With the NBA season right around the corner, let’s continue our 20 Questions series geared toward the 2025-26 season.

Question 2: Are the Jokic + Valanciunas minutes a serious consideration?

One of the most popular sound bytes from Media Day on Monday was Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman answering a question (mine) about Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas sharing the court together.

Is it possible and could the Nuggets actually go to it at some point this season?

“Yes,” Adelman stated plainly, then went on to explain what makes Valanciunas such a good fit for the Nuggets.

“We’re going to play through that guy. I have to push the limits of what he can do. I think there’s things he wasn’t allowed to do with other teams that he can do with us.”

It was an interesting framing by Adelman. Clearly, the Nuggets see some capability here that wasn’t necessarily featured for other teams. My guess is it was Valanciunas’ passing skills. In the first 11 seasons of his career, Valanciunas averaged a paltry 2.4 assists per 100 possessions. Among the 76 qualified centers to play at least 5,000 minutes over the last decade, those 2.4 assists would rank in the bottom 15 next to Mo Bamba, Richaun Holmes, and Derrick Favors. Not exactly awesome passers.

Over the last two seasons though, spent with the New Orleans Pelicans, Washington Wizards, and Sacramento Kings, Valanciunas has averaged 4.7 assists per 100 possessions, doubling his output. That places him 15th on the list among Isaiah Hartenstein, Zach Collins, and Greg Monroe, still not elite passers but certainly much better. Valanciunas has clearly developed in his ability to see the floor at a higher level, and I expect that’s why the Nuggets added him in the first place.

But to play next to another relatively immobile center in Jokic? That’s another beast entirely. Still, Adelman didn’t rule it out.

“Those two guys will play together at a certain point. I think changing defenses allows that. I’d like to see how people guard those guys. I think that’d be a very interesting decision of who you put on who.”

First of all, changing defenses, huh? The Nuggets have made several mentions of altering what they’re doing defensively this season, and I think I know what they’re doing. More on that topic for another day.

Second, Adelman is right that considering any lineup is a two-way road. It’s not just about how the Nuggets can guard teams, but how teams would be forced to adapt to the Nuggets. They never really trusted the idea of playing Nikola Jokic and DeAndre Jordan together over the last few seasons because the immobility on defense outweighed the potential benefits offensively.

That may not be the same with Jokic and Valanciunas. Jokic can make almost any lineup work because of his ability to see the floor, operate in a variety of spots, shoot from outside, and understand how opponents will react to different situations.

Valanciunas is much the same way, and he even has some experience playing next to another big man. Late last season, the Sacramento Kings played Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis together. It was just 23 total possessions according to Cleaning the Glass, but the offense was great and outweighed an admittedly poor defensive number.

But can the Nuggets actually do this? Can they make this viable?

Other teams have found ways to made two center pairings work before. Last season, some notable starters and backups that shared the floor were:

  • Minnesota: Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid – 948 minutes
  • Houston: Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams – 162 minutes
  • New York: Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson – 47 minutes (due to injury)
  • Orlando: Wendell Carter Jr. and Goga Bitadze – 218 minutes

It’s pretty rare to see two true centers share the floor to together in the NBA. Usually, one of the centers can space the floor and the other can protect the rim. Gobert is a true defensive anchor while Reid moves like a perimeter player on offense. Towns and Robinson fall into a similar category, a funhouse version of the Minnesota pairing.

In Orlando, Carter shot poorly from three, but so did the entire Magic roster so the difference wasn’t seriously felt. Bitadze was one of the best defensive centers in the NBA last year, and though that lineup only played 13 games together, it had a +17.7 Net Rating.

The numbers for the Rockets big man duo were absurd. They maintained a +29.9 Net Rating, were elite on both sides of the floor, and grabbed a whopping 66.4% of all rebounds. It helped that they were often surrounded by athletic, defensive-minded guards and wings, but they did exactly what they were asked to do: grab every rebound and dominate physically.

If the Nuggets are going to emulate these duos, they’re going to have to do it their own way. Though neither Sengun nor Adams are mobile, they’ve been more defensively capable in perimeter situations than Jokic or Valanciunas. The Rockets bigs were also aided by one of the best perimeter defense groups that featured Fred VanVleet (get well soon), Amen Thompson, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr., and Tari Eason.

The Nuggets also don’t have that level of defense in their personnel group. Christian Braun, Bruce Brown, and Peyton Watson could do it, and Aaron Gordon could slide to small forward, but can Jamal Murray and Cam Johnson? Julian Strawther and Tim Hardaway Jr.? Doubtful.

So, that leaves zone defense. The Nuggets have stated some intentionality of playing zone going forward, using it as a proactive weapon rather than a reactive safety valve like in previous years. Can the Nuggets build a zone defense that features two slow bigs in a game that’s heavily emphasizing the three-point shot? Most teams will pass the ball to the corner that one of Jokic or Valanciunas have to guard and generate a pull-up three. Many players are good enough to hit that shot with some consistency these days.

The lineup is worth exploring. I’m looking forward to seeing it deployed and trying to understand how the Nuggets plan to utilize it.

I suspect the minute totals won’t exceed the 150-mark on the year, but when have I ever jinxed the Nuggets about anything?