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The “Jurkic” experiment is officially over.
After eight games, 103 minutes spent on the floor together, and a -9.9 NetRtg, coach Michael Malone put a stop to the Nuggets’ twin towers look citing the burden it put on Nikola Jokic.
Jokic never looked comfortable this season playing the four. His assist numbers sunk as he saw less opportunities to be a playmaker with the Nuggets running so much of their offense through Jusuf Nurkic, and his foul rate jumped as he tried to stay with more athletic four-men, close out on them with consistently and contain them off the dribble. Jokic also looked frustrated during games, something that was a rarity for the fun-loving 21-year-old during a historic rookie season that saw him earn third place in Rookie of the Year voting, achieve a top-10 RPM and historic plus-minus numbers for a player his age.
“I go back to last season. He had an unbelievable rookie year and he had an unbelievable rookie year playing the five. I told him, I feel bad, I feel like I’ve done him a disservice almost exploring playing big,” Malone said of Jokic after the Nuggets fell to Detroit 106-95 Saturday night. “There were some good things with that, but I took a kid who had a great year and changed his position on him and it hasn’t been easy for him. The hope is to try and get him more minutes at the five, he will play some four at times. We need to get Nikola back. Nikola Jokic last year was a hell of a player. Free, easy, happy and right now, you look at him and it looks like he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders and I just want to try and alleviate some of that if I can.”
The frustration Jokic was playing with was evident throughout the early parts of this season. Guarding Anthony Davis one night, Marcus Morris, the next, and then Draymond Green, can do that to a young center who’s played out of position through eight games.
Who knows how long Malone would have kept playing the two bigs together, something he harped on over the summer when claiming the Nuggets were going to “play to their strengths” and not abide by the league’s “herd mentality” that saw teams left and right playing more small ball and moving away from the traditional two-big look. Jokic got ahead of his coach actually suggesting the change.
“Nikola Jokic is probably the most selfless player on our team. He’s a guy that even came to me, says ‘coach I don’t want to start anymore. I just want to win,’” Malone said “He’s one of the few guys on our team, that if I pull him out of the starting lineup, he’s not going to be upset and pout. And I give him a lot of credit and respect for that.”
Jokic went to Malone after the Nuggets 125-101 loss to the Golden State Warriors at home Thursday where the Serbian man looked as frustrated as ever throughout the one-plus seasons he’s spent in Denver. Jokic scored just four points, grabbed three rebound, was a -21 plus-minus in just 18 minutes and struggled to contain Draymond Green.
“I actually talked to coach about that,” Jokic said of his move to the bench and back to playing more center. “I’m good with that. All last season I played center. I had a good season.”
“I think I need to have more fun out there,” Jokic continued. “I think I need to relax more and have fun more and everything will be better.”
The discussion in Denver now turns to how to get Jokic back to the level he was playing at last season. The facilitating, playmaking big is a center, has always been one, and now will be playing the five almost exclusively going forward. The only worry for the Nuggets is that his confidence, which was sky-high coming off his rookie season and silver medal summer for the Serbian National Team at the Olympics isn’t damaged to the point where it has to be rebuilt.
Through eight games Jokic has been most effective playing alongside Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, two versatile wings that can score, play-make and together with Jokic, form a versatile offensive frontcourt that gives the defense multiple looks on every possession.
In seven games this season, the Gallinari, Chandler, Jokic trio has outscored opponents 87-66 in just 35 minutes. Add point guard Emmanuel Mudiay to that mix who’s played well with that group and those four have outscored the opposition 73-46 in just 26 minutes. What Denver has in that combination is a potential “Death Lineup” of sorts and one that will soon include Gary Harris, who’s still looking to get back to the level he was playing at last year after sitting out most of Denver’s preseason and the Nuggets’ first four games of the year with a groin injury.
“I think that’s maybe our most effective lineup, most versatile lineup when you have Gallo and Wilson Chandler at the three and the four, and pick a big,” Malone said. “Whoever’s having the night, we’ll go with that big down the stretch.”
It takes a lot for a player to take themselves out of the starting lineup, a move that not every player on Denver’s roster would do voluntarily. However, Jokic is not every player. He’s a selfless outlier from an NBA player pool that’s largely everything but that.
With the team’s best interests in mind, Jokic moved himself the bench, something that might be short-lived especially if he outplays Nurkic over the next couple of games, which wouldn’t come as a surprise.
Now, the Nuggets move forward with Jokic playing his natural position of center, can forget trying to pigeon-hole him into a role he was never comfortable with and take on a different and more familiar identity – one where Jokic will thrive and hopefully return to the player he was last season.
