The Denver Nuggets season hasn’t gone to plan, with Wednesday’s embarrassment against the Brooklyn Nets serving as the perfect example.
Last night’s effort was a disgrace, as the Nuggets trailed by as many as 29 points, lost to a 5-15 team and angered their head coach to the point of ejection.
We’ve been patient; this roster is certainly a difficult puzzle piece to crack. But changes need to be made, and they need to be made now.
In my eyes, here are three glaring problems the Nuggets need to address:
1. Emmanuel Mudiay needs a reduced role
Listen, everybody wants to see Emmanuel Mudiay succeed in a Denver Nuggets uniform, but it’s not working. Yes, he’s only 20 years old, but he hasn’t just been bad this season; he’s been unplayable. Last night’s performance said it all.
Mudiay’s problems run deep. He can’t make a shot, even when he’s standing underneath the basket, and he continues to turn the ball over, averaging three giveaways a game. That’s not acceptable in any way, shape or form.
The Nuggets can’t afford to keep waiting for Mudiay to develop into the guard they hoped he would be; if they don’t make a change now, it may end up being too late.
Numbers don’t lie, and the numbers say Mudiay is killing the Denver Nuggets, night in and night out.
Since Nov 13 (when DEN changed starting lineup)
NetRtg w/ Mudiay on the court: -10.6
NetRtg w/ Mudiay off the court: +10.1
Via @nbawowy— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) December 8, 2016
Sorry, Emmanuel, everybody wants to see you succeed, but right now, it’s time to step aside.
2. The Nuggets need a new starting lineup
With Gary Harris out, the Nuggets have been rolling out Mudiay, Will Barton, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried and Jusuf Nurkic to begin each game, and it hasn’t gone well.
As discussed above, Mudiay needs to take a step back; Jameer Nelson may be an old vet, but he’s playing some of the best basketball of his career and deserves to be leading this team.
At center, Denver has been facing an identity crisis all season. Nurkic forced the hand of management this offseason, and they moved him back into the starting lineup, shifting Nikola Jokic over to power forward. After a few games, though, the “Jurkic” lineup was scrapped, and the Nuggets opted to move forward with Nurkic as the team’s starting big.
This needs to change. Nurkic has been solid at times, but Jokic is simply better. And if Nurkic moved to the bench, he could be dominant against second units, as not many team’s have big men like Nurkic to bring off their bench.
Likewise, sliding veteran Darrell Arthur into the lineup for Kenneth Faried could pay dividends on both ends. Not only can he spread the floor, providing driving lanes for the Nuggets’ wings, but he’s one of the team’s best defenders, a claim Faried cannot reciprocate.
And by putting Faried on the bench, the Nuggets would add another spark-plug off the bench to pair with Murray and Chandler.
Until Harris returns, the Nuggets’ starting lineup should look like this:
PG – Jameer Nelson
SG – Will Barton
SF – Danilo Gallinari
PF – Darrell Arthur
C – Nikola Jokic
3. This team needs a spark
The Nuggets have been outscored in 14 of their 21 first quarters this season. More often than not, Denver is on the verge of a double-digit deficit before they know what happened, forcing a valiant comeback from their second unit to stay competitive.
This team continues to stumble out of the gate, and that is the root of their problems.
One way or another, they need a spark, and they need to find it fast.
“We’ll look at starting groups and combinations, who plays better together,” Michael Malone said after the team’s loss Wednesday night. “But anything we can do to alleviate the big leads that we’re giving up early, we have to look at. We owe it to ourselves.”
Wilson Chandler, Jamal Murray and Jameer Nelson have proven they can carry this team for stretches at a time off the bench, and Malone needs to capitalize on that before this season spirals out of control.
At the end of the day, the Nuggets are sitting at 8-14 with three games remaining against sub-.500 teams in the Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic and Dallas Mavericks on their six-game road trip.
There’s still time to turn this thing around, but if the team continues to be thickheaded and not make the changes necessary to put this team back on track, it’s going to be a long, long winter for the Denver Nuggets.