Growing Gains

“JERAMI GRANT HAD FORTY-NINE POINTS TONIGHT!!!”

I had just walked in the door, and knew I’d misheard her. I was sure I had something crazy in my ear. I wanted to ask my wife to repeat herself. I somehow encapsulated all of that response into something a little briefer:

“HE WHAT????”

The “what” had landed in a register I thought the neighborhood dogs might appreciate. Normally, I’ll ask to not learn anything about the game until we’ve watched the replay, but she’d understandably not been able to contain the news. Sure enough, she’d said what I thought she had said. While I’d been driving home from work, she’d asked our Amazon device how the Nuggets game had turned out, and had discovered not only a Denver win, but that Grant had… gone off in ways neither of us had known was possible. Apparently, He not only narrowly missed the half-century mark, but I believed now had the highest-scoring game of any player currently suiting up for the Denver Nuggets.

We anxiously turned on the TV to watch the replay. In my mind’s eye, I could see Jerami hitting there after three, swooping to the hoop, and somehow unlocking the cheat code that had obviously only been waiting on the last part of his first Nuggets season. My mind started to swim with the possibilities of what this could mean for the team, and for the postseason. When Grant was on the floor, I’m not sure I paid a moment’s attention to anyone else playing. Though he got off to a decent start, by the end of the first half, his scoring totals were low. What sort of second half must he have had? Low enough that I was starting to doubt my expectations. A sideways peek at the game stats on my phone revealed what you already know.

29. He’d had 29.

Expectations are such a funny thing. For a moment, I was simultaneously disappointed about the 20-point reset, and thrilled by what seemed a much more realistic explosion from the always-impressive Grant. The 29 was a career high, and he was every bit the sniper I’d imagined throughout the fourth quarter. Even a 29-point game from Grant reset the bar on what might be possible for this team to a slightly different spot. And in realizing that this talented-but-yet-to-fully-gel crew has still not put together 48 minutes of their best basketball, it let the dreamer in me take a moment to wonder, “what if?”

What if Gary Harris returns to peak form? What if Michael Porter, Jr. breaks out and stays there? What if Torrey Craig, well… well, we’ll get to that. Hell, what if Jerami Grant SCORES FORTY-NINE POINTS?!?!?! OK, we definitely won’t throw that our there, but you get the idea. There’s room for a lot more from a lot of this team, and if they find it in the next month or so, an already impressive season becomes… who knows?

Thus far, the 2019-2020 Denver Nuggets season has been filled with injury, disappointment, triumph, resilience, and drama. In the face of it all, this impressive young team finds itself in second place in the Western Conference, and tied for it’s best record after 58 games (40-18). Should Denver be able to further gel as a squad, and have each player step up to something resembling their best career play, what could their output be?

Here’s a quick look at the 10 gents who will/should be heavily putting their fingerprints on the rest of the season and what their peak play could add to an already-humming Nuggets engine:

Gary Harris

Let’s get this put of the way early, shall we? Harris has found himself on the unflattering side of a few write-ups this season, with another national piece in the last week. Admitting my bias in the other direction (Harris is my favorite player on the squad), even his biggest fans acknowledge that Gary’s season has not been what he or Nuggets Nation might have hoped it would be. Peak-level Harris might be the biggest push forward the Nuggets could make towards a ring in 2020.

If Gary can make a step back towards the gears he hit prior to his slide, there’s another 6.8 points per game, .102 points on his overall shooting average, and a whopping .113 bump to his three-point average to be gleaned. At those rates, both Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray would have the pressure exponentially lifted from the burdens they are asked to bear as Star One and Star Two, and make defensive decisions even more troubling for our opponents. While that sort of a lift may seem near impossible, Harris is already shaking off some of the doldrums from his slump prior to the All-Star break, so even if he doesn’t return to his apex, he’s hopefully well on his way to shaking off the “disappointment” label unfairly draped over his shoulders for this year.

