big honey and the nuggets

1st Q: +13.1 net rating (previous: +15.2) | Ranked 1st (previous: 2nd)
2nd Q: +2.2 net rating (previous: -6.4) | Ranked 11th (previous: 26th)
3rd Q: +3.9 net rating (previous: -4.2) | Ranked 6th (previous: 21st)
4th Q: -2.3 net rating (previous: +0.1) | Ranked 24th (previous: 14th)
Clutch: +19.5 net rating (previous: +20.6) | Ranked 1st (previous: 5th) | 26 games (17-9) (Previous: 12 games, 8-4)

(from zach harper’s recent power rankings column) here’s what makes me optimistic about the nuggets prospects for the playoffs…their best lineups just run teams off the floor, both to start the game and then, if needed, in crunch time (including on defense). the non-jokic minutes of course have been a disaster for years now but the bench really seems to be turning a corner lately

feel like they need murray to really ball out while jokic sits cause even if the bench is playing better now the playoffs has a way of taking stuff like that away, any shaky stuff

also is joker in big minutes a question mark does he get tired

jokic I’m not worried about, he’s an ironman, 6th in minutes played overall over the last 6 seasons, and in 4th quarters in the playoffs since 2020 he’s averaging 29.0 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per 36 on .533/.457/.903 shooting in 211 minutes, +38 in those minutes, and the majority of those minutes are against better teams. for sure malone will need to figure out the best staggers for the playoffs and that’s something I’m keeping an eye on. murray has been playing great lately.

the bench minutes’ floor just has to be somewhere resembling average, and so much of their struggles can be traced to bones and deandre jordan, both of whom will be out of the playoff rotation. jordan/bones lineups have been an insanely bad 15.5 per 100 possession in 271 minutes, something that seems impossible for reggie jackson and thomas bryant not to improve upon. jeff green also seems likely to be squeezed out of the rotation pretty soon

since 12/30, jokic is shooting .655/.553/.865 (which is good)

hmm he should shoot more then

he shoots a perfect amount, shooting too much is selfish

tricking people into thinking aaron gordon is good is dishonest

lol Jokic pic.twitter.com/vrmSHJpRwI

— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) February 27, 2023

sombor shuffle baby

jokic is leading the league in true shooting percentage, defensive rebound percentage, and in a virtual tie for first in assist percentage

AG and Bruce are ready for the Sombor life pic.twitter.com/49etjqSueg

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) March 4, 2023

the nuggets continue to set league records for vibes

answer the question, all the celtics wouldve just said grant

Don't jump with Unc pic.twitter.com/1nzLzxsUfD

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) March 7, 2023

jeff green does this like once a week and it’s breathtaking every time

feel like the thread title should be "big honey and the nuggs"

mods

FINE

btw can I just say it is so amazing to be a fan of this team right now, best player, vibes continue to set record highs, window open for another few years…extremely good

theyre a cool nice team for sure

I just have to chuckle sometimes when I think about what jokic’s stats would look like if he tried to do as much as embiid, giannis, luka, other guys who are desperate for the MVP but won’t win. sad for them!!

jokic literally doesn’t care, he’ll take 8 shots a night and be a +15 in a W, these other fools are out there with a 40% usage trying to prove something or whatever

just remembering earlier in the season when j0rdan was suggesting tatum should be the MVP, yikes!

or maybe jokic cares so much about his stats that he only takes primo shots to keep his TS% sky high makes you think

yeah that’d be something to think about for sure if he didn’t lap the league in +/-

he’s just on a different level than these guys, 3x MVP is a tough club to join. no disrespect to guys with 35+ usage trying their best to help their teams!

just silly looking at his numbers, +/-, team results, etc. a one of one situation

curry-esque actually in the way he can just be out there and change the gravity of the game in a way that leads to wins even if he doesn’t shoot

Otm

as I was saying, being a fan of this team is excruciating

no shame being eviscerated by sandro mamukelashvili, happens to the best of us

we all know about big sandro

haircut jokic, it’s over for these hoes

I love christian braun

Nuggets 3-guard lineups off the bench this season:

Jamal Murray, Bones Hyland, Bruce Brown: -57 in 179 minutes (109.3 ORtg, 124.8 DRtg, -15.5 NetRtg)

Jamal Murray, Reggie Jackson, Bruce Brown: -39 in 69 minutes (95.8 ORtg, 126.4 DRtg, -30.6 NetRtg)

It's still not working.

— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) March 13, 2023

is there some reason they need to be playing these lineups

malone is clueless man

he’s a “culture guy” and you can’t discount how important he’s been to the development of the team in the jokic era. but as an in-game maneuverer and rotation guy he’s average at best. if they don’t make the finals this year I really think it’s time for a change

i didn’t get the sense watching them vs toronto tonight that they’re falling apart or anything. something similar happened to the heat last year and then they stomped their first two opponents in the playoffs

both teams were fully healthy tonight so it was interesting to see how the raptors attacked denver’s defense. they tried to put murray on the ball repeatedly especially against siakam in the mid post. i thought they also tested denver’s communication and that’s where you saw some exasperated looks from jokic in the direction of MPJ and murray. i assume they’ll play a hefty amount of crunch time minutes with brown in over MPJ. lastly we saw some steph kinda stuff from FVV taking advantage of the space you get from jokic in high pick and roll. 8-12 from three tonight & a lot of them were deep but clean looks.

i think these playoffs will give us a final read on malone. sorta feels like a few years ago with coach bud. to me they’re gonna have be both very schematically sound on defense & a bit creative in how they cover up some of their weaker spots i.e. can they get murray off of disadvantageous switches without scrambling their defense and blowing rotations? one of the things i’m most eager to see in the playoffs is denver in a high level series where they need to rise to the occasion defensively. will be fascinating stuff

murray is pretty banged up, and somehow played 40 minutes? (I missed most of the game.)

my concern level is starting to rise, mostly because the weaknesses of the team (the bench) haven’t improved at all, and in some ways may have gotten even worse. there’s a team-wide funk right now and I think they’ve taken their foot off the gas a bit since that grizzlies win, but jamal has looked extremely concerningly slow for about 10 games now, and there’s just no way they hit their ceiling if he’s not right

I trust your eye on porter’s defense, he’s not a full-time plus defender for sure and malone can get on him about his focus from time to time (including a second half benching two games ago, which was extremely unpopular among the nuggets beat writers and fans), BUT he has definitely leveled up defensively overall this year which has been a huge bright spot and is definitely crucial to their success. I don’t think going away from him in big stretches is going to be tenable. he’s also been fantastic on offense lately and has seemed to be most of the way back athletically, couple of poster dunks the last couple of games, just generally taking it to the rim more, etc. I’m also just pretty low on bruce brown overall tbh — he plays well with jokic (everyone does) but doesn’t really give much otherwise

last night from what i saw murray was really being targeted in one on one defense where the MPJ issues were more about him being in the right places as a help defender. even tho he is stiff athletically i do buy that MPJ can move his feet well enough that w/ his size he can be a decent one on one defender

i could be wrong about him vs bruce brown & perhaps he just plays well enough to stay on the floor but i feel like in the crunchiest of playoff crunch time coaches tend to cling to guys they can trust to do the right things mentally on both ends but primarily on defense. he just strikes me as the kinda dirty work heady role player type that a coach will think he can trust. but his game has all kinda warts and if you look at how he was used in the 2021 nets-bucks series he averaged 25 mpg but he had games of 5 min and 13 min but also games of 38 and 52 mins

tough loss to the knicks today at the garden, definitely seemed like a game the nuggets should have won, KCP 0-5 from 3, all of which were wide open looks. aside from his individual offense jokic was bad by his standards, 6 turnovers several of which were pretty ugly, missed an open MPJ at least 3 times, got dominated on the glass, sigh

Michael Porter Jr. has a career three-point percentage of 49.7% in the month of March.

That is the highest career three-point percentage in any month by any player in NBA history (min. 150 3PA). pic.twitter.com/la2IrXvDhl

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) March 24, 2023

had to read this a few times to understand it, but that’s cool I guess. MPJ has been so good this year, playing within the rhythm on offense, effort level much better on defense, super promising

nice win 4 the nugs i fell asleep but might screen the second half today

the second half was really good if you like watching the nuggets win

sure why not

peyton watson has been a revelation the past couple of games. he's still really raw, but pretty much exactly the kind of player the nuggets need off the bench: long, athletic wing with a motor who can make big plays on defense and finish on offense. he's still a work in progress but I'm extremely optimistic about his future with this team and his potential to play a few minutes in the playoffs, hopefully he can take a few of jeff green's minutes

MPJ's last 25 games: 19 points on .504/.415/.849 shooting (7.4 3PA/game) and improving defense, he's had such a great year

the nuggets playoff rotation seems to have taken form (asterisks denoting limited minutes):

guards: jamal, KCP, bruce, reggie jackson***
wings: MPJ, christian braun, watson***
bigs: jokic, gordon, jeff green*, zeke nnaji** thomas bryant**

watson was insane last night, dude was everywhere

Michael Malone says eight players are locked into his playoff rotation: The starters, and Bruce Brown, Christian Braun and Jeff Green. Who else he plays will be based on matchups, and Malone lists Zeke Nnaji, Peyton Watson or Reggie Jackson as possibilities in that scenario.

— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) April 9, 2023

I should know better, but of course jeff green is going to get a lot of playoff minutes

kind of an amazing career hes been disappointing for so long