It\u2019s not often that a two-way player is one also one of the more talked-about offseason acquisitions, but Ryan Nembhard\u2019s signing with the Denver Nuggets has been anticipated since before his release from the Charlotte Hornets. Can he finally be a solution at a position that has hindered the Nuggets for years? <\/p>\n
The Denver Nuggets have been trying to patch the roster spot behind Jamal Murray for years. One of the toughest positions to find success in during the Nikola Jokic Era has been backup point guard. Since Murray became the starting point guard in the 2017-18 season, here are some of the players who have tried:<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Mudiay, Devin Harris, Monte Morris, Facundo Campazzo, Bones Hyland, Reggie Jackson, Bruce Brown, and Russell Westbrook. The bench has been assorted versions of terrible during that timeframe, owing much of that underperformance to the difficulty in adjusting the offense when Nikola Jokic is off the court. When your starting offense is hubbed around the greatest offensive force in the game, who touches the ball more than almost anyone in the league and has all the decisions passed through him \u2013 as a center, which changes where the rest of the players need to be and where the offense can be initiated from \u2013 then switching to the bench is a rough ride indeed.<\/p>\n
It requires a different offensive philosophy and a change in mindset. The Nuggets have mostly gone about it in one of two ways: getting a game manager who doesn\u2019t make mistakes and can get up some shots, or a high-paced offensive attack that tries to take advantage of defenses that aren\u2019t set. Those two options are exemplified by perhaps the two most successful backup PGs of the Jokic Era: Monte Morris and Bruce Brown.<\/p>\n
Monte Morris is a caretaker of the basketball: do not let bad things happen. He has a 5:1 career assist-to-turnover ratio. He doesn\u2019t give up transition opportunities because he is carefully controlling the clock to find the right approach to attack, but he\u2019s also unafraid to take late-clock and end-of-quarter shots to try to keep the game close. Tyus Jones is a lot like this as well, also running a 5:1 A:TO rate as a smaller guard who picks his spots to attack.<\/p>\n
Bruce Brown took a different approach with the bench: give me the ball and let me do my thing. He (and Russell Westbrook and Bones Hyland with him) was more on the attack, trying to find openings in the defense, to create opportunities in transition, to score before teams were set and to raise the energy and intensity of the bench play. Grab the rebound and run like hell, see what you can do. For Brown in particular it was less about orchestrating an offense and more about creating an imbalance that could be attacked.<\/p>\n
Neither approach has been perfect \u2013 again, the bench has been mostly terrible collectively in the Jokic years. It worked with Bruce Brown in the playoffs the first time because the bench was not 4 other non-starters but rather a good mix of starters and vets who knew their roles very well. But you can\u2019t install two different offenses, one heliocentric around Jokic in the paint and at the elbow while the other is based on guard initiation and standard wing play (because backup center has also often been atrocious). No team has enough practice time to make that work. So Denver has to trust the the bench point guards can essentially run a pick-up game with some familiar faces for a couple of shifts every contest and come out winning more than they lose with those lineups.<\/p>\n
Denver has the best offense in the league, year in and year out, because Jokic is life and because they maximize their starting unit. The only goal of the bench is to tread water, to give back the leads that are given to it so Jokic can properly rest and doesn\u2019t have to worry that his 10 point lead from the first quarter will be gone 3 minutes into the second. So how can Nembhard help with that?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Nuggets head coach David Adelman said the plan was for the bench at the start of training camp:<\/p>\n
Asked David Adelman today on Denver\u2019s bench identity:<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s to play fast with [Tyus Jones] and [Marvin Bagley]\u2026and if that doesn\u2019t work, we slow the hell down and get DeMar DeRozan the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gotta figure out who fits best around DeMar.\u201d<\/p>\n