![]() The good news for the Nuggets is that Barton has now been upgraded to questionable and is a limited participant in practices, but it appears question marks as to how the rotation will ultimately settle are bound to persist. And while this ostensibly should, and to an extent has opened up the opportunity for Porter and Hernangomez to prove themselves with more playing time opportunities, Malone has kept both on very short leashes. Once again small sample size caveats apply, but the stark swing is hard to ignore: Denver has a plus-20.1 net rating with Barton starting which drops to minus-15.7 with Craig replacing him, a full 35.8-points per 100 possessions swing. But this seemingly clear picture was quickly clouded as Will Barton suffered yet another early season injury (this time to his left toe), and in his stead Craig has struggled mightily to produce alongside Jokic and the starting lineup. and Juancho Hernangomez left to pick up spare minutes around the margins. At the start of the season it appeared that Will Barton had secured the starting small forward job with Craig as his backup, with Michael Porter Jr. If Murray can indeed emerge as a genuine team leader, it will be an extremely positive development for a young Nuggets team which, outside of Paul Millsap, has lost most of its elder statesmen who provided guidance in recent seasons. Murray first led with his voice, helping get the team back on track following the aforementioned “embarrassing” loss in New Orleans with a post-game locker room speech urging his teammates to bring more energy and effort to the table, then led by example with a team-high 22-point performance featuring clutch plays down the stretch which sealed Denver’s win over the Magic. As reported by The Athletic’s Nick Kosminder, Torrey Craig explained that Murray “spoke to the team and said we needed to bring it, and then he set the tone “ More importantly, in an opening stretch when the Nuggets as a team have faced unanticipated speed bumps, Murray has emerged not only as their most consistently reliable player but also a more vocal leader in the locker room. While not too much should be extrapolated from a small six-game sample size, the fact that Murray is showing improvement nearly across the board on the stat sheet is at the very least a positive sign that he won’t be plagued as badly this year by the early season struggles which dogged him in his first three seasons. ![]() Jamal Murray stats In games 1-6 in each of his 4 seasons Stats via Īfter signing a five-year, $170 extension of his rookie contract last summer, the pressure is on Murray to deliver on the star potential he’s being bet on to achieve, and thus far he has proven to be willing and able to take that mantle. Perhaps rising to Malone’s challenge, Jokic did bounce back against the Magic, with a 16-point second half performance which helped Denver end a two-game losing skid, and featured a high-arching one-footed jumper that extended the Nuggets’ lead late in the game. This is reflected in his stat line through six games of 15.8 points and 6.0 assists, down from 20.1 and 7.3 last season. Whatever the cause, he is performing well below both his capabilities and the expectations he bears as the Nuggets’ franchise cornerstone and one of their two maximum contract players. Jokic has seemed to be moving more sluggishly around the court, but by outside appearances it looks to be as much a lack of focused mental engagement, possibly due to dissatisfaction with how Denver’s offense is being run. Some attribute this to apparent weight gain and lack of conditioning, as epitomized by a (perhaps not altogether fair) viral media day photo of him looking rather… bulky. Is it what’s eating Nikola Jokic, or what Nikola Jokic is eating? Something has been off about Nikola Jokic since the start of the regular season. They logged an impressive 92.6 defensive rating (albeit countered by their nearly-as-poor 96.8 offensive rating), enabling them to return to Denver with at least a few more positives to build on. The Nuggets would go on to win their next game against the Orlando Magic, the second matchup of a two-game road trip. And right now we got a lot of guys that aren’t showing me much.” “We can talk before the season starts about all the things we want to accomplish, and we want to be a championship contending team. ![]() “We’re a great talk team,” Malone lamented. “Show me that you care.” Head coach Michael Malone admonished the starting lineup after what he described as “an embarrassing effort defensively” resulted in a 107 to 122 blowout loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. ![]() G6: W 91-87 Orlando Magic Nuggets Nuggets
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |