When joining his locker room, Bryn Forbes went to speak to Mike Malone. To apologize for his first outing with the Nuggets. The latter had just lost at home against the Grizzlies and the back brought 9 points with a meager 4/13 on shots.
“As long as you come home to play hard, that’s all I ask”, remembers the coach having let go of his rookie. ” Do not apologize. You came home and you played hard. I know you’re better than your 4/13. “ In this case, the NBA champion with the Bucks last year is worth 41% 3-point success in six seasons in the league.
The Nuggets have given up on PJ Dozier and Bol Bol to afford this shooter likely to bring energy to a “second unit” which is sorely lacking. Serious injuries to Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. forced Mike Malone to review his starting five and necessarily weaken his bench.
Result: with 33 points scored on average, with less than 41% success, the Nuggets bench only occupies the 21st place of the most productive benches in attack in the league. Worse, the Denver substitutes show a “net rating” of -4.7 points when they are in play. Only the Magic is doing worse in the league.
Faced with the Grizzlies, for example, the four players on the bench mobilized all ended with a negative impact on the score, – 13 at least, where all the holders ended in the positive. Bryn Forbes, precisely, scored the only basket from the bench in the second half. Difficult in these conditions to reach the regularity demanded by Nikola Jokic at the end of this meeting.
DeMarcus Cousins to blow Nikola Jokic
“I think consistency is the most important factor for us today. You can notice that we sometimes play very well in the first half (Editor’s note: +7.6 in “net rating”, 5th best team) before losing in the second half (-6.6 “net rating”, 29th team…) . Sometimes the bench plays well, sometimes the starters play well. If we can find a happy medium and be consistent in certain areas, that will help us a lot.“
This observation is particularly true when the pivot joins his bench. It is here that the arrival of the other rookie, DeMarcus Cousins, should have his interest for the Nuggets. The former protege of Mike Malone at the Kings should make his debut next night against the Pistons.
” A four-time All-Star player, capable of putting up 28 points per game, has talent”, recalls the coach. “We have seen so many times this year substitutes change everywhere in defense. DeMarcus is a guy who makes it difficult for opponents to just tell themselves they’re going to change in every position.“
Mike Malone obviously wants to rely on the offensive qualities of the pivot. ” He is a very effective player in the low post. I hope people realize he’s a hell of a creator too. He can give us an extra weapon that will make it a little harder for us to defend on nights when our opponents are playing small and changing everywhere in defense. “The Nuggets bench may thus gain in efficiency.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Nikola Jokic | 39 | 33.1 | 57.2 | 37.0 | 78.7 | 2.8 | 11.1 | 13.9 | 7.5 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 25.9 |
| Will Barton | 39 | 32.8 | 43.1 | 36.9 | 78.8 | 0.6 | 4.2 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 15.3 |
| Aaron Gordon | 41 | 32.0 | 52.4 | 34.1 | 74.0 | 1.7 | 3.9 | 5.6 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 14.5 |
| Monte Morris | 41 | 30.0 | 47.8 | 37.7 | 77.1 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 12.8 |
| Jeff Green | 41 | 25.2 | 51.6 | 34.3 | 80.4 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 10.7 |
| Michael Porter, Jr. | 9 | 29.4 | 35.9 | 20.8 | 55.6 | 1.0 | 5.6 | 6.6 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 9.9 |
| Bryn Forbes | 1 | 18.9 | 30.8 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 |
| Bones Hyland | 34 | 17.6 | 36.3 | 33.9 | 89.2 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 8.5 |
| Facundo Campazzo | 43 | 21.8 | 37.6 | 31.0 | 81.0 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 6.4 |
| Zeke Nnaji | 28 | 14.9 | 47.9 | 47.2 | 63.0 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 6.1 |
| Jamychal Green | 35 | 14.9 | 43.7 | 25.0 | 85.7 | 0.9 | 2.8 | 3.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 5.7 |
| austin rivers | 31 | 20.3 | 37.9 | 31.2 | 61.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 5.6 |
| Pj Dozier | 18 | 18.9 | 36.4 | 31.2 | 76.9 | 0.8 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 5.4 |
| davon reed | 18 | 16.6 | 47.0 | 41.9 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 4.4 |
| Vlatko Cancar | 14 | 10.9 | 56.4 | 58.3 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 4.3 |
| Markus Howard | 17 | 6.9 | 35.9 | 39.6 | 87.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 4.2 |
| bowl bowl | 14 | 5.8 | 55.6 | 25.0 | 40.0 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 2.4 |
| Rayjon Tucker | 3 | 9.8 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| James Ennis | 3 | 4.6 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 |
| Petr Cornelie | 13 | 2.9 | 33.3 | 12.5 | 75.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| carlik jones | 2 | 2.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
