With 10 games to go, the Denver Nuggets are all but eliminated from playoff contention. They trail the eighth-seed Houston Rockets and ninth-seed Utah Jazz by 5 games after a rough road trip, but this has been anything but a lost season for the Nuggets.
On Tuesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers held a five-point lead over the Nuggets with less than two minutes left on the clock. The Sixers were feeling so good, that their Twitter account sent this tweet. Less than two minutes later, Denver rookie Emmanuel Mudiay capped off a sensational 27-point performance by hitting the most unlikely of half-court shots as time expired, giving the Nuggets yet another home court victory in the month of March.
Naturally, the only possible response to Philadelphia’s social media account was this tweet.
While the finish may have been yet another in a long line of disappointments for Philly, the win for Denver was just the opposite. The Nuggets are 30-42 entering Friday’s action, five games behind both Utah and Houston, needing to jump over both in the space of 10 games if they hope to make the playoffs. This isn’t where the word “impossible” will be used, because stranger things have happened.
But a realistic view of the Nuggets 2015-16 season indicates that there are no playoffs in the immediate future. Their remaining schedule is a fifty-fifty split of home and away contests, including games against the Clippers, Trail Blazers, Mavericks, Thunder Spurs and Grizzlies.
Head coach Mike Malone has had a year of mixed results with this roster. Star rookie Mudiay had a less than memorable first game in the pros, committing 11 turnovers. The criticism of the rookie was immediate and harsh in the Twitter-verse. Fortunately, Mudiay wasn’t listening. A lot of noise was made about those 11 turnovers, but very few bothered to point out his 17 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds in that same game. Two weeks later, in an early November matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, Mudiay notched his second career double-double with a line of 16 points, 11 assist and 3 rebounds. Turnovers? Just one.
Mudiay still hasn’t earned the respect of the refs or perfected the art of drawing convincing contact, he’s only taken 10 or more free throws once all season, but his game has significant evolved. That first game against the Rockets was his only double-digit turnover outing. He’s still searching for consistency, shooting just 1-for-11 for 5 points at Cleveland two days before going supernova on an unsuspecting Sixers squad for 27 points. However, all signs point to a very bright future for Mudiay – a future that was forged in the trial and error and losses of his rookie season.
The Nuggets have a lot of young talent. Last year, the Nuggets pulled off a great draft-day trade, sending hyped college guy, Doug McDermott, to the Chicago Bulls for Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic. McDermott has been on spotty pro, with a streak of good games in March of this year. However, Nurkic had a surprisingly successful first year in the NBA. The European prospect carried a rookie season per 36 of 13.9 point, 12.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. Then the big Euro suffered a partially torn left patella tendon that required surgery. That injury meant the Nuggets were going to be without their surprising 2014-15 rookie. Enter Nikola Jokic.
Jokic, the Nuggets 2014 draft and stash, made his NBA debut this season and has started 45 games, playing in 70 total up to this point. His stat line? Per 36, Jokic is good for 17.2 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 blocks. Nurkic did a lot of work from the bench in his rookie season and thanks to the outstanding play of Jokic, and others, he has been eased back into play this season, averaging 14.7 minutes in 25 games this season. Both players on are going to be great center options for Denver over the coming seasons, pairing great potential in the frontcourt with the backcourt future that is Mudiay.
The Nuggets aren’t tooled just for the future; they have several players who can help add to the win column now. Forward Danilo Gallinari was tearing it up for Denver before an ankle injury effectively ended his season prematurely. Gallinari was averaging a career-best 20.3 points per 36 minutes, effectively a James Harden Lite in his ability to draw fouls. Where Mudiay is still establishing himself and isn’t getting calls, Gallinari regularly got to the line 10 or more times this season. During the middle stretch of the season, it was Gallinari heroics that helped the Nuggets hang around and win games. And then there’s the emerging Will Barton.
Barton, who is playing on one of the friendliest contracts in the league, is a Nuggets super-sub, averaging 18.5 points and 7.6 rebounds, both career-best numbers, per 36 minutes with 3.0 assist on 43.9 percent shooting. That contract he has is good for $3.3 million this year, $3.6 in 2016-17 and $3.9 in 2017-18.
The Nuggets are set to make a run. But not just yet. They have a great coach in Malone and some fantastic upside talent in Mudiay, Nurkic and Jokic. The team is seasoned with enough established talent, Gallinari and Kenneth Faried, and a superb sixth man in Barton. While the Warriors and Spurs tower over the rest of the league and uncertainty lies ahead for both the Clippers and Thunder franchises, the Nuggets are putting the pieces in place to grow into the next wave of playoff contenders.
The season is ending, but the Nuggets are just starting to round into form on their home court. In the month of March, they are 6-1 at home, but just 1-4 on the road. That one road win? An improbably victory over the hottest team in the Eastern Conference, the Charlotte Hornets. Denver’s home court dominance bodes well for the future of this team – either over the next 10 games and an improbable playoff berth or in October, when this core returns to pick up where they leave off.
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