The Nuggets recently posted back-to-back overtime victories and my immediate takeaway was simple: They owe Nikola Jokic an apology.
Denver is off to a clunky start. Entering Friday night, Jokic, the reigning MVP, was averaging a career-high 31.5 points on 39 minutes per game.
Nobody cares more about winning than Jokic. But this roster is making him selfish. He has to shoot 3s because so few go in when anybody else does. He is forced to log time-and-a-half minutes because Dario Saric looks lost as his backup, and Zeke Nnaji remains glued to the bench.
The idea is to maximize Jokic’s prime. To raise another banner. Watching this team, it seems like the goal is to raise his blood pressure. In a local story that has grown national legs this week, the tension between general manager Calvin Booth and coach Michael Malone has become an open secret.
Booth is trying to win now and from now on, blending in young players to increase athleticism and appease ownership’s desire to avoid paying luxury taxes. Malone, ever the competitor, is trying to win every night, struggling to blend the micro and macro goals.
And it is hard to trust young guys — Christian Braun is earning it — when two max-contract players, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., remain inconsistent and perplexing. The Nuggets need a career year from Murray and he is showing his age, looking tired and hurt between bursts of stardom. MPJ simply has too many off shooting nights. So, while Russell Westbrook gets high marks as a teammate and for his energy, he doesn’t solve the team’s most glaring problems: the need for better shooting from 3 and bench players who can hold their own for 15 minutes a night.
The season remains in its infancy. But what the Nuggets are doing with Jokic is not sustainable. He requires rest. And more than anything, Jokic needs help: from his GM, from his coach, from his teammates, not a bunch of “I’m sorrys” after the end of a forgettable season.
Jet-Setters: So we are to believe that the Jets are going to the playoffs after snapping their five-game losing streak on Thursday night. Give me a break. They would have to finish the season 8-1. What about watching that undisciplined team makes anyone think that will happen? Even with 10 wins, they would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Broncos. Aaron Rodgers was acquired to be Joe Namath for the Jets. He looks more like Willie Mays with the Mets.
Taking the Fifth: Every Rockies game feels like the Yankees’ fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series. But that display of defense was historically bad. The Dodgers exposed the Yankees as a team that doesn’t do the little things well, like taking secondary leads, backing up cutoff throws and covering first base on a groundball to first.
Role of a lifetime: Broncos quarterbacks Zach Wilson, and to a lesser extent Jarrett Stidham, played Lamar Jackson on scout team this week. There is no harder role to fill given his electric skillset. Wilson can match Jackson’s arm. But running like him? No one cuts like Jackson, the quarterbacks admitted. It drives home the point that the Broncos’ path to an upset lies in making Jackson throw from the pocket.
MAIL TIME
Over half the league is running Mike Shanahan’s offense, so you would think that alone would be enough to get him a spot in the (Pro Football Hall of Fame), right?
Troy Billick, Twitter
There is no logical explanation for Shanahan’s exclusion. He has the career wins, the big wins (back-to-back Super Bowls) and the most wins over a three-year period (46-10 from 1996-98). He is innovative and has left a legacy through his coaching career. Is he being punished for his lack of success without John Elway and his sour ending in Washington? If that is the case, it represents a failure to contextualize his full body of work.
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