Gone in 64 seconds, the Torrey Craig story.
Craig played just one minutes and four seconds in the Nuggets’ 116-104 win over the Suns. He subbed into the game at the beginning of the second quarter and was replaced by Juancho Hernangomez with 10:56 remaining in the period. Craig ran up and down the floor four times and didn’t break a sweat.
Michael Malone would go on to say after the game that Craig’s unusually short stint to open the second quarter was a result of a miscalculation on his part. Denver’s coach wanted to have either Gary Harris or Craig shadowing Suns star Devin Booker all game, and the Nuggets thought Booker was staying in after the first quarter buzzer. He didn’t, so at the game’s next stoppage Craig sat back down.
Craig is a true professional and someone who exudes the Nuggets’ core value of sacrifice maybe more than anyone, so he handled his 64-second stretch like you expected. But Denver’s sporadic substitutions Sunday involving Craig, as well as Hernangomez, Michael Porter Jr., and Malik Beasley symbolized where the Nuggets are when it comes to finding a consistent wing rotation behind Harris and Will Barton.
Like it’s been all season, Denver is still playing one big game of musical chairs with its bench unit.
Take the last three games for example. Craig starred off the bench against James Harden and the Rockets, playing 19 minutes and finishing with eight points, three rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. He was incredible defensively, frustrating Harden all night and helping to hold Houston to just 95 points. Two days later against the Celtics, Craig recorded a DNP-CD but Porter, who didn’t take of his warmups once versus the Rockets, got 10 minutes of action. Hernangomez logged 18 minutes off the bench in the win as well.
Against the Suns, Porter was the first player off the Nuggets’ bench. He played a continuous eight minutes spanning from the middle of the first quarter to the beginning of the second. Craig took of his warmups for 64 seconds. Hernangomez got the most consistent and regular minutes out of small forwards not named Barton compared to what he’s usually been playing, logging nine minutes in Denver’s victory.
And then there was Beasley, who emerged out of nowhere from the end of the Nuggets’ bench and played his first meaningful minutes in weeks, helping the second unit to one of its best stretches of the season — a 23-10 run in the fourth which gave Denver its first taste of momentum. The Nuggets’ starters closed out the Suns with a dominant stretch over the final few minutes to seal Denver’s 12th win.
Jamal Murray tallied 22 points. Paul Millsap’s strong offensive season continued as the bruising forward year-old chipped in a team-high 23 points on 6 of 12 shooting. Will Barton was his usual self, injecting life into the game scoring 12 of his 22 points in the third quarter and also recording five much-needed offensive rebounds. Gary Harris held Booker to just 12 points on 5 of 13 shooting. But credit goes to the Nuggets’ bench for an ugly but necessary take care of business-type win over the upstart Suns.
“I couldn’t be prouder of that group,” Malone said after the win.
It’s been a disheartening season for the Nuggets’ bench. After Denver’s second unit was one of the more reliable benches in the league in 2018-19 it hasn’t had close to the level of success it enjoyed a year ago so far this season. It’s a surprising development considering the Nuggets returned all their key contributors from last year’s bench and added Jerami Grant who’s flashed in spurts but overall is still trying to find his place.
Monte Morris has seen him minutes reduced from 24 to 16.9 per game and while he’s struggled at times this season seems to be returning to form. Beasley was banished from the rotation until Sunday. Hernangomez has been impactful since he started getting minutes a couple weeks ago and Porter has gone through typical rookie struggles. Mason Plumlee has been solid all season, but lineup inconsistencies leading to a lack of continued rhythm have left the bench largely stuck in first gear through the Nuggets’ first 12 games.
One root of the bench’s struggles is that the Nuggets are getting crushed when Morris, Plumlee, and Grant — their three most-used bench players — are on the court together. Denver is sporting a -10.2 Net Rating when Morris, Beasley, and Grant share the floor but perhaps Beasley and his shooting are the right antidote. He provides more spacing around Plumlee, who’s a non-shooter, and Grant, who shot 39.2% from 3 last season in Oklahoma City but is hitting on just 30.4% of his attempts from distance this season. Beasley knocked in both of his 3s against Phoenix.
“It was an all-around good time,” Morris said of the bench’s strong fourth quarter. “We all came out actually happy. It kind of felt like old times again.”
I then asked Morris, the de-facto captain of Denver’s second unit if it’s been frustrating that the Nuggets were one of the best benches in the league last year but haven’t been able to find that same rhythm this season.
“Kind of, but at the same time we know we’ve done it before. We know what we’re capable of,” he said. “At the end of the day you know you can do it. It’s not like we haven’t done it yet.”
Perhaps Beasley’s sudden presence can return the 2018-19 vibes to the second unit. He was after all a key ingredient to Denver’s strong bench a season ago. Beasley averaged 15.9 points per game as a starter, 1o per game off the bench, shot 47.4% from the floor and was the Nuggets’ second-most accurate 3-point shooter, converting on 40.2% of his triples.
