It’s almost like the Denver Nuggets have been on the road all season. From the perspective of a travel agent, they may as well have been. Home for a game, then back on the road, then home again for another game and so on for about three weeks. Regardless of how long or short the trips were, they were still trips, and at every stop, including the ones at home, there was no reason to unpack. Since beating Indiana at Ball Arena on November 8th to close out a four-game homestand, the Nuggets have played one-night stands in more than a dozen NBA cities, including four at home that were all losses.
Amazingly, they’ve won 10 straight on the road, and Monday night’s hard-fought overtime win over the really good Houston Rockets at Ball Arena – their fifth straight overall – broke that weird Ball Arena losing skid and may have made things right at home. We’ll see. The schedule is finally returning to normal.
Still, the Nuggets remain painfully shorthanded, without the services of starters Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun. Yet they continue to show a lot of resilience, especially against good teams, and find ways to win even when they don’t have a good night. Interior defense has been a big problem without Gordon in the lineup, and when both Jonas Valanciunas and Nikola Jokic foul out, as they did on Monday night, we get two-way player Spencer Jones playing center.
Yes, they still won, but that’s not sustainable.
It was apparent a few weeks ago that Denver needs another big man. If the coaching staff doesn’t have enough faith in Zeke Nnaji to put him into the game to try to secure a defensive rebound in the waning seconds of the Houston game, then he’s not it… and why is he still here?
Money – as in Zeke’s phat contract – is why he’s still a Nugget. And to be fair, the former first-round draft pick has had a few good moments over the past two seasons. But not enough of them to remove the “few.” So he’s not much help when he’s needed the most.
The emergence of Valanciunas has been a revelation. Better than anyone could have expected. He’s played his role so well that it would be nice – and probably necessary – to be able to use him alongside ‘Joker’ on occasion, as David Adelman did on Monday night. But that means a third (really) big is still needed.
Many thought that last year’s first-round pick, DaRon Holmes, who completely missed his first season recovering from injury, would be that guy. But after watching the 6’10″ forward out of Dayton, it’s clear he’s not a ‘back to the basket’ sort of interior player. Had he been in uniform for the Nuggets on Monday night, there’s no chance he would have been in the game either, trying to box out Steven Adams or Alperen Sengun down on the low block in the final seconds. Holmes is a taller wing player. Like Peyton Watson without the leaping ability, at least based on what little we’ve seen thus far.
Ask yourself: “Is DaRon Holmes going to help Denver win another NBA title in the next three-to-five seasons?”
Highly unlikely.
It’s Jokic’s prime and Denver’s open window to compete for another NBA title, so it wouldn’t be a big short-term loss to include Holmes and his upside in some sort of trade to a team looking to rebuild. A team with a competent back-up big man who is expendable. Charlotte’s Mason Plumlee leaps to mind immediately for obvious reasons. He and Holmes have similar kinds of contracts (at least, for this season), so maybe they could make the salaries work under the cap.
If you want to go bigger, include Nnaji and his $7.5 million per for the next two seasons after this one and try to make another deal with Brooklyn to acquire 6’10″ Day’Ron Sharp ($6.625 salary) and guard Nolan Traore ($3.8) in a package for Zeke and Holmes. Brooklyn would get Holmes’ upside for cheap and a back-up big for more than he’s currently worth. Maybe all Nnaji needs is a change of scenery. Who knows? It’s worked for others.
The only thing the Nuggets need to change is to keep getting deeper in the frontcourt. Nuggets Nation is eagerly awaiting AG’s return. But it would be foolish to expect he’ll stay injury-free the rest of the season. He had a hamstring injury at the end of last season, too. These things just don’t go away permanently. It’s best to hope for the best, but plan for the worst… so that the best always remains possible.
