Written by Ryan Weinkauf at The Lottery Mafia
The Denver Nuggets were supposed to be a young team with some questions defensively that wasn’t going to do much this season. However, at 6-5 and currently in seventh in the West, the question must be asked, what are we supposed to make of this Denver team? Can they make a bigger dent in the West than most expected?
Denver’s start to the season is no doubt surprising. With a frontcourt of Kenneth Faried and JJ Hickson, the Nuggets were expected to not be able to defend the basket very well.
So far, that has been the case, as they have a DRtg (Defensive Rating) of 105.8. They are 19th in the NBA in defensive efficiency and 23rd in opponent true shooting percentage. Although their young backcourt of Emmanuel Mudiay and Gary Harris is strong defensively, it is difficult for them to compensate for the weak frontcourt, and that has resulted in the Nuggets giving up a lot of points, even in their wins.
The most positive signs for this team have been offensively. The star of the season so far has been the finally healthy, Italian swingman Danilo Gallinari. Fresh off a near triple-double performance against the Pelicans (32 pts, 8 rebs, 8asts), Gallinari has been the main offensive threat for Denver. Shooting 40 percent from three, he is able to spread the floor in a way the other Nuggets big men do not. But he is also versatile offensively, as he has done a lot of damage around the basket as well. While having eight assists isn’t the norm for Gallinari, he has also stepped up as a second facilitator in the starting lineup. Although his 27 years of age isn’t exactly young, being healthy has led to a resurgence for him and he has shown signs of emerging as a next-level player for Denver.
The lead facilitator of the team is rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who has delivered a lot of highlight-reel worthy plays in his short time in Denver so far. Coming out of the draft, Mudiay was seen as an absurdly athletic guard that had the facilitating abilities and speed to be a true modern point guard in the NBA. And that has been true so far, as Mudiay has done a great job of moving the basketball and finding tight openings, good for 6.4 APG, while also working very hard defensively, averaging over a steal per game.
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