A crowded wing rotation, poor individual play to start the year, and an early-season illness all knocked Beasley down the depth chart, but his number was called Sunday. Like Hernangomez and Craig, who have also been suddenly thrust into the rotation at times this season and performed well, Beasley answered the bell.
“Malik’s been practicing his butt off, working so hard,” Malone said. “The last time we played this team he played really well for us and he went out there and did what I thought he would do.”
On his second 3 which led to a Phoenix timeout, the entire Nuggets’ bench raced out to congratulate Beasley near half-court.
“It meant a lot especially with where I’ve been at,” Beasley said.
Beasley should be frustrated by his lack of playing time. He’s coming off a breakout year and more promising play this season translates to more money next summer when Beasley is slated to hit free agency.
“It’s been tough but I hold myself accountable,” Beasley said. “Continue to work hard, do what I got to do. It comes easy when I get out there.”
Beasley still has the support of Denver’s locker room and what he did last year is still fresh in his teammate’s minds. Throughout a trying start to the season for the fourth-year wing, Millsap has counseled Beasley, preaching patience and for him to stay ready.
“That’s what teammates do,” Millsap said. “That’s what teammates are supposed to do.”
“He’s a great leader. He helps me out with everything,” Beasley said. “He talks to me about a lot of different things. I appreciate him doing what he does.”
Beasley and Millsap’s lockers are just a few feet away from one another and the two have a relationship that dates back to when Beasley was in high school. They stay in contact when off the court too. Beasley and Millsap along with Murray play the popular iPhone game Clash Royale together in their downtime.
“I’m impressed with how he’s handled his current situation,” Millsap said. “Being a main guy coming off the bench to a guy that’s not playing, for him to handle it as well as he has, kudos and I take my hat off to him for how he’s handled it. Especially being at that age and understanding your opportunity will come around and just being ready for that, he’s shown that he can do that.”
“I think in this league, even if you don’t play, you’re going to get a chance,” Nikola Jokic said. “I saw him working out every day, even the off-day. He just wanted to stay ready.”
The Nuggets’ bench also did something it hasn’t done too often this season against Phoenix. It ran and ran and ran. Beasley, an elite athlete who’s dunks last season were just as momentum-shifting as his 3s, encourages a quicker pace whenever he’s on the floor.
Denver’s second unit wants to play faster than it has so far this season and the one way the Nuggets can ensure they run more is if they’re getting stops and not taking the ball out of the basket every possession.
“We’ve got a lot of athletes. We’ve got a lot of fast guys,” Morris said. “I think it’s best for us to play that way as opposed to just running a play every time down. But we’ve just got to get stops.
Millsap has lived more than a few NBA lives during his 14 seasons in the league. He’s been on both young and veteran-laden teams, ones that have great second units and others that rely on their starters but said Sunday that he’s never been on a team with this much depth.
With depth and competition for minutes comes sacrifice, which Beasley, Hernangomez, Porter, and Craig have all exuded this season.
“Coming into the year we knew we had a deep team and there were some guys that had to sacrifice, maybe give up having a bigger role than they would have on another team,” Barton said. “But that’s what I like about this team. Everyone stays ready. Everyone’s still cheering for each other and when their number’s called they go out there and compete and perform.”
But the Nuggets are still searching for the right combinations off their bench, and while Denver has had success going from Craig one night to Hernangomez and now Porter the next, it’s not a long-term solution. Malone has always placed an importance on his players having defined roles, which they did last year, and sooner or later he’ll have to decide on the nine or 10 players who will fill his rotation every night.
Denver has relied on its starters more than any other team in the league this season and as of Monday, the Murray-Harris-Barton-Millsap-Jokic five has played nearly 100(!) more minutes than the second-most played lineup in the league. And that’s with Barton missing two games earlier this year. That’s partly due to Denver’s starters’ dominance but also because Malone has had to keep searching for any consistency with his second unit.
The Nuggets’ bullpen of relief options on the wing is stocked, and it got another addition Sunday in Beasley which makes Malone’s task of divvying up minutes even tougher going forward. Craig fills the role of Denver’s lefty specialist, who’s only deployed against certain matchups like the Rockets and potentially the Clippers and Lakers who possess wings and guard the Nuggets have historically struggled against. Hernangomez can act as Denver’s innings eater, while Porter has the look of the Triple A prospect that the Nuggets want to bring along slowly.
Beasley can change the game’s energy and feel of the game at a moment’s notice like a closer who packs a 100 mile per hour fastball, and after a strong audition Sunday it looks like he should be in line for minutes at least in the interim. If Beasley is truly what the Nuggets’ bench needs to find some much-needed consistency, he’ll have his chance to prove it.
“It felt good bringing energy, especially that we got the win,” Beasley said. “That’s the most important thing.”
