The Denver Nuggets 2024 Identity Crisis
The nuggets are starting to look past their prime. This is how they can change course and make a return to glory.
Coming up on the halfway mark of the 2024 NBA season, the Denver Nuggets are facing a kind of adversity they have not in years. As of Jan. 1, the Nuggets record is 18-13. Through the halfway point in the last two seasons, they have had 24 wins and sat atop the Western Conference.
This year, they haven’t broken into the top tier of conference contenders and now feel like a team on the outside looking in on championship expectations. They currently sit in fourth place in the West, behind young teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder (27-5) and the Houston Rockets (22-11).
Put simply, the Nuggets have an identity crisis.
In the last two seasons, it was safe to say that Denver had the best starting five in the league. They were not buying in on the current state of NBA free agency putting all of the best players on one team. Instead, they took a couple of offseasons to build a starting five that worked around one superstar sustaining each roll player.
Of course, the team is nothing without the greatest Denver Nugget of all time, Nikola Jokić. Four MVPs over the last five years, three All-NBA honors, NBA Finals MVP, in 10 years with Denver already leads the team all-time in total rebounds and assists. He is already in third place for the most triple-doubles in NBA history, quickly chasing Oscar Robertson and his newest teammate Russell Westbrook. Jokić did an incredible job distributing the ball and truly made every player around him better.
One piece to the starting lineup the past two seasons was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. KCP would rarely pad the stats, but the piece he played was integral. He was one of the best defenders and would consistently be put on the opponent's best player. It all added together for two glorious seasons with a team that resulted in an NBA Championship in the 2022-2023 season. The struggles for this year's Nuggets began when Caldwell-Pope left in free agency and signed with Orlando.
Head Coach Michael Malone promoted Christian Braun to fill the shoes, which lost another piece to an already decaying bench unit. The best bench team Denver had was the year they won the Finals, led by the fire of Braun and guard Bruce Brown.
Bench Efforts
This year's bench is highlighted by off-season acquisition Russell Westbrook, Payton Watson and Julian Strawther. It’s when Jokić checks out that they start to slow down. Murray’s chemistry and painfully inconsistent shooting nights can flutter while the support around him is vacant. Granted, Murray has upped the production as of late, averaging 25.5 points a night for his last four games.
The 24-25 Denver Nuggets are the best team in the league when Nikola Jokić is on the court, and one of the worst when he’s off.
Games Within the Game
There are a lot of small nags that need work. With the recent loss of Aaron Gordon due to a day-to-day calf injury, the defensive rebounding percentage has taken a hit. They are the 24th team in the league on winning the rebound battle, while no other player averages more than five defensive rebounds a night outside Jokić.
Three Point Attempts
One of the key issues with Denver this year is that they are dead last in attempted three-pointers a night while being a top-five team in the league for three-point shooting percentage. Jokić himself has the current highest three-point percentage in the NBA at 48%, and as a team Denver is shooting 31% from the arc.
This error in their game plan is harder to fix than it seems, but is still unacceptable in an age of basketball that lives and dies by the three-ball. The NBA is currently witnessing a scoring outbreak, where 120 points a game is nearly expected.
All in all, a trade is likely needed to revamp their season. A popular choice for Denver to chase is Zach Lavine, which would likely mean sending away Micheal Porter Jr. This trade sounds good on paper, but the foundation he’s made to the team would require a big change in the game plan in his absence.
The organization should rather look into a smaller trade to help the bench depth. A player who can get rebounds on defense and give more spark to a team whose championship window is closing. The energy of the Nuggets is starting to appear lazy and unemotional. It’s time to mentally restart the season and try to build another run to the NBA Finals.
 | A guest post by
|