“The List” is a brand new series that serves as a companion piece for the “Notebook” episodes of the Locked on Nuggets podcast and the DNVR Nuggets podcast. In this edition, I share notes on Michael Porter Jr.’s first start of the season and the slow developing chemistry of Jerami Grant and Nikola Jokic.
1. The Nuggets opened the game with “c corner,” a play that I have explained in detail earlier this year on WHAT MAKES THIS PLAY GREAT. In that episode, I noted how the Nuggets have two ways of running the play; one with two guards and a center, and the other with a guard, a power forward, and a center.
The play begins with a screen between the point guard and either the power forward or the other guard. The value of using a power forward in that spot is that the defense is reluctant to switch the initial pindown screen since switching would mean placing a point guard onto a much bigger player.
So when the Nuggets opened the game with this action but placed Michael Porter Jr. in that corner spot, he brought the height of a power forward with the perimeter skills of a guard. Don’t switch that corner screen, and Porter Jr. gets free in front of the basket for an open shot.
Switch it, and Porter Jr. is at the rim with an undersized defender.
This is the potential that Porter Jr. brings to the table for Denver. With Jerami Grant, a 41% three-point shooter, spacing the defensive power forward out onto the perimeter, the Nuggets can force defenses into very uncomfortable situations with very simple actions.
2. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of Porter Jr.’s arsenal of offensive weapons so far has been his knack for finding angles toward the basket for offensive rebounds. He’s mastered the right timing and all of the right angles to get around his basket. When his defender turns to check on a drive or shuffles over to stunt, Porter Jr. sneaks right into an opening. His length and athleticism provide that last bit of an advantage.
3. You can’t teach length. With his 6’10 frame and guard-like skillset, Porter Jr. can always get his shot off.
4. Grant is still learning all of the nuances to playing with Jokic. In the clip below, Grant would’ve had a dunk if he had followed his defender toward the basket on a cut that Jokic was clearly expecting him to make.
5. And of course there is the fact that you’ve got to always assume Jokic sees you. Here he begins to cut for a lob but stops because he doesn’t think anyone sees him.
