Gimme some space, dammit!
All of us have have thought, uttered, maybe even shouted that. You need your space, right? Not in an anti-social way, but in a personal sort of way. You need room to operate in order to feel comfortable and do your work. The same can be applied to sports … namely basketball.
The Denver Nuggets have gone through three dramatic changes in this last offseason that has fundamentally altered their course on offense. First, the Nuggets signed a player they have coveted for years, Paul Millsap. A week later they lost Danilo Gallinari in free agency. Then, offensive assistant Chris Finch left for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Your casual Nuggets fan probably isn’t aware of the enormous impact that Finch had in re-shaping the Nuggets offense after Nikola Jokic became the sole starting center for the team on Dec. 15, 2016. Finch centered (no pun intended) the offense around Jokic’s playmaking ability and the Nuggets team of slashing, cutting guards. Combined with Gallo’s ability to efficiently space the floor the Nuggets offense was incredible. In fact, they were the best offensive team in basketball from that point until the end of the regular season.
The addition of Paul Millsap has changed the equation a bit. Millsap has occupied space down low in which the departed Gallinari and even Kenneth Faried did/do not reside. Where Gallinari would “post up” on mismatches – and was highly effective in doing so – and Faried largely hangs out on the baseline and waits to crash the boards, Millsap occupies much greater space in the blocks. To whit, the Nuggets have two bigs who operate in the same space – much like their ill-fated attempts to incorporate Jusuf Nurkic and Jokic into the same lineup.
This has closed down the cutting lanes for the likes of Wilson Chandler and Gary Harris and forced the Nuggets outside. In an era in the NBA where the rules essentially force offenses to clear the lane, the Nuggets are a team that needs space that creates none. That is largely due to Millsap’s presence in the lane.
Of the people affected by the Nuggets lack of space in the lane it’s not the oft-mentioned Harris or even Jokic. No, it’s Chandler. The longest tenured Nuggets player has suffered the most from the lack of space available. Chandler benefits from his slashing ability and that opens up shots from the outside. The lack of ability to move through the lane has relegated Chandler to a spot up shooter, something that he is not.
While it’s easy to gripe and complain it’s harder to present a solution. We may be entering into a time where the Nuggets need to compromise with their new $90 million player. Moving Millsap out of the lane and making him more of a “Gallo-esque” player who spreads the floor and posts up on mismatches may benefit the Nuggets very much. That is easier said than done because Millsap’s actual skill-set is different from Gallo’s. Millsap can post up bigger defenders and can occasionally spread the floor, which seems to be the inverse of the departed Rooster.
The compromise has to be to find a way to create more space to exploit the skill set of your best player: Jokic. While not duplicating the offense the team ran last season, maybe it would be better to find ways to create more space. Maybe have Millsap in a hybrid of the Faried/Gallinari roles from last year? Maybe Millsap should contain himself to the baseline while Jokic is in there, and also float to the perimeter. Additionally the forward can be more of a post up player when Jokic is out of the game?
The hardest thing to do is compromise. You find yourself in a different situation and adjusting your way of playing can be difficult, particularly when you are 32 years old. These Nuggets, however, have playoff designs and expectations. The pressure that comes from that necessitates the ability to find the best way forward. The Nuggets have disparate parts of their offensive structure that operate like a square peg in a round hole. They will get there eventually, but it may be up to one player to initiate change.
