the Clippers in overtime, but he had to pull out all the stops to get there. He played Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Christian Braun 45 minutes and above, while scarcely using his bench at all. It resulted in a win, but this won’t be sustainable for long.
Nuggets don’t have depth to withstand MPJ no-shows
Unfortunately, a big reason that Adelman had to lean so heavily into his top four and Russell Westbrook, who played 34 minutes off the bench, was the disappearing act of Michael Porter Jr. MPJ has had an up-and-down season, but has been a knockdown shooter for this team for years.
The team needs his floor-sapcing, his shooting, his scoring, and even his rebounding to have a chance to survive. He has provided it in past playoff runs and pretty reliably during the regular season, but on Saturday, it was nowhere to be found.
Porter Jr. was awful, scoring just 3 points with 4 rebounds before being benched after just 26 minutes. He was a complete non-factor on both ends and looked like he was just going through the motions to the point that his energy was even addressed after the game by Adelman and Jokic.
MPJ must continue to play heavy minutes for Denver
While the move worked in game one, it’s not a reliable strategy going forward to simply bench MPJ and play five other guys nonstop. He makes far too much money and is far too established a player to simply vanish like this. I’m sure he has been hearing it from all corners, but he absolutely has to come out as a different player on Monday night.
Denver can’t lose MPJ, and they simply don’t have the depth to keep burying him on the bench. He is going to have to play, and he is going to have to produce. It may not be pretty, but Adelman has to suck it up and keep trotting him out there until he hits his stride.
MPJ needs to play with much more confidence, energy, and intensity, and he has to look for his offense. There’s no way he should only be attempting four shots in any game. Look for him to come out as a much hungrier player in game two and get himself going early. If not, the Nuggets don’t have many other options, and they’ll have a hard time staying in this series.