Three games into the NBA season and we’ve only caught a glimpse of what this Denver Nuggets team is going to be. But it’s an important first look.
This is a huge year for Nuggets basketball. Not just because the expectations are high, but because there are important decisions that need to be made, the type of decisions that alter franchises forever.
The most simple being: Who stays and who goes?
That might sound a little premature, but it’s a timely question for Tim Connelly and the Nuggets’ front office; a wrong answer could put their jobs in jeopardy.
At some point — whether it be in the near future, at the deadline, or next offseason — Denver will make a move, preferably for a big-name talent. An All Star. They will do so because they have the pieces, the assets, to get a seat at the table. The question, though, is who do they include into that package and who becomes a central cog in their long-term plans?
The answer remains hazy, which is probably why no such move has been made, but it starts and ends with the Balkan Bigs.
Why? Because for as good as they both are, they don’t work together. And at some point, one of them will have to go.
The Nuggets have been playing Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic together for just over 15 minutes a game this season, and while they’ve been one of Denver’s best offensive pairings (106.9 offensive rating), they’ve been miserable defensively (115.9 defensive rating). That -9 net rating is far and away the Nuggets’ worse two-man pairing for any duo having played over 30 total minutes this season.
Simply put, Jokic is not a four. Maybe he can spotlight at power forward a few minutes here and there, but even then, you’re capping his ceiling at about 75 percent. With no exaggeration, I believe Jokic can one day be considered as one of the best centers in the NBA — heck, I think Nurkic can too — but he’ll never be one of the best power forwards in the NBA.
And Michael Malone knows it. There’s a reason they never see the court together in crunch time. Until Monday night, Nurkic hadn’t even played a minute in the fourth quarter all season.
So what do you do?
Well, it’s not the easy answer, but the best possible thing the Nuggets could do is cede the starting job in its entirety to one of the two, play them 33 minutes a game and give the other the final nine. Maybe there’s a minute or two of crossover, but for the most part, it’s one guy’s job.
And you do that because they deserve it. Both Jokic and Nurkic have had one game of over 30 minutes played, and they’ve each been dominant in those performances:
Jokic vs. Portland (34 minutes): 23 points, 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 1 block
Nurkic vs. Toronto (38 minutes): 13 points, 18 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 5 blocks
Those aren’t just All-Star numbers; they’re All-NBA numbers.
They’re the type of numbers you’d love to have on a nightly basis. They’re the type of numbers that make this situation so difficult.
Even if the Nuggets wanted to choose one guy to be the CENTERpiece of their franchise, which one do you choose? I’d go Jokic — his passing ability gives him much higher offensive upside — but I couldn’t fault you for choosing Nurkic.
And I can absolutely understand why Malone doesn’t feel comfortable relegating one of them to the bench — they don’t deserve it!
The long-term solution is that one of them has to go. Connelly has to turn one of the Balkan Bigs into the centerpiece of a trade package that (hopefully) brings an All Star to Denver. It’s not the solution I want, but it’s the only solution that works; attempting to squeeze them into the same lineup just doesn’t make sense.
When do they do it? Which guy to they trade? Who do they bring in?
Well … good luck Connelly.