The Denver Nuggets are currently 16-13 on the season and are penciled in as the sixth seed in the Western Conference. The 2017-18 season has been a mixture of peaks and valleys for the Nuggets. More recently, Denver has been forced to play without either of their primary big men and best players, Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap.
Millsap is expected to be sidelined until February or March as he recovers from surgery to repair a torn left ligament his left wrist, with head coach Michael Malone saying that a best-case scenario return for Millsap would be after the All-Star break. Jokic returned to the hardwood during Friday’s victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, logging a double-double in 22 minutes played off the bench with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Jokic was sidelined for seven games in which Denver went 3-4. Although they posted a losing record during the stretch, a lot was learned about some of the Nuggets’ youth with the team’s best duo sidelined. The Nuggets’ scribes here at Mile High Sports took a moment to discuss Denver’s emerging young players who took advantage of their newfound opportunities.
How do you think the team handled being without Nikola Jokic for an extended period of time?
Aniello Piro: I think the team did as good of a job as they could have down both Jokic and Millsap. To be honest, I thought it would be much worse, but Malone did a great job of buckling down and leading his team through the fire. The biggest development was more about Malone’s growth as a head coach as well as some previously unknown abilities of players who do not see the floor consistently — in part due to the Nuggets’ logjam of young talent. With that, Denver did a great job of weathering the storm while keeping their identity on both offense and defense intact despite not having their best player in Jokic.
Dev Johnson: Denver was not bad without Jokic, but they were not good either. I think they did what was expected of them considering the circumstance. They were on the road for most of their games and started out slowly as they were having to figure out who would be the go-to guy without their two best players — as well as no Wilson Chandler for a few games due to his sore lower back. They had to adjust on the fly with an already broken defense and won the games they were supposed to win. It would have been nice to see more effort in those games they weren’t favored in but overall, not too shabby.
Brendan Vogt: This echoes a sentiment that is circulating quickly amongst Denver fans and media: despite going 3-4, it is hard not to feel better about this Nuggets team than we did prior to the injury. Without Jokic and Millsap, the other players on this team were asked to step up in a big way — and a lot of them did. We’ve now seen that Gary Harris can step up not only as a primary scorer — in small doses at least — but also as a playmaker and facilitator. We know that deep down inside Jamal Murray is a cold-blooded killer and a dynamic offensive player. Malik Beasley has worked his way into the rotation and displayed not only his spectacular defensive ability, but also some surprisingly crisp moves on offense for such a raw player. Of course, there is also Trey Lyles — who could not care less about your Donovan Mitchell takes. Lyles has shown a ton of promise on the offensive end so far in his time as a member of the Nuggets. At 22 years old, Denver appears to have a strong candidate for Paul Millsap’s understudy. Winning is always preferable — as is seeing your stars remain healthy — but this team looks deeper and more complete than it did even just a week ago.
Which player impressed most with Jokic down?
AP: For me, Lyles was by far the most impressive Nugget with Jokic out of the lineup, not just because of his play, but because of his ability to stay prepared. Early on, Lyles was not playing except for meaningless garbage-time minutes. Malone acknowledged that Lyles was skilled enough to warrant minutes, but the Nuggets simply did not have enough playing time to go around; Lyles was moved to the bench. When Millsap and Jokic went down, Lyles stepped up by averaging 13.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per contest in the month of December so far. He has done a superb job at maintaining the core values of the Nuggets’ style of play while providing versatility at the same time. Lyles fits the mold of what the Nuggets are trying to build, and his recent stretch of play will likely open the door for more minutes down the line. He is also just 22 years old and still growing.
DJ: The player that’s stood out most to me is Harris. He came back from an injury and jumped right back into his usual minutes with the same aggressive approach he’s had all season. He has been the driving force on the defensive end and is coming off of a game earlier this week in which he had a career-night of 36 points against the Boston Celtics.
BV: Harris looks fantastic right now. Those who follow the Nuggets have known for about a year that Harris is an elite role player in the NBA. His skill set complements Jokic’s in such a perfect way — elite spot-up shooting, great cuts off the ball, and a seemingly telepathic connection with the Serbian sensation. In Jokic’s absence, Harris has flexed and shown his ability to evolve from a role player into a guy who can fill the role of a primary scorer when situations like these arise. Perhaps more importantly, he appears to have added a playmaking aspect to his game that should make any Nuggets’ fan unbelievably excited. What a long way it would go for this Nuggets’ squad to get even more playmaking out of Harris. To top it all off, he’s been an absolute menace on the defensive end. That contract extension looks better and better every day.
Has Jamal Murray turned a corner this season?
AP: Not quite yet, but he’s getting there. Since Jokic went down, Murray has been playing with a different kind of swagger. With Jokic and Millsap on the court, Murray is forced to conform his game which in turn hurts him at times. With the two bigs out, Murray has played his style and the results have been encouraging. He’s averaged 18.9 points since the beginning of the December. His playmaking is improving and he is maturing as the games go along. Murray is certainly trending in the right direction, but he needs to further establish himself as a scoring and playmaking threat before he takes his game to the next level.
DJ: Murray has been coming on in a major way as of late, specifically with his scoring. Against the Celtics and Pistons, Murray scored 28 points in each game. The reason that he is scoring so much can be attributed to him finding his shooting stroke. He has been shooting the three-point shot more often and looking more like the sharpshooter that Denver drafted. It seems that he has found his stride.
BV: It is probably still too early to say he has turned a corner, though he certainly showed flashes of his ability to fill up the stat sheet in these last few games. During this stretch, Murray has averaged 18.9 points a game on 46 percent from the field while shooting above 50 percent from three. The 18.9 points Murray is averaging is weighed down heavily from the Orlando game as well, in which Murray experienced some sort of injury to his calf and only managed two points in the game. The improvement in his three-point shooting is what has Nuggets’ fans particularly excited though. Murray is shooting just 33.1 percent from deep this year and just 38 percent when those looks come off of the catch-and-shoot. That number has to improve if he is to fulfill his potential in this league. In the past few games, that number has jumped over 65 percent. Murray is confident in his shot right now, and that is absolutely huge for Denver if it is a sign of things to come moving forward.