Paul Millsap

Millsap has admirably shifted his game to cover the needs and concerns of this Denver squad since he joined them. While his scoring fell a few points from the levels he saw as an All-Star in Atlanta, most of that has come in deference to being the third, fourth, or occasionally fifth scoring option Denver has on the floor. As the quarterback of the Nuggets on the defensive side of the ball, Millsap has slowly shifted his young compatriots from one of the most porous defenses in the league to one of the stoutest, when they care to be. what is surprisingly off the charts for Paul is the gaudiest three-point shooting percentage of his career, by far, and so he is already operating near the peak of what these Nuggets might expect to receive over the next few months.

That said, near peak-level Paul is just a part of the package with the ever-consistent power forward, whose ethic and comportment has rubbed off on his young counterparts, who all now carry themselves as if they have “been there before”. Even if all you can eke out of Millsap in comparison to this is a few percentage points more, you’ve already got one of the most complete players in the game playing his savvy best.

Will Barton

While we’re admitting biases, Will Barton was always the Nuggets player I kept an eye on just waiting to be frustrated. The chaotic elements of his game didn’t always appeal to me, and I often found myself laying blame at his feet when things went awry for the team. But Barton has dedicated himself to improvement season after season, and has had one of the best seasons of his career to date. He has tirelessly worked to turn himself into a plus defender, he makes far better late game hero-ball decisions, and has quietly turned into one of the better highlight-reel passers on the team. Add to that his constant care and outreach as a teammate, and The Thrill is thrilling these days even for those of us who took a while to come around.

With this season already being one of his best, is there room for Better Barton in these Nuggets end-of-season battles? His shooting average is only seven points off his career best, his three-point percentage is a career best, and he’s also less than a point-per-game off his career high. His turnover-per-36 minutes are at a career-low, so Barton is valuing the rock as never before. Will is super chill across the board these days. Where Barton can give even the tiniest little bit of juice to an even greater Nuggets push, then, is in simply continuing to refine his game.

Jamal Murray

While Murray has been more inconsistent in per-game scoring this season than the Nuggets might like, he’s been rounding that game-over-game number into something a little more peaks-and-valleys, and a little less Everest-and-Mariana. Though he’ll probably be playing somewhat-hurt the remainder of the year, Murray’s last several games since returning from injury have been some of the most consistent and efficient of his career. Should he be able to start to turn that efficiency into some of his past eruptions, and Denver will have a weapon to fear throughout the remainder of the season and playoffs.

While his passion informs his game, no one plays with more guts or heart on this team than Jamal, and he’s the first to know where there is still room to grow. Simply ask Murray where he still needs to amp things up for the stretch run, and he’ll immediately point to his three-point shooting. He’s still several ticks off his career-best, and knows that stretching the floor and adding back to those totals will only further serve to push these Nuggets to their ultimate goals. Annnnd he still has a 48-point game in his past, so let’s not sleep on him heating up and challenging 50. Why not this season?

Nikola Jokic

The Joker may get the shortest write-up of the lot, which may seem a little counterintuitive, given his second year straight of All-Star appearance and nascent MVP chatter surrounding his unique game. But when it comes to getting more out of him, Jokic has literally carried this team at times throughout one of the more challenging campaigns Nuggets Nation has ever witnessed. Could Nikola add more onto his already-impressive skillsets and resume? Sure. And here’s betting he will have by the time we all get to watch him enter the Hall of Fame. But any reserve in the tank to go over and above what’s already got all of our jaws on the floor THIS year will simply be gravy.

Mason Plumlee

Plumlee recently returned from injury as well, and was immediately a welcome respite for the team in keeping their style of play consistent with either he or Jokic (or both) on the floor. Plumlee was a playoff-starting center before coming to Denver via trade, so his ethic and skills are already without question. But what could peak-level Plumlee bring by season’s end, should Denver need a little more oomph?

