Denver Nuggets: Michael Porter Jr. is no third wheel, he’s a second star
By Will Bjarnar
In some ways, the Denver Nuggets have had a Game Night of a season. That’s a film from 2018, a comedy-mystery that stars Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Jesse Plemons, and a plethora of other funny Hollywood folks. Its gist: a group of friends gets together somewhat frequently for game night – shocking – which they take somewhat seriously.
This time, Jason Bateman’s character’s older, cooler brother, played by Kyle Chandler, crashes the party and devises this wild mystery game; it’s interactive, requires teams to solve riddles, and naturally, given that this can’t just be a movie about Chutes and Ladders, things go off the rails. There are spies tracking Chandler’s character, hijinks ensue, the whole nine. It’s hysterical.
I can understand if you’re wracking your brain to find how in the world this describes the season of an NBA team. I’m getting there.
Despite key injuries, the Denver Nuggets have remained afloat in their playoff push. For that, they have a second star to thank in Michael Porter Jr.
There’s a bit more to the gist: This movie doesn’t just have a lot of twists and turns. It, in and of itself, is a twist and turn. Characters are kidnapped, and then suddenly found. They die, but then, oh, what? They didn’t die? (At one point, Rachel McAdams’ character sees an enemy fly into the running engine of a jet, celebrates, but then realizes what happened and exclaims, “Oh, no, he died!”) It’s that kind of film you never know what’s going to happen next, and even when you do know, you don’t really know. You know?
And that’s, in some ways, what the Denver Nuggets have dealt with this season, a morass of unknowns, many of which have come in the form of injuries to pivotal rotational players. Jamal Murray went down with a torn ACL on April 14, ruling him out for the rest of the season (and possibly some of next). If the Nuggets weren’t dead in the water after that travesty, surely they’d be hopeless following hamstring injuries to Monte Morris and Will Barton, both of whom have played an average of more than 25 minutes per game and have been out since April 16 and 23, respectively.
Sure, they have Nikola Jokic, but how could they possibly rebound given the losses of three key contributors?