After suffering defeat at the hands of their division foe the Minnesota Timberwolves on the last day of the 2017-18 NBA regular season, disappointment reigned down on the Denver Nuggets’ locker room as they contemplated what would’ve been had they won that game and progressed to the playoffs. They were close yet so far from their goal.
It had been five years since Denver last made it to the playoffs and the team’s current players were hungry to return there and end the unwanted streak. Their rebuilding process up until now had been an arduous venture. After their first-round upset elimination by the Golden State Warriors, the team proceeded to draft young players and develop them into capable pieces that would be useful for the future of the franchise. Though it equated a downward trend in performance, management believed in their blueprints for success. Over the years, the team gradually improved which prompted the fans to realize that the team was on the brink of turning a corner to relevance.
Paull Millsap (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)Add to that with the signings they made before the start of last year, one might’ve seen their postseason forecasts as plausible. The Northwest-based NBA franchise made key signings of Paul Millsap through free agency and Mason Plumlee via a trade. And with the emergence of Nikola Jokic as their rising star, the Nuggets were deemed to be a playoff contender by a number of pundits in their season previews and that’s what almost they did. Nonetheless, they still failed at reaching the playoffs; and a result, the team had no choice but to call for improvements in the offseason.
Denver boasted one of the best offenses (finished in 6th place with 110.0 points per game) in the league last year, but they also had one of the worst defenses (23rd place overall with 108.5 points allowed per game). What’s more, they were the worst team in both opponent field goal and 3-point percentages, which is not ideal for a team with playoff aspirations. Even worse, they had the 5th worst defensive rating (110.0) in the association despite possessing the 6th best offensive rating (112.5) as well. I guess this is what one would call as things canceling themselves out. A team can’t win with just one side of the ball. They have to be good on both, or else there can be no further improvement.
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)With that kind of situation in their hands, the Nuggets knew they had to improve on defense, and that’s exactly what they tried to do this offseason. No, they didn’t acquire a charismatic defensive specialist who could immediately galvanize the team to action. What they did instead was work tirelessly in their training facility by conducting various defensive drills and simulating game scenarios. Sure, it had been troublesome for coach Mike Malone and his staff to fix his team’s poor defense from last year; but in due time, they hoped these changes would help the Nuggets fruitfully.
Adding into their woes, the Nuggets posted one of the worst fast-break defenses in the league. That’s because although they get some of their points through their rebounding (they were 3rd in offensive rebounds made per game), they get sluggish if things don’t go their way and teams consequently push the ball onto their basket. All of these problems and then some were worked on in earnest during training camp. At the very least, the coaching staff didn’t care if the defense improved by a hair’s length. As long as it wasn’t the same from last season, they would be all smiles and rainbows.
And so far, it has worked. Through 12 games and on the heels of a 9-3 record, the Nuggets’ defense has largely turned around from their past mediocre selves. They are currently 3rd place in team defense as they have allowed 102.1 points per game. That makes for a 20-place jump from last year. Additionally, their defensive rating has seen similar improvement as they’re 4th in the league with 104.1 points. And to finish it off, their opponent field goal and 3-point percentages sit at the top half of the league (12th for the former and 11th for the latter).
(Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)On the other side of the court, the Nuggets offense is still delivering on all cylinders. Though it’s not anywhere near the top 10 of the leaderboard, their scoring output is still doable by their standards. Although they sit in 20th place in team offense, their number is about 1 point less than that of last year (110.0 to 109.6 points), so there’s really no difference. Aside from that, Jokic–who’s primed to take the next level of NBA stardom this year—along with the help of Paul Millsap, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Mason Plumlee, and Jamal Murray as his supporting cast look poised to take the Nuggets back to the playoffs. In the wake of their failure from last year, Denver is well on its way to compete once again in the West.
However, it’s the West here and in this conference, there are 5 teams that have a legitimate case in making noise in the playoffs, and that’s not even including the defending champion Warriors. In other words, to play in the West means to be part of the highly-daunting gauntlet. Whether or not they manage to beat some of these teams in the playoffs remains to be seen, but with their current play, we can see it as a realistic possibility. Regardless, there is much basketball to be played from now until the start of the first round, so we’ll have our eyes set on the Nuggets to see if they can keep up with their great defense night in and night out.
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The statistics used in this piece were found on basketball-reference.com and teamrankings.com.
