As Nuggets players settle into the David Adelman regime, one of the new details they’re adjusting to is his tendency to execute substitution patterns on a game-to-game basis.
It’s not the same formula every night.
Not even for Nikola Jokic.
Denver’s superstar center mostly played and rested the same rotation of minutes under former coach Michael Malone. Play the entire first quarter. Sit the first few minutes of the second, then sub back in and finish the half. Play the entire third. Sit the start of the fourth — for as long as Malone dared.
Adelman’s inclination across the roster has been to follow the matchups or ride a hot hand a bit more. Jokic’s rotation in particular has been more flexible.
“I really don’t pay attention to that,” Jokic told The Denver Post last week in Minnesota. “That’s a question for David Adelman. And I’m just, whenever he calls my name, I’m gonna be there. I’ll play (to the) best of my capability. So whatever it is — 10 minutes (of playing consecutively), 15, 20, 40, 60, five, whatever.”
So why has Adelman felt more comfortable mixing it up? And why has Jokic been so open to that flexibility?
“I think he understands the depth helps,” Adelman said. “And trying to get him to the finish line is really important. I think in the past, there were times he understood and we understood that getting him out made absolutely no sense if you’re trying to win games. This is different. And it won’t be the same thing every night.”
It certainly hadn’t been entering Denver’s four-game homestand that tipped off Monday. In three of the first five games — Golden State, Phoenix and Portland — Jokic subbed out with two or three minutes to go in the first quarter, then checked back in earlier in the second. He played the entire first frame against Minnesota and New Orleans. Adelman left him in for those extra minutes when the Pelicans were in town because the first-year coach liked how many easy buckets Denver was generating at the rim out of the split-action offense, which flows through Jokic.
“Other nights, I think even if (Jokic) is playing well,” Adelman said, “it will make sense to have Jonas get in there earlier, out of fairness to Jonas and his body.”
Adelman also ended up riding Valanciunas for more than eight minutes to start the second quarter against New Orleans — a decision stemming from the success of the Nuggets’ second unit but one that eventually came back to haunt them. Adelman felt like Jokic was stiff when he checked back in, and the Pelicans struck with a 14-2 run.
Easily the weirdest Adelman has gotten so far, though, was the second half of a 127-114 win at Minnesota. Jokic went to the bench late in the third. Then, after Valanciunas finished the quarter, Jokic was back on the floor to start the final frame, playing something closer to the staggered rotation that Jamal Murray often plays — except without as much rest preceding it. Eventually, Adelman got Jokic a breather from about the eight-minute mark to the five-minute mark.
Rarely, if ever, does Jokic sit that late in a close game. But this situation was a side-effect of Adelman’s attempt to mirror Aaron Gordon’s minutes with Julius Randle’s. “The second half, we talked to the bigs about it,” Adelman said. “We said this could be a moment where you go in for two minutes and you come out. But just go in and play hard.”
The game-to-game system depends on precisely that: players’ willingness to adapt when a situation calls for it. Adelman has lauded Valanciunas for his professionalism in handling that: “Absolutely everything you could ask for,” he said. “… To see a guy that’s started in the NBA for 10 years come here and just want to be part of this is pretty cool.”
But the premise applies to everyone on the roster — not just a backup center. On multiple occasions already, Adelman’s sub pattern for Gordon has been dependent on an opposing power forward. In some cases this year, he anticipates staggering Cam Johnson with the bench rather than Murray. Eventually, one figures, the Nuggets will try their double-big lineup with Jokic and Valanciunas together.
It can be a game of cat and mouse between coaches. Any night could bring something new.
“You have to respect what other people are doing,” Adelman said. “Of course you want to control your own situation, but there’s going to be nights we feel like we have an advantage … it will be based on rotations that we see.”
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