Denver Nuggets Progress Report

Denver Nuggets Progress Report

The reigning Champion Denver Nuggets are over 30 games into their title defense and there have already been some highs and some lows throughout the year they started the year 9-2 then they ended up losing four of their next five and since then have put together multiple win streaks sprinkled in with a couple

Losses that have stopped what I think would have been a 10 plus game win streak the point is they’ve been hooping this year they’re hovering around the top of the conference again as expected and are looking just as primed as ever to put together yet another really good

Mid-season run today I want to go through their first 30 some odd games of the year and go through each of the main categories and give out some grades for how they’re doing I won’t be grading individual players or individual coaches or anything like that this will be on a

Team basis so without further Ado let’s go over the Denver Nuggets progress report the first category we’re going to start with is the jump shooting category for the Denver Nuggets now for this grade I did give them an A minus and honestly this grade should be no surprise considering the fact that this

Is their calling card this is the thing that they do and they do it very well they do it a lot better than a lot of other teams statistically 37.6% from three point as a unit top 10 their bottom 10 and makes an attempts again no surprise there this team does not volume

Shoot threes every single game they can and they have and when they do they really pour it on but typically they’re not going to be putting up the same amount of shots that these other high volume three-point shooting teams are going to do but they going to shoot it

Better than they do some of the downsides to this grade and why it’s an A+ or an a right now joic AG Julian are all 35% or lower from three which I’m not really trying to hold it against them in too much regard right yes I am disappointed in Joker and I am

Disappointed in AG’s shooting splits or shooting numbers rather from three the bar for shooting on this team is really high so I’m not really mad total I’m not toally totally mad I should say about these four being below League average for players that play in the rotation

Because the floor is raised so high in terms of expectations and because Jamal Murray raises it so much because kcp is so effective and consistent because we have these nights where everyone just starts popping off for three here’s the thing like the team as a whole is

Shooting really well right but these two being starters and taking away just a little bit of that shooting in the starting lineup even though it is supplemented by kcp and and mpj and Jamal Murray those have dropped and it’s been noticeable and it hasn’t affected

Their season as a whole but it has been something that I’ve taken note of CB’s improvement from the three-point line is improving his grade p is coming around as well and like I said the kcp Jamal Murray mpj consistency is keeping this grade above in a or a minus I should say

For finishing I’m going to give them a B minus 17th in the league in field goal percentage in the restricted area at 65% they’re fifth in the league in non-restricted area paint field goal percentage at 47% that’s a positive right there there are plays and if you

Watch enough nuggets games you see where this 47% comes from you see the players that we have and the fact that they do utilize so much of that middle ground AG also helps keep this number afloat obviously someone who shoots 70 plus% in the restricted area his dunker spot role

Is a key cog to this nuggets production because it is a bailout option and also a go-to option when the Twan is either stopped or when the Twan is Flowing mpj has taken a step up in his aggression toward the rim he’s driving more Ling less he’s finishing 72% at The Rim joic

Has taken a tremendous dip from last year to this year in finishing numbers 66% in the restricted area this year compared to his 75 last year 66% is pretty good it’s still effective he’s still scoring 20 plus points his scoring is coming in other ways so I you know

Finishing wise yes he he’s lower and his finishing is such a huge impact on this offense that he kind of has to be taken down a notch in grade for this finishing category so as a team they haven’t been tremendous still effective and above average but just not

Elite for perimeter defense this first part I’m going just do purely eye test here Christian Brown hasn’t been as effective as a Defender and this is a multitude of reasons I don’t think he’s gotten worse talent-wise as a Defender he’s been asked to switch on to larger

Players more often this year and he has more responsibility offensively when running with that second unit and sometimes with the starters as well so a lot of his energy is being placed in more different places now compared to last year and I think it’s just going to

Take him some time to adjust to that energy level that he has to give on both ends you know kcp has been playing alll defense the screen navigation the lane steals you know all about kyp’s defense so I don’t have to go too much there and

Mpj as well has made some strides as a perimeter Defender he’s still a little bit slow sometimes the the hip switch or the hip swivel doesn’t come fast enough and but that does not mean he has been a total slouch this year because I don’t think he has by any means now moving

Over to the numerical stuff and the stats they allow 36% from three which which is the ninth lowest in the league they have 15 deflections per game which is the eighth highest in the league kcp Ag and pwat are probably the biggest positives of this perimeter defense

Category of course these three are our best defenders on the floor at any time really and they they’ve been really fun to watch defensively aside from being effective and good they’ve been really enjoyable to watch on the floor some of the downsides for this grade however Jamal and Reggie Jackson are point guard

Rotation they get hunted a little too easily on the perimeter and this is not something that I expected to be any different this is not something that is a surprise to me Reggie Jackson specifically at this stage of his career is not the greatest POA Defender he’s not the greatest defender in general

Jamal Murray is a decent Defender he’s more tailored toward guarding other guards and other people in the post as opposed to being on the perimeter but he’s been serviceable but there have been a lot of times where they have been taken advantage of on that perimeter and

Not to say that these are the only two that have done it because there are a couple other players on this roster that have but I feel like those two getting our point guard minutes pretty important that you are at least an average Defender out there that being said

