{"id":341677,"date":"2025-10-15T01:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/341677\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T01:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:26:11","slug":"david-adelman-on-nuggets-nikola-jokic-jonas-valanciunas-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/341677\/","title":{"rendered":"David Adelman on Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic-Jonas Valanciunas lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of the most peculiar sights of the decade so far for hard-core Nuggets fans, Nikola Jokic<\/a> and Jonas Valanciunas<\/a> played hot potato.<\/p>\n

It was Sunday in Los Angeles, in the middle of Denver\u2019s third preseason game. Peyton Watson was having trouble feeding Jokic in the high post, so Valanciunas flashed to the top of the key to give Watson an outlet.<\/p>\n

The Lithuanian center collected the ball and quickly passed it to the Serbian center \u2014 the original intended target. But Jokic had limited options with both Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac sitting back in the paint, unconcerned by the 3-point threat of Valanciunas. Jokic immediately passed back out to the open Valanciunas, who reluctantly fired away.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Nuggets were playing two centers together, as first-time coach David Adelman promised before training camp. Their 102-94 win over the Clippers marked the preseason debut of their new double-big look, with the three-time MVP center Jokic essentially playing power forward.<\/p>\n

And yes, the floor spacing looked a little funky at times. Adelman could only chuckle about it later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was hilarious to watch it on tape,\u201d he said Tuesday before the Nuggets hosted the Chicago Bulls. \u201cWe haven\u2019t had a ton of time (practicing with) those guys. They\u2019ve scripted together, but they haven\u2019t played together. But it\u2019s kind of like, rip the Band-Aid off and just see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s precisely what preseason basketball is for, Adelman will attest. Denver played only five offensive possessions with Jokic and Valanciunas on the floor together that night, scoring four points for an offensive rating of 80.<\/p>\n

But again, note the minuscule sample size and the lack of practice time devoted to this particular lineup so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they end up playing together a lot, we\u2019ll slowly but surely add a package for those two guys,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cAnd not just for them, but to make the other three guys comfortable. I\u2019ve made this point about Houston. Offensively, with the two bigs, (Alperen) Sengun was the point person, and (Steven) Adams just crushed the glass. So it\u2019s like, our personalities are a little bit different. Val can crash the glass, but he\u2019s also skilled. So I have to find a way to get those guys comfortable in space so they\u2019re not right on top of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all bad on Sunday night, either. A timeout was called in the middle of the short stint, allowing Adelman to draw up a set \u201cATO\u201d play using both big men. Jokic set a screen to bring Christian Braun up to the ball, then a second screen under the basket to get Valanciunas coming across to Braun\u2019s side of the floor. Los Angeles switched that second screen, making the entry pass to Valanciunas difficult but allowing Jokic to flash to the foul line. He knocked down an open jumper from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ATO was great,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cWe got them organized with the high-low, and that\u2019s gonna be effective. I don\u2019t know how people will handle that. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll come up with something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rockets are a nice template to study after they discovered resounding success with Sengun and Adams last year, but double-big lineups have been a growing trend around the league for longer than that. Adelman is nothing if not an experimenter, and he has expressed an earnest curiosity all preseason about how opponents will guard Denver\u2019s version of the twin-towers look.<\/p>\n

The problem might be at the defensive end. There, too, Adelman is drawing inspiration from Houston by trying a zone scheme with both centers next to each other at the bottom. On Sunday, he placed Valanciunas in the middle and Jokic on the edge, forcing him to defend from the corner to the wing on a couple of possessions.<\/p>\n

Adelman pointed out on Tuesday that he put Jokic in that same location in the zone a few times during the 2025 playoffs, which allowed Aaron Gordon to play the middle and defend pick-and-rolls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we did a really good job as a team defense behind him. \u2026 You tilt a little bit more,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cIf he ends up with a quality offensive player, wing player, you bring that second defender over a little bit more, as opposed to if it was, I don\u2019t know, Peyton Watson down there. So a little bit of a difference, but not much. And he\u2019s just so smart with his angles, he\u2019ll always force the ball back to where we want it to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lineup around Jokic and Valanciunas prioritized length: Watson, Braun and Julian Strawther. Whether that\u2019s the best combination remains to be seen. After all, Denver was just ripping the Band-Aid off.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s still time to tinker more \u2014 82 games of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s going to be the perfect thing,\u201d Adelman reiterated, \u201cbut I definitely want to try it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of the most peculiar sights of the decade so far for hard-core Nuggets fans, Nikola Jokic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[877,7,561,559,765,250,301,187,766,6890,763,529,4034,192,4032,165,251,135,4033,4031,252,6,253,302,1146,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-341677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-david-adelman","14":"tag-denver","15":"tag-denver-nuggets","16":"tag-front-range","17":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","18":"tag-julian-strawther","19":"tag-kawhi-leonard","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-la-clippers","22":"tag-laclippers","23":"tag-latest-headlines","24":"tag-los-angeles","25":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","26":"tag-losangeles","27":"tag-losangelesclippers","28":"tag-more-nuggets-news","29":"tag-nba","30":"tag-nikola-jokic","31":"tag-nuggets","32":"tag-peyton-watson","33":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115375583052007359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}