Denver Nuggets: Buy or sell on the 34-foot, four-inch-tall starting lineup?

Can they defend 1-through-5 effectively?

Defensively, this quintuple big-man lineup is an immediate question mark. While their height means they probably have the inside locked down, we have to wonder how they plan to defend the NBA’s best guards on the perimeter.

This starting five has a combined wingspan of 36 feet and two inches, meaning that lined up fingertip to fingertip with outstretched arms, they can cover a little over 72 percent of the 50-foot-wide court. Unfortunately, wingspan isn’t everything defensively. This lineup is far from the most mobile laterally, and while wingspan helps when you get beat defensively, only having your arm in the play rather than your whole body can lead to some undesirable fouls.

Against Washington, Denver Nuggets coach Mike Malone clearly foresaw some of these difficulties his team would face playing defense straight up and opted for 2-3 and 3-2 zones in favor of a man-to-man scheme. The game plan called for sagging off, contesting threes using their immense wingspan when necessary, and otherwise funneling ballhandlers towards the paint and forcing them to contend amongst the trees to get a shot off. While rust was a definite factor and the Wizards were without their best shooters in Bertans and Beal, the Nuggets did hold Washington to just 36.5 percent from the field and 26.5 percent from deep using this scheme.

Realistically, without playing man-defense, this lineup doesn’t match up well against teams that can play inside and out effectively. To beat a zone, opposing teams need to be competent at shooting over the zone, and/or excel at locating gaps within the zone. Teams that utilize one-dimensional offenses, however, will likely struggle, making this lineup highly effective in a situational capacity.