Though as a team the perimeter rotations the three-point rotations have felt really really good they’re they’re locking on it it seems like a lot of games they’re seamless rotations everyone without a hitch without a oh I’m going the wrong way like everyone seems to be knowing when to go

Where to go and that’s been pretty vital in terms of overall defense for the Nuggets this year and why they have been I believe better than last last season defensively kyp joic AG all averaging over one steal a game Jamal Murray right there at8 Julian straw has had a couple

Games of multiple steals Jamal Murray’s had multiple multiple games of multiple steals these guys make plays on the perimeter they don’t do it at an elite level I will say the event creation and and and making plays on the ball on the three-point line they don’t do it as

Well as the elite defensive teams in the league we know this and that is I’m not going to hold that against them at all this is off often been a sore point of this defense especially last year and it was talked about a lot in terms of

Joic being anchor Yad yada this season is very different here are some stats that I looked to to give this grade for their interior defense they have the fifth lowest restricted area opponent percentage at 63.6 they have the sixth lowest in the paint non-restricted area percentage given up at

41.5% and they give up 50 paint points per game which is just about average in the League this year couple of the fact factors that gave this interior defense probably a higher grade than a lot of non- nuggets people would give due to mpj’s defensive jump as a help Defender

And shot alterer or whatever you want to give him his timing has been so much better his IQ on defense is climbing and he’s making so many more game-changing defensive plays than he ever has before blocking dunks blocking jump shots he’s making so many plays for himself and for

This defense that it’s been very noticeable and and a large reason why this interior defense grade is at a B minus couple alongside joic and AG joic ends a ton of possessions with his defensive rebounding he has the most in the league by the way he gives good

Strong grounded contest hands up he makes good swipes on the ball he hasn’t been a lock down big but he has been effective Aaron Gordon and pwat multi-level defense also keeps the grade for this category at a B minus it’s another good not fantastic situation but

I do think that they are about the same as the perimeter defense I would say the inconsistency has hurt and they’ve been teetering the line of good and bad games but they’ve been teetering a lot more toward the bad games in the four games prior to the game against the Grizzlies

The Nuggets bench had a minus 262 net rating averaged only 23 points a game 30% from three and only 4 and half stocks the people on the bench have been doing their best and and you can tell that there is effort there it’s just about skill Gap in in terms of who

They’re playing against on the the floor at times Julian strawther has been a surprise defensively to me I think specifically just as a a a a steel quote unquote Merchant someone who is really active in the lane someone who’s made some good blocks I would say offensively for Julian Str his three-point shooting

Is not at the peak but I think it’s been very serviceable for his minutes and I think I’m going to speak for myself I think my expectations of his three-point shooting were just a tiny bit High when he was coming into this year I should

Have dialed it back just a bit but him being at what he’s at right now and 33% as a rookie shooting threes I’m perfectly okay with that I really am Payton Watson has been very good relative to my expectations of him coming into this season the defense has

Been expected if not better his offense is rounding out and he’s fitting into the offensive flow he just dropped a career high 20 points and 4 threes versus the Grizzlies his finishing game is excelling he’s got a lot more clean two-steps smarter moves around the rim to avoid blocks or hard contests Peyton

Watson has been putting in the work and it’s been paying off greatly Reggie Jackson has had some damn good games and some damn bad games his master class versus the Clippers alongside DJ we will never forget one of the greatest turn back the clock moments in the last few

Years but in his last five games Reggie’s only averaged Five Points four rebounds two turnovers on sub 30% shooting from the field and one of 11 from three for the bench inconsistency hurts a lot and overall quantitative production hurts this grade A lot it it

It pains me to have to give someone a D+ in this video because that wasn’t my intention but I got to keep it real it it just has been way too flippy floppy and they’ve been like I said leaning more toward the bad than the good and it

Just there hasn’t been enough stretches of good play consistently to where I think I can warrant giving them anything higher than probably a c right and I feel like that would be generous they’ve been losing the leads when joic leaves the floor and it’s been happening less

This season I feel like than last season but it has still happened it’s been pretty noticeable and even if they don’t lose the lead all the way they cut the deficit down to where it becomes a game the setup of the team is just generally going to lean more toward a superstar

Starting five than it is toward a really developed bench the bench is a project we all know this which is why they have a D+ right now because they’re super young guys they are guys who are not EST stablished in the league besides Reggie Jackson and they are guys who are

Looking to carve out their role not on just this team but in the NBA in general right they’re still trying to find themselves it’s hard to expect them to be really good when they’re trying to figure out who they are as a basketball player in the professionals right but

This is not to say that they don’t have their moments of shine because they definitely do they definitely Do with jokic’s weird slump seemingly over Jamal Murray’s return to 20 points a night and the rest of the Nuggets rotation putting in their fair share the nuggets are progressing through the the season beautifully can they keep riding this wave throughout the end of the year

Will it stop at any point will they hit a cold streak will they’re bench be more will their bench put together more stretches of consistency and more often how long will AG be missing time how long will AG be missing time all of these questions need to have we need to

Be patient as the answers to these questions are going to reveal themselves as the season goes on thank you very much for watching I’ll talk to y’all later peace out

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