It's been a little over a week since Nikola Jokić returned to the court for the Denver Nuggets following a month-long absence, but things have not gone as swimmingly as many in Denver had hoped.
The three-time NBA Most Valuable Player suffered a bone bruise and a hyperextended knee in a loss to the Heat on December 29th. At the time, the four-to-six week timeframe he was given for his recovery seemed like a potential death sentence for a Nuggets team that was already playing without three other starters: Christian Braun (ankle), Cameron Johnson (knee), and Aaron Gordon (hamstring). Yet, the Nuggets went 10-6 without their seven-time All-Star, thanks to the steady hand of Jamal Murray, the emergence of Peyton Watson, and a handful of other players who stepped into much larger roles.
When Jokić returned to put up 31 points and 12 rebounds in just 25 minutes against the Clippers on January 30th, it seemed like things would kick into gear for Denver. Instead, they've now lost three straight games, with Jokić averaging 23.3 points, 12 rebounds, and 7.3 assists but shooting just 45.5% from the field and 25% from three, both of which are well below his season-long marks of 59.4% from the field and 41.8% from the three-point line.
It's obvious that the Nuggets are better with Jokić on the floor, and three losses to the Thunder, Pistons, and Knicks aren't enough to start ringing alarm bells. Yet, this recent stretch has crystallized one of Denver's biggest struggles this season, which is the seemingly impossible task of being forced to endlessly redefine roles and chemistry in the wake of constant injuries.
“I think the complicated part is that everybody else had a rhythm, and then they come back," Nuggets coach Dave Adelman said about Jokić and also Christian Braun, who returned from his ankle injury earlier this week. "Now those guys, they demand roles, and they deserve them. Obviously, Jokić is one of the best players alive. So I think it's the growing pains for everybody. We’ve just got to find a rhythm together again. While you manage them, you really have to manage the others because those guys are the ones who have been playing and grinding, and now their games are changing a little bit."
Four of those players who have been really grinding during the recent string of injuries have been Peyton Watson, Jalen Pickett, Spencer Jones, and Jonas Valančiūnas.
Valančiūnas' role is the easiest to modify because he was signed to back up Jokić and will go back to doing that. Watson's situation is also, unfortunately, a bit easier to manage than it was when Coach Adelman made these comments before the Knicks game. The 23-year-old hurt his hamstring during that loss and will be out for "an extended period of time." It's a tough blow for Denver because Watson had emerged as a real driving force for the Nuggets, averaging 14.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.0 assists on the season and had upped that to 22.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.1 steals in 15 games without Jokić.
Spencer Jones also played nearly 30 minutes a game without Jokić, averaging 6.4 points and 4.0 rebounds, but providing strong defense and doing a lot of the little things in the offense that go unnoticed. Jalen Pickett also played 27 minutes per game without Jokić, averaging 9.1 points, 4.1 assists, and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 41.5% from beyond the arc. Now, in the four games that Jokić has been back, Jones is down to 25 minutes per game, and Pickett has taken a much bigger step back, playing just 10 minutes in Christian Braun's first game back and not seeing the floor at all in a double overtime loss to the Knicks on Wednesday.
"I think it’s just redefining roles," explained Adelman. "That's going to happen over the games we play. We're not going to [have time to] practice. We need it, and I'm not talking like running lines here, like just stuff where you actually have some chemistry, script, talk about defensive coverages. You know, different guys are doing different things right now than they were doing two weeks ago. So I think patience is important, competitive patience, if that makes sense. But we'll manage as best we can."
The Nuggets will have to manage that re-definition of roles now and then have to do it all over again in a few weeks.
"We'll redo it again when Cam [Johnson] and AG [Aaron Gordon] come back, so it's just going to be the process," said Adelman. "The bottom line is, we've got plenty of time here to find the right rhythm. Those guys who held things down this past month have put us in a position to have a little bit of leeway. Those guys are the heroes of the season. That's why we're where we're at, and we can have a little bit of a struggle and come out the other side.”
That struggle has also come for Denver's best player. This recent stretch on the sidelines is the longest stretch Jokić has ever had with an injury during his NBA career. Sitting out for that long has not only impacted his rhythm and timing with his teammates, but it also impacted his ability to be himself on the court for an entire game.
“I think that the conditioning is one thing," suggested Adelman, "but I think the rhythm with conditioning, once you feel that and you feel good about the way you're moving, not just the fact that you're running with the game. I think those two different things, once you blend them together, then you'll see who he is. It's gonna take some time."
The Knicks game was a perfect example of that. The double overtime, back-and-forth nature of the game meant that Jokić played 44 minutes, and the coaches were happy with his conditioning, but the big man also couldn't get his shot to fall and was just 1-for-13 from beyond the arc.
“I couldn’t make a shot," said Jokić after the game. "Especially lately, it’s more off, but that's how the game goes. It happens. We’ll probably go back to the gym and work on it."
"I think the rhythm is going to come," echoed Adelman. "You know, the shooting rhythm.” Jokić himself is also not concerned about his ability to find his shooting stroke again: "I think we all have muscle memory. My body, and not just mine, but, like, we're used to it and how we play.” There is little question that the big man will get back to being the player that he was before the injury, but the process of getting back to that consistently is taking a bit longer than some, perhaps unfairly, expected.
"The expectations of him are so high that if he has an off shooting night, I think we probably take it too far," suggested Adelman. "It's coming, man. Everybody knows what this is and who he is, and he'll be what he is in time and with more games under his belt, more experience with the rhythm of the game, and playing with his new teammates, guys that are in and out, I think you'll see the best version of him soon.”
All-Star point guard Jamal Murray agreed. Despite the frustration with the team's third-straight loss and their inability to hold an early lead, Murray seemed confident in the team's ability to right the ship: “We have a great unit. Whoever is on the bench is ready to come into the game. They’ve obviously had experience this year coming in and playing, so there should be no hiccups...Plug and play, and be a bit more aggressive and try to see if we can have a better start."
With the injury to Watson, more guys are going to get a chance to come into the game, and the Nuggets will need that much more time to adjust to their new roles.
“It's just the next iteration," sighed Adelman. "We’ll have to reevaluate the starting lineup, reevaluate the rotation, get ourselves to the break, and take a long, long rest...I just feel bad for the guys in the locker room. It's deflating when you keep seeing people go down around you when you're trying to build towards something...But I'm excited for the whole group to get back. I think they've earned themselves a chance when things could have really gone the opposite way, and I think patience will be key with that.”
Patience with a coach tinkering with new lineups. Patience with players adjusting to new roles, and patience with a star making his return from a long layoff. While that patience could result in continuing to lose some games in the short-term, the Nuggets and their head coach believe that it will ultimately help lead them to where they want to go.
"You know, we got whatever 30 games to go," said Coach Adelman, "so I'll take the ugly times for the pretty ones. They're going to come.”
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