Denver Nuggets: The cause of their slow start to the season

After making the Western Conference Finals last year, the Denver Nuggets are struggling this season because their bench unit has been underperforming.

The Denver Nuggets are 5-5 to start the season. Given last year’s performance, they should have a better record, but their bench unit hasn’t been effective so far and it’s been a rough stretch for the second unit.

Sure, the Nuggets just defeated the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks, but let’s be honest, Denver didn’t play the 76er’s at their full strength. Ben Simmons & Joel Embiid were out, and if you watched the first half of that game, it was a struggle for the Nuggets to even keep a lead – even with Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic playing.

As for the Nuggets defeating New York, that isn’t a major accomplishment since the Knicks are a rebuilding team and struggle to score – they rank 25th in effective field goal percentage.

Watching Denver sputter out of the gate this season is strange after their Orlando bubble performance and the strides they have taken as a team over the last few years. But it’s clear that a key reason that they’ve been stumbling is that they do not have a strong bench to lean on and leverage.

This is emphasized by the fact that they’ve had myriad injuries and health issues to start the season. JaMycheal Green had a calf strain causing him to miss the first four games, Jamal Murray missed a game with a contused elbow, and now Michael Porter Jr. is out because of COVID.

The lack of depth coming from the bench (partly also due to the injuries) is clearly contributing to the slow start.

Denver has had difficulty maintaining leads and closing out games because their second unit doesn’t provide enough offense. After losing Jerami Grant and Mason Plumlee to the frontcourt-studded Detroit Pistons, and Torrey Craig to the Milwaukee Bucks this past free agency, the Denver Nuggets lack enough versatile defensive players who can provide timely offense when either Jokic or Paul Millsap are on the bench.

Head coach Mike Malone is aware of the issue and made note of it:

"“To be brutally honest, we lost a guy in Mason Plumlee that has over 530 NBA games, was a starter on a playoff team. You lost a guy in Jerami Grant that’s got 450 NBA games under his belt, a bunch of playoff games. You lost Torrey Craig, who has been a rotational player for us and started 11 playoff games a year ago.”"

The Nuggets need help, from somebody especially when it comes to their frontcourt. Isaiah Hartenstein provides very little offense, and Bol Bol is still not ready for regular action yet. And with Michael Porter Jr. out, their bigs rotation is thin. After Millsap, there’s Zeke Nnaji, but like Bol Bol, Nnaji is nowhere near ready for substantial minutes.

That’s why Denver has been trotting out a three-guard rotation with Monte Morris, Campazzo, and Dozier, which hasn’t truly helped. Morris has been doing his thing, but Campazzo and Dozier are decent defenders who are currently limited on offense (which may change as the season continues).

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Generated 1/12/2021.

Jokic is the main initiator of the Nuggets offense. As written by our own Daniel Lubofsky, Jokic is having an MVP type season and is a significant catalyst for the team. But Jokic can only do so much.

We’ve seen championship-contending teams suffer from the phenomenon of not having enough bench depth in the past. For example, the Golden State Warriors struggled and lost to the Toronto Raptors back during the 2018-19 season. As many noted that season, the Warriors were very top-heavy with a shallow bench due to the salary cap being tied up in their starting unit. Now, the same is true for the Nuggets.

We can also look at the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2014-15 NBA Finals appearance, where they were without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love against Golden State. The Warriors were able to capitalize against Cleveland’s lack of depth because their starters were healthy, and they had a deep bench led by Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. On the other hand, Cleveland had to rely on Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgov in their starting lineup, while James Jones led their bench unit.

The fact of the matter is that the Denver Nuggets bench does not have much more to offer. Mike Malone is a good coach, and we know if there was another player ready to contribute off the bench, he would’ve surely seen it in practice and would’ve inserted them into the rotation at this point (just look at Campazzo, who is still learning the NBA rules).

Should Denver’s struggles be a concern about them making the playoffs? Absolutely not, considering there are play-in games, and the Nuggets are definitely a top 10 team in the West. Especially since this team has two top-tiered talents in Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, which is enough to keep them competitive as we’ve seen – they’re averaging 69 points with a positive 6.6 plus/minus.

But if you’re wondering if Denver may be able to make a deep run as they did this past season. That’s difficult to predict because other teams got better in the West and the Denver Nuggets lack depth. They will need to consider making some changes to their roster by the trade deadline if they’re going to have any shot for a deep postseason run.