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Beat writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season. Pose a Nuggets- or NBA- related question here.
This Nuggets team is fun to watch and I’m looking forward to the NBA playoffs. How worried should we be about Jokic being banged up and injured during the postseason run? Tell me it is nothing to worry about.
— Tom, Englewood
Thanks for the candor about your feelings, Tom. That’s what this is all about. Unfortunately, I can’t forbid you from worrying about the hypothetical that haunts every fan of every team the most — losing their best player to injury in the playoffs — but I can tell you neither Jokic nor team officials are particularly concerned with his recent minor injuries (left hip inflammation, right wrist inflammation). If they were, we wouldn’t have seen Jokic play 40 minutes Thursday in Los Angeles. Heck, if these injuries were worth worrying about, we probably wouldn’t have seen him drop a 36-point triple-double.
If he actually plays the entire last week like he says he intends to, Jokic will end the regular season at 79 games played. That would be his most since 2018-19, coming within one game of his career-high. That’s pretty staggering for the year after a 20-game playoff run into June.
But the deflating loss to the Clippers certainly presented Denver’s decision-makers with difficult ones. As the standings stood Friday, not even winning out would be enough to guarantee the Nuggets the No. 1 seed. They would also need at least one Oklahoma City loss and two Minnesota losses, including the head-to-head matchup Wednesday at Ball Arena. Even with strength of schedule favoring Denver, are those dice worth rolling? Or is safer to force Jokic to cheer on his teammates in San Antonio and Memphis?
Point is, I won’t ever tell you not to worry about an injury. I could, and then half the roster could sprain an ankle the next day. But as far Jokic’s bumps and bruises so far, he’s repeatedly proven that a little inflammation ain’t slowing him down.
And anyway, instead of living life afraid, Tom, how ’bout enjoying what you’ve got while it’s here? Steph Curry appeared in 56 games last season after winning the 2022 championship. Giannis Antetokounmpo appeared in 67 games in 2021-22. LeBron James appeared in 45 of 72 games for the Lakers after winning the bubble title; Anthony Davis appeared in 36. Kawhi Leonard played 57 of 72 in 2019-20. You have to go back to Kevin Durant in 2018-19 to find a superstar who didn’t miss 15 or more regular-season games while defending a title (and Durant ended up tearing his Achilles during the 2019 NBA Finals).
Avoiding injuries the year after a deep playoff run, or at a minimum avoiding wear-and-tear, is extremely difficult for athletes who wield large portions of responsibility for their team success. Jokic’s durability this season has been nothing short of outstanding.
NBA rule change proposal: determine Finals home-court advantage by 1) head-to-head record, and 2) overall record. What do you think?
— James Hoople, Denver
Hmmm, why do I get the feeling your suggestion is motivated by an agenda, James? Would you like to extend your proposal to the Western Conference Finals, when the Nuggets could match up against the Thunder? Or perhaps to the entirety of the playoffs?
I think you already know this to be true, James, but it’s pretty easy to punch holes in this plan. For reasons related to Tom’s question above, this system would compromise the integrity of the NBA regular season and potentially endanger the product. Jokic’s consistent availability is a major part of why Denver has a win-loss record good enough to contend for a top seed. If head-to-head took precedence, he would no longer be rewarded for playing 79 games to Devin Booker’s 62, or De’Aaron Fox’s 68, or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 71. He would be incentivized to sit out games regularly against Washington or Portland or Detroit; to gear up only for Boston or Milwaukee or Minnesota. Because who cares if the Nuggets finish 49-33? Their two-game sample size against the Celtics is more important than the 82-game body of work, after all.
If you’re a fan in Toronto taking your son or daughter to see Jokic play because you only get one chance per year, that’s pretty lousy.
If you apply this rule to the NBA Finals, I see no way to justify keeping the status quo in the other rounds. And I doubt Denver fans would react well to playing Game 7 in Sacramento or Phoenix this year.
Hey Bennett, love the coverage you bring. Question for you. Do you think Reggie Jackson will get much run in the postseason? Last year it felt like Malone was hesitant to use him in big moments but I’m curious if you think that will change given the free agency departures from last season.
