It’s been a rough stretch for the Nuggets of late, and Bill Simmons had some hard facts to drop about the situation. But Simmons had one key line many Nuggets fans can center on. “I’m still not going to panic, because they still don’t have Aaron Gordon,” Simmons said. The key piece of the Nuggets puzzle is set to return soon, and it couldn’t come at a better time for the struggling Nuggets.
On the Feb. 23rd edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast with guest Zach Lowe, Simmons had a lot to say about the Nuggets, including highlighting the team’s 16-16 record over their last 32 games. Yes, the Nuggets are just an average team at best for more than half the season. Simmons said the last “good win” the Nuggets had was on Jan. 7th against the Celtics.
Simmons then went on to highlight the Nuggets’ injury woes, including the injuries to Nikola Jokic, Gordon, and Peyton Watson, who he said was “having an incredible out-of-nowhere season,” before he too went down with a hamstring injury.
And Simmons made sure to highlight just how difficult it was for Denver to go into Golden State on an afternoon schedule. “They got screwed today by this little-known thing the gamblers love. It’s three games in four nights, and the fourth game is a day game. It’s like death. It’s a really bad thing for the team that’s playing the three-in-four,” Simmons said.
The Nuggets got their doors blown off, looking flat-footed while watching the Warriors hit seemingly every shot they took over the final five minutes of the game en route to giving up 128 points to a star-less, injury-depleted Warriors team.
Aaron Gordon’s return is the key question mark surrounding the Nuggets
Gordon’s return can’t come soon enough for the Nuggets, who are struggling to win close games and playing atrocious defense without him. Denver’s a 108.9 defensively with Gordon, which would be good for third in the NBA. But without Gordon, that number balloons to 117.6, and a 27th-place spot in the rankings. The Nuggets need a healthy Gordon back badly.
Zach Lowe also made note of the fact that without Gordon and Watson, the Nuggets have no size on the wing, and opposing teams can run small on them without fear. Which is what it felt like against Golden State and against the Clippers when Bennedict Mathurin torched us for 38-points. “There’s nobody to punish the smaller guards on the block, on the glass,” Lowe said.
Some more physical play would do the Nuggets good. They’ll have to wait at least four more games to see if Gordon brings that sauce back to the lineup, but at least the Nuggets are closer to whole now than they have been in months.