Heavy staggering and Facu fever: Is the Nuggets' second unit fixed?

Three weeks ago during a Nuggets practice, Facu Campazzo threw a pass that left the players, coaches and team executives who witnessed it speechless.

In the middle of a five-on-five drill, JaMychal Green had the ball on the right wing. Sensing the open space that had been created by Green flexing out to the perimeter and Bol Bol spacing the floor in the weak-side corner, Campazzo darted into the lane from the left wing and caught the pass from Green a few steps below the foul line. In one motion while facing the opposite direction of Bol, Campazzo let go a blind, two-handed over-the-head pass to the 7-foot-2 rookie standing in the corner.

It was a similar style of pass to this one that Nikola Jokic threw in 2017, except Campazzo’s was on the move and covered around 23 feet on the fly. It hit Bol, who converted the corner three, squarely in his shooting pocket.

Campazzo had easily his best game of the season Sunday in Minnesota. He scored 15 points and handed out two assists to go with threes steals off Denver’s bench. Campazzo hit five of his seven three-point attempts and was a +26 in 21 minutes.

Most importantly, he helped put into motion an impressive fourth quarter where the Nuggets outscored the Timberwolves 41-25. A lineup of Campazzo, Monte Morris, Jamal Murray/PJ Dozier, Green and Jokic played 11 of 12 fourth quarter minutes, held the Timberwolves to under 50% shooting in the quarter and blew the game open.

When Jokic and Murray were giving their thoughts on Campazzo’s impressive night following the Nuggets’ 124-109 win, they insisted it didn’t catch them off guard even though Campazzo had struggled early in his rookie year. They know what he’s capable of. They’ve seen it in practices all season.

“I know what he can do,” Jokic said. “I’m not surprised.”

The Nuggets were on pins and needles waiting for a night like this from Campazzo. Denver’s front office was ecstatic that Campazzo chose to sign with the Nuggets over a slew of other suitors after they had courted him for years. But the 29-year-old Argentinian wasn’t himself throughout his first five appearances. He looked uncomfortable. Opponents were targeting him on defense, and on the offensive end of the floor, he made a minimal impact playing mostly off the ball.

A key adjustment from Michael Malone may have helped Campazzo come alive. The Nuggets heavily staggered Murray and Jokic with their second units Sunday, more so than they did over their first five regular season games. Jokic and Murray ended up sharing the floor for only 22 minutes, which was a season-low.

“You knew he was going to break out,” Malone said of Campazzo.

Is Malone’s heavy stagger a fix-all for Denver’s second unit, which was struggling prior to the Nuggets’ second win of the season? We’ll see. Since losing Karl-Anthony Towns four games ago to a wrist injury, Minnesota has been the worst team in the league. Entering Sunday’s matchup, the Timberwolves had dropped their previous three games (to the Lakers, Clippers and Wizards) by an average of 27 points. They were the 30th-ranked offense and defense since Towns exited the lineup.

The win, which the Nuggets desperately needed and moved Denver to 2-4 on the season, isn’t proof that the second unit’s issues are fixed. But it’s a step in the right direction. For Campazzo, he finally got his feet under him. Campazzo said postgame that the toughest part of adjusting to playing in the NBA has been the increased athleticism that he’s now up against.

“That is going to be a challenge for me,” Campazzo said. “And I’ll try to adapt as soon as possible.”

“I just tried to put 100% in each side of the court.”

There were more positives within the Nuggets’ bench. Morris, who’s had an under-the-radar excellent start to the season, chipped in 11 points and six assists with zero turnovers. On the year, Morris is averaging a career-high 12 points on 50% shooting from the field in a monster 27.6 minutes per game, five more per game than he played last season. It’s starter-level minutes for Morris, but he’s earned them.

Elsewhere, Green has played in just two games since returning from a calf injury but already looks like he’s going to be a plus addition to the Nuggets’ bench. He knocked in three triples in the win to go with five rebounds and three assists. Denver’s front office looks like it nailed that offseason signing.

Another tweak to the Nuggets’ bench Sunday was no Isaiah Hartenstein, who was averaging 9.2 minutes per game while filling the backup center role. Malone lauded Hartenstein’s ability as a pick-and-roll player pregame and called him a “dynamic” rolling big, but went with a nine-man rotation without the seven-footer to combat Minnesota’s small ball roster. Malone said Hartenstein was the first one off Denver’s bench all night showing his support to teammates heading into timeouts.

Overshadowed by the second unit’s strong play was Murray and Jokic’s individual nights. With Jokic in foul trouble for a second-straight game, Murray took over in the first quarter, scoring 26 first-half points on an efficient 9-14 shooting. Murray also had zero turnovers Sunday. He looked absolutely locked in.

With Murray resting at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jokic took control. He scored or assisted on six of the Nuggets’ first seven baskets to open the fourth and turned a one-point Denver deficit at the beginning of the quarter into a 14-point lead with 7:21 left in regulation. His best assist of the night may have come in the second quarter when he found Campazzo on a cross-court no-look skip pass.

Jokic tallied seven points and six assists in 11 fourth-quarter minutes to clinch his fourth triple-double in six games. His averages on the season are MVP-caliber: 22.3 points on 61.7% shooting from the field and 43.8% from three, 11.2 rebounds and 12.8 assists.

“Someone needed to kind of pick it up a little bit,” Jokic said when asked about his mentality at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Nuggets will get more feedback on how far their adjustments went towards mending their second unit’s shortcomings in two days. Denver faces the same Minnesota team but at home on Tuesday. It doesn’t look like Towns will be active for that matchup either, so expect the Nuggets to roll out a similar rotation to the one they debuted Sunday.

It produced a win and helped Campazzo come alive, an important variable for Denver this season. Players and coaches have continually remarked that the entire team feeds off of Campazzo’s pedal-to-the-floor mentality. When Campazzo plays hard, everyone plays hard.

“Just that effect that he has,” Jokic said. “Because it’s not just him. Then, I’m going to be aggressive. Then, Jamal’s going to be aggressive.”

“He’s a game-changer.”

It’s also to be determined how Michael Porter Jr.’s presence will affect Denver’s new-look rotation. Porter is not currently with the team due to COVID contact tracing and could still be out of the lineup Wednesday. But that’s another problem for an other day.

The Nuggets have Facu fever again.

“Adios amigos!” Malone said as he exited his postgame Zoom.