The Nuggets' non-Jokic minutes have been a struggle all season. Nikola Jokic sits, Jonas Valanciunas comes on, and he and the others on the second unit cough up a lead. But the last three games, all wins, have revealed a stark contrast with the new small-ball unit that head coach David Adelman has deployed, and it could be the missing piece to the Nuggets' non-Jokic minutes they've been searching for.
Over the last three games, the Nuggets' small-ball unit has started the fourth quarter on the court together, anchored by Spencer Jones at center, Cam Johnson at power forward, Peyton Watson or Tim Hardaway Jr. at wing, and Bruce Brown and Jamal Murray in the backcourt.
They've also been featured to start the second quarter. And the speed in closing out and the spark they've provided on defense, plugging a needed hole we've all seen firsthand, has filled a missing piece defensively.
Small-ball lineup has played incredible fourth quarter defense
But it's the defensive numbers for the fourth quarter that really stand out. Bruce Brown has a defensive rating of 78.8 across 8.5 minutes per fourth quarter over the past three games, a very low rate. And the rest of the small-ball unit isn't too far behind.
Cam Johnson is next at 90.5, followed closely by Jones at 90.6, Hardaway at 92.6, and Watson at 94.1. Murray's numbers are inflated to 103.7 because it's actually been the second unit doing the heavy lifting defensively in the fourth.
Those are fantastic numbers, and across three games, it's a large enough sample size to start drawing some conclusions that Adelman has stumbled onto something.
Jones for Valanciunas has been all the difference
The biggest change has been the benching of Valanciunas in favor of Jones. Jones has been physical and so much better defensively than Big Val. Valanciunas has a 122.2 defensive rating in the fourth quarter, the second worst on the team.
There's been a noticeable change in the last three games, and Coach Adelman would be right to stick with this new-look second unit until something causes him to question it. The problem was so bad that he had to stagger Jokic and Murray, making sure that one of them was on the floor at all times.
Against the Suns, a game the Nuggets won because of the small-ball lineup, they were plus-nine in the non-Jokic minutes. It's been refreshing watching the energy they've shown, and we all hope it continues over the last nine games and into the postseason.