Denver's new dynamic duo: Kenneth Faried and Nikola Jokic is changing the Nuggets' identity

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DENVER — The Nuggets returned home from their trip across the pond to thrash the Orlando Magic 125-112 at the Pepsi Center behind Nikola Jokic‘s 30 points 11 rebounds, five assists, and three steals. While Jokic and Emmanuel Mudiay stole the show the biggest storyline may have been the reinsertion of Kenneth Faried into the starting lineup.

“He was great. I loved Kenneth tonight, his energy,” Michael Malone. “Not just his energy but he was in the right place. We stress spacing and he was in the right spot, he was around the basket and he was moving and our guys found him and he did what he does best.”

Faried had 20 points on 10-12 shooting, five rebounds, and two assists of his own and also added a steal and a block in his valiant return to the starting lineup, which looks like a move that could stick.

“Great compliment there,” Malone said on the Faried and Jokic frontcourt pairing. “Great, great skill with Jokic and you have just an unbelievable athlete running the floor and working the basket and they look for each other.”

The decision to start Faried does not seem like a filler for just a single game and would benefit the Nuggets’ pursuit for a playoff spot this season. While many have written off Faried for a plethora of reasons there is an abundance of validity to the fact that the Nuggets are better as a team when Jokic and Faried share the court. The Nuggets don’t have many other options either.

Darrell Arthur has played well when he has been active but he has had arthritic issues with his knee and has been on and off of the injury report all season which leaves him as a nightly question mark. Wilson Chandler has been solid throughout most of the season but has shined the brightest when playing with the bench unit. He was drawing attention as a candidate for Sixth Man of the Year early in the season and was playing the best basketball of his career.

Adding Faried back into the starting lineup has some obvious and surprising results, almost all of which are overall positives to the team. The reason why? It’s all based on how he pairs with Jokic.

What is not surprising, is that statistically speaking, starting Faried alongside Jokic just adds to the war machine that is the Nuggets’ offense. Since Dec. 15, when Jokic replaced Jusuf Nurkic in the starting lineup, the combination of Faried and Jokic is boasting a 132.7 Offensive Rating in 53 minutes together, which is the best two-man pairing on the Nuggets in that span. The addition of Faried’s ability to play above the rim and run in transition has led to the Nuggets using one of the more offensively explosive frontcourts in basketball.

What is surprising is that two-man pairing not only has the Nuggets best OffRtg but also the team’s best Defensive Rating of 98.3 since Dec. 15.

A DefRtg of 98.3 is outlandish and will most likely continue to rise as the season moves along. Faired himself is not known as a particularly passionate defender and has lacked defensive awareness throughout his career. Faried is currently part of the three worst defensive two-man groups on the Nuggets with a defense rating of 124 with both Chandler and Will Barton and a whopping 127.5 with Gary Harris but there still could be some legitimate reasons why Faried is such an improved defender with Jokic on the floor.

First off, it seems that when Faried has it going on the offensive end he tends to play more passionately and with more effort on the defensive end. It is entirely possible that Faried is so ecstatic catching lobs for thunderous dunks from Jokic that he has started putting significantly more effort forth on the other end of the floor. Inspired play is contagious and it can spread from the offense to defense. Malone seemed to have seen a difference in his competitiveness on the defensive end of the floor as well.

“He had one play in front of our bench against Ibaka and he had textbook post defense,” Malone said. “He did his work early, withstood the backdown dribble, and wound up forcing the turnover. Kenneth is competitive, man, he wants to play. If he plays like that were going to have a hard time taking him off the court. His defense was pretty good..”

“Doing his work early” and fighting for position before the ball arrives is something that Faried has not done enough of considering how quick he is and “withstanding the backdown dribble” is purely an effort play. If Faried can play that type of inspired defense it could go a long way to alleviating some of the defensive issues the Nuggets have been facing

The other side of the equation is that Faried has the tools to be an above-average defender alongside Jokic. There is no mystery that the Nuggets aim to put Jokic on the more immobile frontcourt player, which is usually a much larger center, which allows Faried to begin defending power forwards once again. With Faried playing the majority of his minutes at backup center this season, and during lots of his career, it has led to Faried getting matched up against players who are much bigger than him. Letting Faried go back to guarding power forwards should lighten the burden defensively.

Only time will tell if Faried will continue to be an overall positive defensively when playing next to Jokic but it does seem that there are legitimate reasons to believe that the trend will continue. The Faried Jokic has been the Nuggets most potent two-man group with a Net Rating of +34.4 since Dec. 15 and with the Nuggets fighting for a playoff berth for the first time in four years, it’s not going anywhere for the time being.

“You’ve got to give credit to Kenneth,” Malone said. “He had a couple of instances where he rebounded and pushed the ball and made a couple great plays himself so I think that Jokic’s game is starting to rub off…”

Nuggets vs. Lakers

Regular season game No. 40 | Denver Nuggets (16-23) vs Los Angeles Lakers (15-30)

STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, California  | 8:30 PM MST | TV: Altitude

The Denver Nuggets are looking to extend their winning streak to three games in Los Angeles against the struggling Los Angeles Lakers for the second game of a back-to-back. The Lakers have lost four straight games and have yet to score over 100 points in any game in that span while allowing just over 114 points per game.

Spotlight on Mudiay, Russell

Look for Emmanuel Mudiay to come out aggressive against D’Angelo Russell, who was the only other point guard chosen before him in the 2015 NBA Draft. Mudiay won the first matchup by putting up 12 points and 10 assists to Russell’s seven points and six assists. Russell and Mudiay then found themselves in a shootout in the second meeting with Mudiay putting up 22 points and seven assists to Russell’s 24 points and six assists. When the two of them play each other it’s usual with an edge that has built up to a rivalry of sorts. Look for both to be extremely aggressive from the get-go.