Eight wins from the first nine games, plus a win against the unbeatable Warriors – the Denver Nuggets’ start to the season could have been worse. Although the team from Mile High hasn’t played basketball from another star so far, there is another success factor that nobody would have expected.
It is a scene from the fourth quarter against the Utah Jazz, which perfectly summarizes the previous season of nuggets. Malik Beasley saves a loose ball from the midline at 79:77 and finds a few seconds before the end of the shotclock Mason Plumlee. The center stands at the three-way line and inevitably pushes Rudy Gobert into the face of a full threesome – his very first NBA in six years, mind you.
Exactly this mixture of commitment, courage and a portion of luck is what leads the nuggets to success so far. Because with the exception of the 119-91 victory against Phoenix, all games were fought over deep into the last quarter. Denver were also seven points down against Utah in the final section, but then they put on a gear and turned the game around in an impressive manner.
In addition to the starters around Jokic, Harris, Murray and Millsap, it is above all players like Juancho Hernangomez, Beasley or just that Plumlee who provide relief in the decisive phases and bring the momentum on the right side.
As a coach, you can preach commitment and will again and again, but then the players have to implement it themselves. “The way my team plays impresses me. The boys who come from the bank are also showing their full commitment. That’s really inspiring,” Head Coach Michael Malone was also impressed by his team’s will to win.
The physical superiority in the last quarter against jazz can be expressed even more clearly in numbers. 35:15 in the last 12 minutes it was in favour of the nuggets, including an 18:0 run. Utah scored only four field goals in this time, all other points they had to earn from the free-throw line. So the Denver Defense was also able to convince in the ninth game and serves this season as a basic building block for success. Given last season, this comes as a surprise.
In 2017/18, the Nuggets were one of the worst defensive teams in the league, finishing 25th in their defensive ratings, and in the summer, Wilson Chandler lost one of the better wing defenders in the squad, so not even the best clairvoyant would have guessed that the team’s strength this year would lie in protecting their own basket.
And yet the previous opponents could be kept at an average of 103.6 points, in the defensive rating the nuggets improved to third place (100.9). Of course the season is still very young and the Suns, Bulls, Kings and Cavaliers are not exactly known for their offensive fireworks, but also the Warriors had a hard time and scored only 98 points on the scoreboard in the Pepsi Center – the only time in this season that the team from the Bay Area did not score triple digits.
But where does the new strength of the nuggets come from? In summer, the main focus was on pick-and-roll defense. There, the Big should no longer let himself fall to the basket so often, but defend himself more actively towards the perimeter. The resulting gaps and mismatches are countered with significantly more switches – especially against the top teams, this is an indispensable factor.
And yet Coach Malone always points out a different reason: “It always stands and falls with the stakes. You can prepare for a game as well as you can and have as good a strategy as you can, on the defensive it always depends on whether you really want it more than your opponent”.
The outstanding defensive even allows the nuggets to play a rather average offensive (12th place in the offensive rating). Like last year, almost everything there depends on Nikola Jokic. Even though his statistics are not yet fully in line with those of the previous year, he delivers. Against the Suns, the Serb managed the perfect triple double, not missing a single throw or causing a turnover.
In almost every attack, Jokic receives the ball in the high post and either works his way to the basket himself or serves his teammates in an inimitable way. With 7.7 assists per game he prepares on average twice as many basket successes as the second best Passgeber of the Nuggets – not bad for a center. Not to be neglected are his 10 rebounds per game. Which brings us again to the probably most important topic of the young nuggets season: Deployment.
Because not only the Joker is working under the basket this season. The whole team fights for the spalding after misses, as if it wasn’t about a regular season game in November, but about the last possession of the ball in match 7 of the finals. The result: In eight of the nine games, the Colorado team got more rebounds than their opponents. They are in the top 5 league-wide, in terms of offensive rebounds even in second place.
It is certainly not a world novelty that many rebounds help to win games. Moreover, in NBA sideline interviews, it has almost become routine for the coaches to demand Hustle from their boys. In Denver’s case, however, this is also proof that the team itself has understood what matters: commitment.
So how can the good start to the season of the nuggets be evaluated? With their changes in the off-season they certainly didn’t reinvent the wheel – but that wasn’t the goal either. The biggest question is probably whether the young team will be able to continue playing such a good defence. If they succeed, they seem to be able to beat any opponent.
Especially because in the offensive, despite a solid start, there is still room for improvement. Just from outside the nuggets do not hit a barn gate at all (30.6% triple quota). This can be explained not only by the fact that the game system is not exactly designed for three players, but also by the consequences of the high effort involved. A negative aspect that Coach Malone is happy to accept as long as the results remain as they are.
And then there’s the bet. Oh, yeah, the bet. Perhaps it is utopian to believe that the upcoming 73 season games (plus possible playoffs) can be played with the same effort as the first nine. But what else is left for Denver? As long as the wave of euphoria continues, players will find it easy to let it carry them. And if it does end at some point, the rainbow on the new City Edition jerseys may provide enough incentive to restore the Mile High City to its former glory.