Denver Nuggets’ Depth Coming Through

While most of the basketball world has focused on the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets in the Western Conference, there is another team that has quietly emerged as one of the better teams out West. That team is the Denver Nuggets.

Currently, the Nuggets sit in fifth place in the West at 13-10. They are only two and a half games back of the third-place San Antonio Spurs. Although they have been dealt a couple of blows recently in the form of injuries to Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap, the Nuggets haven’t missed much of a beat.

A big reason why the Nuggets have been able to maintain their current play in the absence of their starting frontcourt is their solid depth. Prior to their injuries, Jokic and Millsap had been the Nuggets’ two leading scorers. In their place, head coach Mike Malone has inserted Kenneth Faried and Mason Plumlee into the starting lineup and they’ve responded well.

With the emergence of Jokic and the free agent signing of Millsap, Faried had been the odd man out. He had made public comments prior to the start of the season about how he saw himself as a starter and if Denver wasn’t going to give him an opportunity, 29 other teams would. He’s been averaging career-lows this season in minutes (13.8), scoring (6.3), and rebounding (4.4).

In his first start this season on Nov. 20, he only scored six points on 1-7 shooting from the field, but he did grab seven rebounds. Since then, however, he’s picked it up. He didn’t play on Nov. 22 against the Houston Rockets. But in the four games following that, during which the Nuggets went 3-1, he put up 13.0 points on 73.3 percent shooting from the field to go along with 9.8 rebounds.

Plumlee was also seeing a decrease in minutes and production this year. While Millsap has been out since mid-November, Jokic has only missed the past couple of games. Plumlee’s first start was on Dec. 2, a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. He turned in what was probably his best game of the season with 12 points on 62.5 percent shooting, six rebounds, and six assists.

In the spirit of next man up, the Nuggets deep frontcourt reserves have responded as well to their increased playing time. Trey Lyles and Juancho Hernangomez, both of whom were buried on the bench a few weeks ago, have found themselves as the primary big men of the Nuggets second unit.

Lyles was being used sparingly to begin the season, mixing in DNP’s with minimal playing time. Since Millsap’s injury on Nov. 19, his minutes have been up to just about 20 per game. During that seven-game stretch, he’s averaged a career-high 8.8 points per game on 49.4 percent shooting, 57.1 percent from the three-point line, and 4.3 rebounds.

Hernangomez spent a good chunk of the early season on the inactive list. He saw action in only four of the Nuggets first 15 games with those four games being garbage time in blowouts. He didn’t become part of the regular rotation until Nov. 19. It was during that game, a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, that Millsap got hurt. Hernangomez put up seven points and four rebounds in that game.

In the seven games that followed, Hernangomez’s numbers have been up to 5.9 points and 4.3 rebounds. He’s a solid energy guy who crashes the glass and isn’t afraid to bang around in the paint.

The Nuggets will definitely need Jokic and Millsap if they expect to keep their current pace and hold on to a playoff spot in the West. In the meantime, they can withstand it a bit thanks to their depth.