If he could, Mike Malone would probably let Nikola Jokic in play for an entire match. But no, ” he cannot play 48 minutes. By that I mean I have to get Nikola out. So he plays the first and the third quarter, and he goes on the bench to start the second and the fourth “, Details the coach of the Nuggets.
The challenge is to observe how the Nuggets behave when their playmaker is not on the floor. An issue that is all the more important as the production of the Denver bench is regularly called into question. In the regular season, the Nuggets’ replacements also had the second worst “Net Rating” (difference in points scored and conceded on 100 possessions) in the league.
A bench that holds up in the playoffs
Things changed in the playoffs. From -3.7 points, this “Net Rating” rose to +0.6 points, which means that the bench behaves better, and that the Nuggets are not weighed down by their replacements.
” Throughout these 16 playoff matches, our bench has been great. In the regular season, some of those minutes without Nikola were somewhat unpredictable. We didn’t know what we were gonna get “Judges the coach.
The numbers confirm it. In regular season, the Nuggets scored 12.1 points more (out of 100 possessions) than their opponents when the Serb was on the line, and… 9.9 less when he was on the bench. This big gap was considerably reduced in the playoffs: from +10.1 when Nikola Jokic is on the floor to +3.3 when he is not there.
” One of the main reasons we play at this level, when Nikola isn’t there, is that the other guys are there. At the moment, we have a group of three players on the bench, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and Christian Braun. I think these guys are playing well. If Nikola is on the bench, Jamal (Murray) and Michael (Porter Jr.)or both, are on the pitch, allowing us to have two of our top three scorers on the pitch at all times », Analyzes Mike Malone.
A stable rotation
The latter thus prefers to stick to this rotation shortened to eight players – the others sharing the crumbs – and lower the size of his five, rather than mobilizing his replacement pivots, Thomas Bryant or DeAndre Jordan.
” But the key for this group is to defend. If we can make stops, we can play in transition. That’s when the group performs best, because we don’t have the luxury of playing with Nikola at the post or elsewhere. So you have to defend, take the rebounds, run, and then the other guys play their game, to the best of their abilities. “, Displays Mike Malone who still grants 39 minutes of play to his pivot, as well as to Jamal Murray.
The Serb considers that the good performances of the Denver bench are linked to this stability.
“ In the past, there have always been injuries. We never had a constant group of players off the bench. Now that we know the rotation, I think the players are doing a really good job, being aggressive and attacking when they see flaws “, also appreciates the double MVP whose playing time rose to 42 minutes on average in the conference final, against the Lakers.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Nikola Jokic | 69 | 33.7 | 63.2 | 38.3 | 82.2 | 2.4 | 9.4 | 11.8 | 9.8 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 24.5 |
| Jamal Murray | 65 | 32.8 | 45.4 | 39.8 | 83.3 | 0.7 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 20.0 |
| Michael Porter, Jr. | 62 | 29.0 | 48.7 | 41.4 | 80.0 | 1.0 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 17.4 |
| Aaron Gordon | 68 | 30.2 | 56.4 | 34.7 | 60.8 | 2.4 | 4.1 | 6.6 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 16.3 |
| Bones Hyland | 42 | 19.5 | 39.9 | 37.8 | 86.6 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 12.1 |
| Bruce Brown, Jr. | 80 | 28.5 | 48.3 | 35.8 | 75.8 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 11.5 |
| Kentavious Caldwell-Pope | 76 | 31.3 | 46.2 | 42.3 | 82.4 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 10.8 |
| Reggie Jackson | 16 | 19.9 | 38.3 | 27.9 | 83.3 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 7.9 |
| Jeff Green | 56 | 19.5 | 48.8 | 28.8 | 74.4 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 7.8 |
| Zeke Nnaji | 53 | 13.7 | 56.1 | 26.2 | 64.5 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 5.2 |
| Deandre Jordan | 39 | 15.0 | 76.5 | 100.0 | 45.8 | 1.3 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 5.1 |
| Vlatko Cancar | 60 | 14.8 | 47.6 | 37.4 | 92.7 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 5.0 |
| Christian Brown | 76 | 15.5 | 49.5 | 35.4 | 62.5 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 4.7 |
| Thomas Bryant | 18 | 11.3 | 48.5 | 44.4 | 72.2 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.6 |
| peyton watson | 23 | 8.1 | 49.2 | 42.9 | 55.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 3.3 |
| Ish Smith | 43 | 9.3 | 39.7 | 16.7 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.5 |
| davon reed | 35 | 9.0 | 31.3 | 36.4 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.3 |
| Jack White | 17 | 3.9 | 42.1 | 33.3 | 66.7 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
