One of the biggest holes on the Denver Nuggets this year has been at the backup point guard spot. Jamal Murray has been working his tail off, currently playing the second-most minutes in the NBA at 36.9, and the non-Murray minutes have become a problem in the Mile High City. They'll still be a problem until something is fixed, but at least head coach David Adelman decided to take Tyus Jones out of the rotation in the second half of the 110-100 loss to the Houston Rockets. He's been a drag on the offense, especially when he comes in with Nikola Jokic.
It's been obvious to just about everyone. Jones just hasn't had the look of a backup point guard. He creates a spacing disaster, and teams can generally brush aside guarding him because he won't knock enough shots down to hurt them. Jones is just 36.4% from the field and a dreadful 27.3% from three. He's not only not passing the eye test, but he's also losing the advanced stat wars, too.
The Nuggets are a net differential of -15 with Jones on the court, and a staggering -17.9 when he shares the court with Jokic. The offense slows to a screeching halt with Jones running the point.
There's hope the Nuggets are looking at any alternative
Against the Rockets, Adelman chose to bring in Bryce Hopkins over Jones for the final 3:14 of the third quarter, the last breather Murray received before playing the entire fourth quarter until the final 33 seconds of garbage time. The Nuggets chose to use DeMar DeRozan in the point guard slot, and it may not be the last time we see that.
DeRozan would be much better suited at this stage to playing a facilitator role. He can pass just fine, and he has excellent court vision. DeRozan is averaging 3.6 assists over his last six games, the third-best number on the team. And he's played the facilitator role before, when he was with the San Antonio Spurs. He excelled in the role, and I have a feeling the Nuggets will try it out, given DeRozan's poor fit in the midrange and ISO game when he fills in at wing.
It also wouldn't be surprising for the Nuggets to test out two-way player Ryan Nembhard. Nembhard is a much quicker guard who excels at penetrating into the paint and distributing the ball on a kick-out. He's a good passer, and he led all rookies in assists last year, with 5.3 per game, with the Dallas Mavericks.
Anything is better than Jones at the moment. And it looks like the Nuggets are about to test it out.
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