The levers of offense around Nikola Jokic haven’t been pulled quite as automatically or instinctually as usual in recent weeks, but that hasn’t caused the machine to malfunction.
The Nuggets churn onward, spare parts and all. The fulcrum remains unaltered, unerring.
Their offense has demonstrated this month why it will be remembered as one of the most beguiling in basketball history. Their makeshift top unit has started nine full games together since Aaron Gordon was ruled out for several weeks, along with Christian Braun. During that time, it’s the most efficient five-man lineup in the NBA with an offensive rating of 139.
“I did not expect us to score the ball like we have,” coach David Adelman admitted.
“Stuff happens in this sport all the time,” Peyton Watson said. “… The next man had to step up.”
The lineup includes Watson, who didn’t get a contract extension from the team last offseason in part because ownership balked at the increased tax ramifications, and Spencer Jones, who re-upped his two-way contract with Denver in July and therefore isn’t even part of the 15-man roster. The duo had combined for only 24 career NBA starts before this season, all belonging to Watson.
“You just need guys who can defend,” Jones said, “and then guys who can stretch out the defense (with 3-point shooting) and give more room for Nikola.”
He and Watson aren’t exactly misfits athletically. They’re both gifted enough to play above the rim. They both wield disruptive wingspans. Nonetheless, they were intended as stopgaps.
Experience and chemistry are understood to be crucial ingredients of Denver’s success surrounding Jokic. Any reasonable person inside Ball Arena was expecting both the offense and defense to take a step back with Gordon and Braun out.
Ironically, only the latter has suffered so far, despite both Watson and Jones being defense-first players. They may lack a reputation as offensive powers, but that has had no impact on Denver’s ability to score, nor Jokic’s ability to facilitate.
Artistry and geometry continue to blend, forming something uniquely precise yet spontaneous. Every moment off the ball is meticulously detailed yet based on flow. The replacements are discovering their role within that flow in real time.
“I think our spacing could get better with those guys,” Adelman said last week. “I think sometimes it’s on me. There’s some confusion (about) who’s going to be in the dunker, who’s in the corner with Peyton and Spencer. Both guys can do those roles well.
“But I’ve really enjoyed the energy. I think the screening, some of the fundamental stuff that we preach, Peyton and Spence have done a great job of that, freeing people up, setting screens.”
Adelman’s floor-spacing emphasis is an understandable obstacle, predicated on chemistry. Only repetition can refine that. The dunker spot is an area Gordon often masterfully occupies, having started alongside Jokic for four years. It’s located along the baseline and inside the 3-point arc; a useful pocket tactically to place an athletic player capable of finishing strong at the rim. Especially with Jokic drawing defenders and passing from the middle of the paint or the elbows.
When Watson and Jones aren’t directly involved in an action that Denver is running, one of them should generally be located there, while the other might be stationed behind the 3-point line in the corner.
Both players are explosive enough inside and efficient enough outside to fill either space. The challenge: innately knowing which spot to go to in a given situation, so as not to get entangled.
“You don’t want any awkward movement, or to be too close to each other, where one defender can guard two (of us). So it just depends,” Jones said. “If I’m cutting through and my momentum is taking me all the way to the corner, he’ll replace and (go to) the dunker. So there were definitely times in the beginning where we were both there, and it was crowded, and it was difficult for Jok. But we’re definitely figuring it out.”
Jones also pointed out that who goes where often depends on who’s hot any given night. Watson has a 32-point game and a 27-point game since taking over for the injured Braun in the starting lineup, the two highest-scoring performances of his career. He settled into the corner both nights when shots started to fall.
The same concept goes for Jones, who scored 29 against Dallas last week.
“You go into the game, and we run our continuity stuff. And that stuff is more multi-positional. Everybody screens for each other,” Adelman said in Atlanta. “… And then as you see the game go, you see if Spence has it going that night, or Peyton. … If somebody’s got it going, they become more of a spacer in the corner, as opposed to being the guy in the dunker. And that’s just what it is, especially when this is a lineup we’re just trying to figure out until we get healthy.”
Jones has been getting pointers from Jokic and Gordon about the subtleties of playing in the dunker, a new spot for him — when to stay low to the baseline, when to step up more, when to relocate to the other side of the basket. It can all depend on the area of the court from which an opponent sends a double-team at Jokic, or whether the defense is giving him space to attack as a scorer.
“The timing is also a big issue,” Jones said. “As soon as your defender moves to go double, that’s when you need to move and be in the right spot. … Once you figure it out, you’re playing with the best passer in the world, so you’ll get some easy buckets.”
Watson has been scoring plenty as a cutter, whether from the short corner or in split actions with Jokic. He attributes some of his recent success to having watched so much of Braun, whom he and Adelman both describe as “one of the best in the league” at cutting or slipping his screen to get open at the rim. In particular, “his (body) positioning on late cutting and how he kind of surfs the line” have been nuances worth studying for Watson.
“It’s always good to be able to position yourself at the right place at the right time,” he said.
That’s true of this entire temporary arrangement as well. Both young wings have something extra to play for right now. The timing is fortuitous, as much as injuries can be.
Watson is in a contract year after the impasse in negotiations this preseason. And Jones is occasionally hearing from his agent that Denver still has its 15th roster spot open. In his current status as a two-way player, he can only appear in up to 50 regular-season NBA games. He’s also ineligible to appear in playoff games unless the Nuggets sign him to a standard contract.
“I’ve still got like halfway to go before we’re even at that decision (for Denver),” he said. “For me right now, it’s just taking advantage of the opportunity I have until AG and CB get back. And then see what my role is after that, and just keep growing from there. (If) you keep winning and all that stuff, the rest takes care of itself.”
The trickier thing to reconcile is the state of Denver’s defense, which has ranked near the bottom of the league over the last month. Jones and Watson aren’t necessarily to blame for that as individual defenders — it’s been a collective weakness of the Nuggets for more than a year — but it is nonetheless the next challenge for this lineup to tackle, while it still has a chance.
Gordon and Braun could be back in the mix by early January.
In the meantime, the Nuggets are finding their Jokic-centric offense to be dependable beyond comprehension. It’s been enough to stack wins even with glaring issues at one end of the floor. The machine is proving itself immune to personnel changes.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised,” Adelman said, “but then not totally shocked, just because the way the guys play for each other.”
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