There's reason to believe the Nuggets can reverse their defensive slide

TNT’s Charles Barkley has devoted plenty of airtime over the first half of the regular season lauding the Nuggets’ hot start. Back in October, Barkley called Denver the “second-best team in the West.” Last month, he argued that Nikola Jokic should be the “frontrunner” for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

But Barkley will surely send a playful jab Denver’s direction when the show’s popular Shaqtin’ a Fool segment — a compilation of the week’s top humorous moments from around the league — airs Thursday night, which will likely include an unfortunate defensive sequence from the Nuggets’ recent win over the Knicks that both Mason Plumlee and Malik Beasley wish didn’t happen.

Plumlee and Beasley’s gaffe midway through the fourth quarter stood out from the rest of the Nuggets’ defensive miscues against the Knicks on a night where Denver allowed the 23rd-ranked offense in the league to shoot 45 percent from the field and 40 percent from three. Their miscommunication wasn’t just an isolated incident either. It represented the Nuggets’ current defensive slide which has seen Denver’s defense fall from its top-5 status to the fringes of the league’s top-10. Entering Thursday’s matchup in Sacramento, Denver is still holding steady at eighth overall in defensive efficiency but over its last 12 games, the Nuggets’ defense ranks 20th.

“Discipline slash communication,” Michael Malone said, pointing out where his team was struggling the most defensively over the last month moments after the Nuggets’ 115-108 win over the Knicks. “We always talk about how communication is concentration.”

Those communication breakdowns were evident in all facets of Denver’s defense against New York, but particularly when containing dribble penetration. In the above clip, Plumlee calls for Beasley to switch out onto Luke Kornet as Denver’s big man slides onto Mudiay but Beasley doesn’t hear or recognize the call and stays with the Knicks point guard. Plumlee shoves Beasley towards his new defensive assignment but takes himself out of position while doing so, allowing Mudiay a clear path to the hoop.

In the second quarter, another miscommunication, this time involving Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Jokic leaves Kornet to contain Mudiay while he waits for Murray to recover, but then both Denver players turn their backs to Mudiay leaving him wide open for a 19-foot jumper.

“We had breakdowns tonight from the beginning of the game to late,” Malone said.

Many of those breakdowns also came from what Malone will routinely call a lack of game plan discipline, his other pain point from Tuesday night. The Nuggets allowed the Knicks 19 wide open three-pointers, per NBA.com, where Denver’s closest defender was more than six feet away. New York converted on 10 of those triples and sunk 11 threes on the night. On many of those attempts from long-range, Denver failed to rotate to shooters or account for three-point threats like Kornet, who’s shooting 48 percent from distance this year.

Here, Jokic and Juancho Hernangomez leave Allonzo Trier wide open.

Denver had similar issues leaving shooters like Mikal Bridges and T.J. Warren in its 122-118 win over the Suns two nights earlier. Phoenix shot 11-29 from three-point range in the loss and Bridges and Warren combined to hit 8 of 16 shots from beyond the arc. The Nuggets were able to overcome those miscues against the Knicks and Suns, who are the 28th and 29th-ranked defenses respectively, with their offense. But that won’t fly against stingier defensive clubs.

For most of the season, Denver hasn’t been the defensive team that its put on the floor over the last couple of weeks. The Nuggets have held their opponent under 100 points 14 times this season after doing so on just 17 occasions all of last year. Denver is also still the second-best three-point shooting defense this season, and have stayed close to the top of that leaderboard all year long. Last year the Nuggets were the worst three-point defense in the league.

The recent defensive slide has come without the Nuggets’ best defender, Paul Millsap, who’s missed eight of Denver’s last 12 games. Millsap is a gamechanger on defense and on the season, the Nuggets are allowing only 103.3 points per 100 possessions when their defensive captain is on the floor. That number rises to 106.2 points per 100 possessions when he’s not in the game.

Millsap is one of the better help-side defenders in the league too. He can make up for his teammate’s mistakes and navigate across the lane in a split-second if Jokic or Plumlee can’t get to their men. He’s also Denver’s best communicator and Denver has missed his voice on that end of the floor over the last month. But even Millsap made his fair share of mistakes against the Knicks, like when he left Kornet open from the corner. He’s still finding his rhythm after being sidelined for those eight games.

Gary Harris’ defensive presence should help too. Harris has missed the Nuggets’ last 10 games before returning to play 20 minutes against the Knicks and both Harris and Millsap’s absences meant Hernangomez and Malik Beasley had to play around 30 minutes a night. More minutes from Beasley and Hernangomez led to defensive miscues from two players who aren’t normally relied on for that amount of minutes. No Millsap also meant that Jokic logged more minutes over the last couple of weeks than he’s typically accustomed to and has played at least 34 minutes in each of his last three outings. That many minutes has led to a drop off in his defensive play.

Denver is in the middle of a difficult portion of its schedule where the Nuggets play 10 games over the next 17 days. There won’t be many live practice reps for Millsap and Harris to get up to speed but Denver isn’t too worried about the slippage it’s experiencing on the defensive end of the floor. Millsap said after the win over the Knicks that they’ll get their defensive issues ironed out. Throughout the locker room, teammates echoed his thoughts.

“It’s going to come,” Beasley said. “We’ve got guys coming in like Paul and Gary. We’ve got to get used to the new rotations. They’ve got to get used the altitude and stuff like that. We’re going to be good though.”

The Nuggets’ offense bailed them out against the Suns and Knicks, but that won’t fly for prolonged stretches over the rest of the season.

“I don’t like our discipline and I don’t like our communication right now or lack thereof because there are too many blown assignments,” Malone said. “We’ve got to tighten that up.”