The Nuggets have championship DNA. They’ve been there and done that. Everyone just assumes that this team will get healthy, and it will all click into place when the playoffs start. These guys have earned that benefit of the doubt, but at a certain point, are we giving them too much leeway?
On the most recent episode of the Zach Lowe Show, Zach and Rob Mahoney were discussing whether the Thunder may be vulnerable, which led to a conversation about the “healthy Nuggets”, which Rob proposed may not even exist.
Then Zach laid out the harsh reality of the situation. The Nuggets are 24th in the league in defense. That’s not good. That’s not even average. It’s downright bad. Too bad to expect to just magically get healthy and flip a switch. The defense is a serious problem, and if they don’t get it figured out, it’s going to cost them.
In past years, they’ve hung around the middle of the pack with a ceiling that was clearly higher. But this season, things have fallen off a cliff since a hot start, and there’s no real sign of a recovery. Aaron Gordon’s absence is a big part of it, but with the constant soft tissue injuries piling up, expecting him to come back and fix everything in the playoffs would be foolish.
Nuggets must crank up the effort on defense
Gordon and Peyton Watson may still be weeks away from returning to action, but this team needs to see change before then. The All-Star break should help in terms of giving this crew some much-needed rest and time off. Things were getting ugly in the last few games as players are overworked and/or trying to fight back from or through injuries.
Hopefully, they are ready to come out fresh and commit on the defensive end for this stretch run of the season. A top two or three seed is still well within reach, but that’s not going to matter without fixing a leaky defense.
The pressure needs to be cranked up on the outside so it’s not a parade to the basket all night, but when rim pressure is allowed, Jokic and the other bigs need to do a better job of protecting the rim or at least blocking it off. Things have gotten way too easy for opposing teams, and the backline effort hasn’t been good enough.
Luckily, I still believe a lot of this is fixable. These are proven winners, veterans, and champions. We know they can crank it up, and the personnel are good enough to compete on that end, but the desire and drive have to be there, and so far, we just haven’t seen it.