Mason can be a scoring machine, having cracked 20 points on the regular in stops both before and after Denver. His prowess on the boards and cleaning up for quick points under the rim have only continued to grow more slick and refined as his game has matured. His per-36 points-per-game  and total rebounds are at career highs, and his defense is at or around his career-best as well. Like Barton, Plumlee can primarily make those few extra bits and bites matter most by continuing to refine his play at every edge. He’s also developed one of the league’s best bench bromances with…

Monte Morris

Big Game Tay has already shown a penchant for the dramatic finish in first and third quarters over the last couple seasons, as exceptionally covered by DNVR’s Harrison Wind this week. Where Monte has seen his game slide ever-so-slightly is in points per game, field goal percentage, and three-point percentage from his breakout season last year. After a slow start, Morris seems to be picking up steam around this last bend into the playoffs. While coming back to those averages would only represent a few points per contest, Morris makes the most of every minute he has the ball in his hands, being one of the league’s best player at valuing the ball. If those minor increments can be pulled back in across every metric, Morris can help Denver’s bench depth be one of the league’s most potent weapons, right at a moment it would matter the most.

Michael Porter, Jr.

If there’s an X-Factor to the Nuggets playoff hopes, Porter is quite probably it. His game is probably one of the smoothest and most efficient on the Nuggets, if not in the league, at his apex. At his worst, his youth and inexperience can expose him and the team to all sorts of trouble right as the most implant stretch of the season comes into play. Porter has admittedly had some use and downs in his rookie season, both emotionally and physically. But at his best, Mike is easily a 20-point-per game scorer, having already notched a 25-point game during the 42 he’s played in the league. With a 14-rebound game also notched, a five-assist game already logged, and even a three-steal contest on the books as well, MPJ could come alight right as this Nuggets team needs a little more octane in the engine.

Torrey Craig

Craig is one of the more unique assets in the game these days, a jack of all trades who is absolutely a master of some. His ability to shut down a team’s best perimeter option is only met or exceeded by Gary harris on this Nuggets squad, and his temperament that allows him to not care about minutes played or not is truly astounding. He is one of the shining stars of the team in terms of being a teammate, one of the first off the bench to celebrate, one of the first to the floor to grab a ball, and one of the first to pick up the guy who feel before him. His intangible assets are truly off the chart.

Which is not to say that Craig cannot still have a huge impact on games as an offensive weapon as well. Though consistency is not always his friend from that end of the floor, Torrey has worked mightily to shift himself from the guy you’re hoping doesn’t take that shot to the guy you’ll at least wait and see if he’s gotten hot before you make that determination. Craig threw a 22-point game up last season, and has a 15-point effort under his belt this year. He’s also got numerous double-digit rebound games across his career as well. If Torrey can get hot from the floor heading into the last part of 2020, his impact to Denver’s success could be massive at exactly the right moment.

Jerami Grant

Did you know that JERAMI GRANT SCORED FORTY-NINE POINTS THE OTHER NIGHT?

And even while he absolutely didn’t, Grant is certainly a great last-but-holy-hell-not-least on this list for the Nuggets. While those 29 points were a career high for the young power forward, they were certainly not an anomaly. Grant is averaging 11.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game for Denver this year in just over 26 minutes a game, numbers that continue to climb during the second half of the season as he’s slowly worked his way into cohesion and understanding of one of the league’s more pinpoint offenses.

Even better, Grant is a tremendous defender, and the answer to the question that bedeviled Denver all the way out of last season’s playoffs, a guy that can shut down the long wings that   continually stole wins from their playoff push. And with all of that positive, it still doesn’t steal from the lift that can still come from Grant’s maturation with this Nuggets squad. He’s still 2.1 points and 1.6 rebounds behind his career-best performance last season.

We’re into the WKND, Nuggets Nation, and here’s hoping yours starts off with a win against the Clippers tonight. Until then, that was each of the players who will be fighting the good fight heading into season’s end. While many of them are playing at their absolute peak, there are those who are just finding their way to an uphill swing. How many of them will be able to take their games to new heights, find their way back to a norm, or will simply slug their way through whatever this season brings? If the bulk of them can make it the best they’ve been, your favorite basketball team stands a very real chance of a stellar April, May, and possibly even June.