— MH, Littleton
Well he’s definitely going to begin the playoffs in Denver’s bench rotation, unlike last year. The Nuggets have backed themselves into a corner where they don’t have much of a choice. Jamal Murray can stagger with the second unit as much as Michael Malone wants, but if that’s the plan, there needs to be a second point guard ready to share minutes with Jokic. Who else can fill that role other than Jackson? Collin Gillespie is ineligible to play in the playoffs due to his two-way contract. Jalen Pickett has gotten barely any playing time this season, so he doesn’t have the NBA game reps necessary to suddenly appear in high-stakes, championship-caliber minutes as a rookie ball handler.
That leaves Christian Braun as the other option, which would mean deploying a lineup that lacks a true point guard. Maybe Malone doesn’t mind that. After all, Jokic is a point center. And Braun can be a competent initiator in small doses, even if point guard isn’t his natural position. It’s less than ideal, but Malone has notably been experimenting with that lineup late in the season, perhaps to determine whether it has the juice. Jackson’s second half of the year has been significantly worse than his first half, so it makes sense that Denver would want to be confident in — at minimum — a last-resort pivot for his more frustrating games. There have been a handful of times when Jackson has been subbed out in crunch time for a better defensive option who won’t cling to the ball as much on offense. In the playoffs, I think it’s a question of how dramatically his minutes decrease from the regular season. Trust will be dependent on whether shots are falling.
In fairness to Jackson, his usage has been brutal. For all the debate about how the Nuggets should or shouldn’t manage Jokic’s and Murray’s workloads, there’s been almost no talk of Jackson’s. He turns 34 this month and hasn’t gotten a game off all season. Credit his toughness; he seems to get shaken up once a week and never stops playing. But I’d be hard-pressed to name a player on this roster who could benefit more from an extra week of rest than Jackson.
Hey Bennett — just wanted to say how much I enjoy your team’s coverage of the Nuggets. My question is this — The Denver Post still runs the NBA standings by Division, rather than by Conference. To me, the Division standings are useless — I don’t think anyone pays attention to the Southwest or Northwest standings. The Conference standings, where you can tell who is making the playoffs (1-6) and who is on the bubble for the play-in tournament (7-10) are far more relevant and important. I think it’s time the Post changes and runs the standings by conference. What sayeth you?
— Joe DiLaura, Erie
Fair. I look at the conference standings almost every day but rarely the division standings.
Here’s the counterargument: Division details are actually very relevant to this Nuggets season. After head-to-head results, the second tiebreaker in any two-way tie goes to the team that won its division (even if the tied teams are in separate divisions). The third tiebreaker, often applied for teams in the same division, is win percentage within the division. That’s what Denver vs. Minnesota could come down to this week. (Advantage, Minnesota.) In a three-way tie, the division winner is the first tiebreaker, even before head-to-head.
Your point is duly noted, though. Playoff matchups are conference-dependent, which is also obviously important this week.
Who has a better chance of winning a title this season, the Nuggets or Avalanche?
— Kelly, Denver
I’ve addressed this one in previous mailbags, so I’ll stick with my Nuggets answer. Not even a knock on the Avs. An early playoff series in the NHL is just so much more likely to go off the rails because of flukey bounces or a red-hot goalie. See Colorado vs. Seattle, 2023.
Who is the most trustworthy player on Denver’s bench going into the playoffs? For a while, I felt like it was P-Wat.
— Luke, Denver
It’s Braun. No question at this point. I think his struggles earlier this season seriously motivated him in the gym. For months, he’s been rounding into a form that resembles what Denver came to love about him during the 2023 playoffs. I see him playing to his identity — aggressively — while also making smart decisions with the ball. His raw athleticism and effort make him a legitimately reliable wing defender. It’s easy to see Watson making a handful of game-changing plays in the fourth quarter of a playoff barn-burner at home, but it’s equally easy to see him following that with two quiet games on the road. This is a successful season for Watson without a doubt, but Braun’s age, playoff experience and consistency set him apart.
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