The Nuggets' regular season was always going to be about the process

The Nuggets can’t escape the facts.

Denver’s 1-4 with the second-worst defense in the NBA. Opponents are shooting 42% from three-point range against the Nuggets so far this season, the fourth-highest mark in the league.

“Defense is just a will and want to,” JaMychal Green said. “Sometimes we look lazy defensively, probably coming from not communicating. If we communicate better I feel like we’ll be in better positions and situations to help.”

The Nuggets’ bench has been a disaster. Facu Campazzo is far from the only problem on that unit, but he’s been a frequent target of opposing offenses and was again versus Chris Paul during the four-minute stretch that the Nuggets’ rookie played to open the second-quarter. He didn’t get back on the floor after that.

Michael Malone has been searching for answers and consistency. He even deployed rookie RJ Hampton for a two-minute spurt Friday. The small ball look that Denver has gone to often with PJ Dozier playing backup power forward has to be on its last legs.

“We suck right now,” Malone said after his team’s 106-103 loss to the Suns.

The Nuggets are 1-4, but here’s what was encouraging about Denver’s performance against Phoenix: Jamal Murray put on a bubble-esque 31-point scoring show and Denver showed it can defend when it wants to. Phoenix shot 7-12 from three in the first quarter but only 5-16 in the second half. The Nuggets held the Suns to just 19 points in the fourth.

Gary Harris and Will Barton’s fourth-quarter defense on Devin Booker was inspiring. Barton maybe had the Nuggets’ defensive play of the game when he flew out to the corner and blocked Jae Crowder’s three with under three minutes remaining in the fourth. Barton then nearly picked Booker’s pocket minutes later but an unlucky bounce landed the ball back in Booker’s hands. Then, Booker’s three-pointer landed in the Suns’ basket.

Of course, Barton and Harris also stood out for the wrong reasons. The Nuggets’ starting shooting guard and small forward Friday combined to shoot 3-16 from the field. On the season, the two are a combined 7-32 (21.9%) from three. Harris also somehow fumbled a wide open layup with Denver trialing 102-100 and 30 seconds left in regulation. If Barton and Harris can provide consistent two-way production and what direction Malone goes with his bench are the two biggest question marks facing the Nuggets right now, especially with Michael Porter Jr. out due to COVID contact tracing.

The optics aren’t good. But here’s the thing about this Nuggets season: it was always going to be about the process. The process of Denver incorporating Porter into its starting lineup and he, Nikola Jokic and Murray establishing a chemistry alongside one another. The early returns suggest that process is just starting and has a long ways to go, but Denver has 72 games to let that trio figure it out. It has to be the Nuggets’ top priority over the course of the next four months.

That’s why Porter being out of the lineup at this point in the season really hurts. It’s a step back in Porter, Jokic and Murray’s process of figuring out how to play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s looking like Porter will likely miss a few games. That’s three or four opportunities for Jokic, Murray and Porter to continue to build their synergy early in the season that the Nuggets now lose out on.

“Experience is the best teacher,” Porter said earlier this week.

Denver figuring out its second unit was always going to be a process. That Nuggets’ bench includes four players — Campazzo, Dozier, JaMychal Green and Isaiah Hartenstein — who didn’t play together until four weeks ago. Lineup cohesion doesn’t form overnight, but what that group especially lacks right now is an identity.

The Nuggets don’t even need anything special out of their bench. They just need competence. Denver’s starters are so good that the second unit just can’t be a total disaster.

“It was a quick offseason. It was a quick training camp,” Green said. “We really haven’t had that much time to play together. So we’re really learning along the way.”

Even though the NBA cut the schedule down by 10 games, 72 is still a big number. It’s a long, long season. The Nuggets could turn all of this around in a flash by beating a middling Timberwolves team twice over the next four days and then the Mavericks at home next Thursday. The script could flip quick and the Nuggets’ process could eventually pick up speed.

But they still need to bank wins. The Nuggets don’t want to find themselves flirting with the seven seed in the West and the play-in tournament. The conference is as loaded as ever. Based on their 5-1 start the Suns look very legit. The Nuggets, however, at 1-4 are off to their worst start to a season through five games since 2014-15 (think Ty Lawson, Aaron Afflalo and JJ Hickson), which pre-dates Malone’s arrival.

Some of the sticker shock from the Nuggets’ 1-4 open has to do with the foreign territory Denver finds itself in. Last season, the Nuggets started 13-3. The season before, Denver started 9-1. The Nuggets have recently gotten off to very good starts partly because of the continuity that Denver enjoyed from year-to-year.

That isn’t the case this season where the Nuggets’ roster had its most turnover of the Malone era. It’s not an excuse for the Nuggets already dropping two games to the Kings or getting blasted on Christmas Day for the second-straight year, but it’s a root of some of Denver’s issues and a key reason why the Nuggets’ process this season is still getting started.

“We just came off the Western Conference Finals. Guys are tired. We’ve got a long season ahead of us. We’ve got to pace ourself,” Murray said. “Even though things aren’t going right, we’ve got to trust the squad. We’ve got to pace ourself and get ready at our own pace.”