The Denver Nuggets are on wrestle avenue defensively. Their present ranking is 114.4. The one groups with a worse ranking are the Spurs, Pistons, Magic and Rockets.

Their poor protection is because of a lot of elements…

1. NIKOLA JOKIC IS SICK OF EVERYONE’S SH*T.

Now after all, the person continues to be placing up MVP numbers. Of their 121-106 loss towards the Pelicans tonight he scored 32 factors, 16 rebounds and 9 assists however it appears as if photographs he would have contested final season, he simply isn’t bothering with in 2023.

27-year-old Jokic had a defensive ranking of 105.3 in 2021-22. His present defensive ranking is 110.9 this season, which places him exterior the highest 22 lead gamers within the league.

Different huge males across the league like Brook Lopez (105.2), DeAndre Ayton (108.5) and Rudy Gobert (109.7) are inside that high 22.

In October this yr, he had 9.0 defensive rebounds per sport which was right down to 7.2 in November, whereas on the offensive finish, his rebounds had been 2.1 in October and had been 1.7 in November.

Evaluate that to final season, the place his defensive rebounding was 11.8 in October and 10.3 in November. Whereas offensive rebounds per sport had been totalled at 3.0 in October and a pair of.6 in November.

Sadly, carrying an entire group in your again for a number of seasons takes its toll. He’s the group’s chief in factors, rebounds, assists and steals to start out the season and nobody else even comes shut.

Jamal Murray is averaging 17.9 factors, which is the second behind Jokic. Amazingly, energy ahead Aaron Gordon leads the group in blocks (0.9) whereas Jokic is second (0.6).

2. MURRAY IS USUALLY ONE OF THE WORST DEFENSIVE PLAYERS ON THE FLOOR

Murray missed everything of final season as a consequence of a torn ACL in his left knee which he suffered in a sport towards the Warriors final April and didn’t play for 18 months, so after all he’s going to be a bit rusty. However that actually isn’t serving to issues.

Murray has performed in 17 of the Nugget’s 23 video games to this point this season and has a defensive ranking of 116.2. He scored 18 factors, 4 rebounds and 5 assists towards New Orleans.

He’s averaging 3.2 rebounds per sport, the sixth-best within the group and has the ninth-worst offensive rebounds per sport (0.6) within the group and has a real capturing proportion of 53.6 this season.

Their second unit with DeAndre Jordan and Nah’Shon ‘Bones’ Hyland are fairly common on the defensive finish and stagnant on offense. Whereas head coach Michael Malone chooses to depart younger gamers Christian Braun and Zeke Nnaji on the bench.

Tonight, Jordan (who performed practically all of the minutes Jokic earned a relaxation) completed as a team-worst minus-19 in 8:40 of enjoying time.

The group completed tonight with a complete of twenty-two assists towards 19 turnovers. Jokic, Brown and Ish Smith completed with 4 turnovers every and even with out Alvarado’s 38-point haul, the Pels bench outscored the Nuggets’ reserves 24-18.

3. THEY ADDED BRUCE BROWN, KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE AND GORDON, WHO ARE JUST NOT THERE DEFENSIVELY.

For the final two years they’ve struggled defensively however by including good perimeter defenders, would you suppose they’d be higher on this class?

Jose Alvarado tap-danced throughout them tonight and some days in the past, the Hawks’ Dejounte Murray and AJ Griffin had been utterly dominant.

Brown is enjoying half-hour and getting 4.5 rebounds and 0.5 blocks, whereas KCP is averaging 3.0 rebounds and 0.4 blocks however Gordon has the second greatest rebounding common (6.6) behind Jokic.

On the offensive finish, Caldwell-Pope’s stretch of video games scoring lower than ten factors is at 5 and as properly, he was the one starter to not rating in double figures within the loss.

After seeing the stats their opponents are placing up after each Nuggets sport, their perimeter protection wants to enhance.

It will likely be fascinating to see whether or not they could make it out of the west this season.