Strike 1: The ball is now in your court, Calvin Booth. Your best player says the team is “not even close” to playing championship caliber basketball. And he’s right.
Earlier in this season, the Denver Nuggets general manager wanted head coach Michael Malone to give more playing time to some of the younger, less experienced members of his squad. Julian Strawther. Peyton Watson. Hunter Tyson even. The Nuggets depth issues haven’t been a secret. Booth believed the solution was internal. Let the kids play.
Malone has. He’s held up his end of the bargain. And in doing so he’s proved without much doubt that what Denver already has is not what will fix all that ails this team.
The Nuggets have more than $13 million per year in salary on the bench in warm up suits that never come off. Booth needs to start to get serious about trade scenarios immediately. These Nuggets need a “big” boost.
As currently constructed (and having missed standout power forward Aaron Gordon for half the season to this point) the Nuggets are all but defenseless, especially during the first half of games. They can’t guard the paint or the rim without AK-47’s. Opposing guards and wing scorers are cruising to the rim with alarming regularity. That also leads to a ton of wide open three point attempts that opponents like the Los Angeles Clippers are taking full advantage of.
Superstar center Nikola Jokic – as great as he is and continues to be, plays defense early in games like he’s a matador. He won’t contest much of anything close to the basket, clearly attempting to stay out of early foul trouble that he knows would cripple his team’s chances in any contest. And while Gordon was out, he was Denver’s only true rebounder. At least the only other one that plays regularly.
Gordon’s return to the starting lineup also means he’ll be Joker’s primary back up, which is far less than ideal. He’s not a center. In terms of a true backup big, Malone had most recently turned to aged veteran DeAndre Jordan, without much in the way of results. Father Time has caught up to the big man, as witnessed by his noticeable decline in lob/dunk successes. He can’t play every night, and he can’t move much when he is on the court.
And in a very odd arrangement, Denver used free agent center acquisition Dario Saric in the starting lineup when Jokic was absent for three games, with reasonable results. Malone will not, however, play Saric even a few minutes in the post with the second unit on the floor. When Joker is available, Saric doesn’t take off his warm ups. Clearly Malone doesn’t want him around.
Meanwhile, Watson had been installed at the “four” position in Gordon’s absence, and will presumably fill that role as a backup now that Gordon has returned. The slightly built Watson can leap out of the gym, but can’t hold up against any sort of girth near the hoop. He’s totally miscast as a “four.” The only reserve currently on the roster who might be able to is seldom used Zeke Nnaji, who gets occasional minutes backing up Joker, but who never gets to play alongside the three-time MVP. Nnaji hasn’t played particularly well in his very brief stints this season, but he’s been playing out of position the entire time. Strawther – who continues to play like his hair is on fire – is a shooting guard who needs to find a consistent shooting stroke, and Tyson is a “three” who plays with a lot of energy but looks lost much of the time.
This is not close to a rotation built to win an NBA title.
Obviously the Nuggets aren’t a bad team. They’re actually among the 10 best (or so) clubs in the NBA, given the presence of the three-time MVP and a strong supporting case among Denver’s starting five. But just being good isn’t the goal. Help is needed.
The Nuggets salary cap issues are well documented. If they’re going to make a trade, Saric ($5-plus million per season) and Nnaji ($8-plus million per year) would need to be part of it. There would be zero trade interest in Jordan or any of the other Nugget reserves.
If the Nuggets have aspirations of getting back to the NBA Finals, something significant has to happen before the trade deadline.
Can Booth pull the trigger on such a move? Make a play for someone like Toronto’s Kelly Olynyk ($12 million per year) from a team that won’t be a playoff participant? Making the salaries fit is always difficult, but figuring out how to do that is a big part of the job.
