Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic, left, of Serbia, keeps the ball at arm's length from Minnesota Timberwolves' Taj Gibson during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Every time the Minnesota Timberwolves rallied on Wednesday night, the Denver Nuggets were able make some baskets to cut short the comeback. ...
"We're starting to get it. We're starting to build some momentum," Denver coach Brian Shaw said.
Narrator: “They were not.”
The quoted passage above was not, in fact, from Denver’s 103-101 win over Minnesota, but from ESPN’s recap of the Nuggets’ defeat of the Wolves five years ago in a game which was likewise played on the night before Thanksgiving Day.
In that contest, a Shaw-coached starting five of Ty Lawson (who led the team with 23 points), Randy Foye, Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried and J.J. Hickson, who for some reason was starting at center over Timofey Mozgov, was able to hold off Minnesota’s multiple attempts to come from behind, and secured a 117-110 victory with the help of significant contributions from Nate Robinson, Andre Miller, Darrell Arthur and Jordan Hamilton off the bench.
That win brought the Nuggets’ record to 8-6 (.571), an encouraging season start for an organization set adrift into unknown territory with Shaw and Tim Connelly having just replaced George Karl and Masai Ujiri at their respective positions heading Denver’s coaching staff and front office.
That new and confusing Nuggets roster continued building on that early success through mid-December until the wheels came off as the team screeched off a cliff into an eight-game losing streak which marked the first cracks in the eventual breakdown and collapse of the Shaw Era.
Over the course of those two seasons, Denver would accrue a 66-98 (.402) record, marking the lowest point for the Nuggets franchise since finishing the 2002-03 season 17-65 (.207) prior to the draft of Carmelo Anthony.
The rough start to Connelly’s tenure was part inheritance (JaVale McGee’s salary was roughly 17% of the cap at that time, as one example), part what could charitably be called rookie general manager missteps (see Hickson and Foye), and part the unforeseen Brian Shaw coaching disaster.
Irrespective of the cause, those days which in the big picture were not so long ago quickly spiraled into dark times for Nuggets fans, especially compared to the relative success of the extensive Melo and Karl Era.
Fast forward from that win five years ago to last night’s, and despite superficial similarities (Denver’s current 11-7 (.611) record is in the ballpark with where they were at on Thanksgiving 2013), the Nuggets are in so much better a place that the former iteration of the team is practically unrecognizable.
One need not look much further than the names on that 2013-14 roster to appreciate how far Denver has come in a fairly short time, but that stark contrast is representative of the many reasons Nuggets fans have to be thankful for the current state of the franchise:
• As I wrote about over the offseason, Connelly’s 100% complete overhaul of the Nuggets roster over the last four years has transformed the team from one mired in the wallows of mediocrity, trying to stay competitive despite insufficient talent, to one on a trajectory building towards a perennially competitive playoff team at least, and a legitimate title contender if they reach their ceiling.
• The Nuggets currently have the fourth-best net rating in the league at 5.5 per NBA.com, and at seventh in defensive rating and ninth in offensive rating, are one of only three teams that is top ten at both ends of the court.
• Speaking of which, Denver’s defensive improvement, which at first might have been dismissed as a fluke, has proven durable through 18 games, a sample size which can start to be taken as significant enough to take seriously. But the gains the Nuggets have made on defense are not only in the numbers, they are readily visible on the court in possessions they were effectively incapable of prior to this season:
• The Nuggets have not been without their struggles, especially on offense in their shooting efficiency, which as a team has according to NBA.com seen their effective field goal percentage (eFG%) slip to .525 from .536, and their 3-point percentage drop to .341 from .371 last season. But the double-edged sword of this decline is that it most likely will undergo a positive regression as players who have struggled the most such as Jamal Murray (3pt% now down to .315 from .378 last season), Gary Harris (down to .330 from .396), Nikola Jokic (down to .365 from .396) and Trey Lyles (down to .236 from .381) regain their footing and return to form. In other words – and again, even at fourth in net rating league wide – this Nuggets teamhas not even scratched the surface of its full offensive potential.
• With the rise of Jokic to bona fide stardom, and Harris and Murray on his heels, Denver now has a cadre of rising stars in its core group of players, and they hold the promise of growing together into the Nuggets’ own version of a “big three,” but one which was cultivated exclusively in-house through the draft. This is something special in today’s all-too-transitory NBA, and along with the rest of their deep stockpile of talent, endows Denver with the highest upside the team has held in years, if not decades.
• On the injury front, Denver has only had one full game of Will Barton, while Isaiah Thomas, Michael Porter, Jr. and Jarred Vanderbilt have yet to play a single minute. While the latter two may not play much if at all this season, they – and especially Porter – hold a tremendous amount of upside and promise for raising the Nuggets’ ceiling in a major way going forward. Meanwhile, Thomas is expected to make his Denver debut mid-December, while Barton should be re-evaluated around the same time and will hopefully return to action soon thereafter. The Nuggets have sorely missed both as they have traversed the aforementioned stumbling blocks on offense, and their addition should certainly give the team a much-needed boost of firepower.
• Just as the players on Denver’s roster have been growing and developing, so too have Malone and his coaching staff, and Connelly and his front office. Both of these Nuggets top dogs have made their share of mistakes and questionable decisions, but by the same token both have shown a propensity for learning from their mistakes, being open and adaptable to finding workable solutions which may be outside their comfort zones, and – importantly – finding their way to being truly on the same page so that the brass and the coaches have a unified goal rather than being at odds with each other. Having extended Malone at the start of the season, the current Nuggets regime of executives, coaches and players is set to continue growing together for a good many years, providing the franchise with a continuity which is central to building a perpetually successful organization.
• The Nuggets are cool, and they keep getting cooler by embracing and celebrating their coolness. As I wrote regarding the revival of the beloved rainbows skyline jerseys, organization moves along those lines, including the logo rebranding and bringing legends such as Alex English, LaPhonso Ellis and Fat Lever back into the fold further strengthen the franchise’s cultural transformation which Connelly has most visibly overseen in constructing a roster packed with individuals of the highest character.
DENVER, CO - NOVEMBER 13: Jamal Murray (27) of the Denver Nuggets rocks the rainbow jersey on Monday, November 13, 2018. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)Getty
Since watching their favorite team get off to a 9-1 start, Denver’s best since 1976, Nuggets fans have experienced a great deal of frustration and concern, with only two wins to six losses since then, and a host of issues bubbling to the surface which call into question just how good the team really is.
But the win against Minnesota, and the zoomed-out perspective that can be gained by using opportunities such as the Thanksgiving holiday to reflect on the bigger picture, should hopefully help Nuggets fans find the gratitude for how greatly and quickly Denver’s situation and trajectory have improved, and the confidence to believe that the only limitations this team has in its future are those clear blue Colorado skies over that beautiful Denver skyline.