Who on the Denver Nuggets is most helped by the return of Jonas Valančiūnas?
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Who benefits the most from Jonas Valančiūnas' return to the Nuggets?
Who gets the most boost from having big Val? Who does he help the most in the Nuggets lineup?
I think it's Jamal Murray. I think you have a big screener back. I think you have a guy who has some gravity when he rolls to the rim. If he does roll to the rim, familiar with the DHO game, you know, can play make a little.
How does Valančiūnas impact Jamal Murray's performance?
And also, like I said before, literally just, hey, you don't have to do everything this possession. We're going to give it to him. You don't have to navigate any blitzes or traps. just kind of hang out if you want to. So I think Val really helps Jamal Murray, who obviously has been good at every stage of the season, but he's at his best when he has a great screening partner out there and Val helps.
I think it's Jamal Murray, of course, but for the sense of they've been sending that double team every single time. Yes. And when you have a undersized big man, you know, Aaron Gordon, or you're setting a screen with a Peyton Watson, those guys, their defenders now get to double team because they're able, they're active, they're athletic. When you have a big man that gets the switch now, you're not going to have a big and a guard trying to send the trap. So now it just frees them up a little bit more, which he's able to, you know, it's able to do. And then also if you get them high, now you have to have the big man try to stay out on the perimeter or he has to go all the way back to the paint. And Jamal has shown that he's such a good passer now.
What role does Valančiūnas play in relieving pressure on the Nuggets' offense?
He's going to make that extra skip that it's just going to mess the timing up, you know, just that much. So I do think that it just opens up his game a bit more.
Yeah, I think he'll help a lot with the fours. I agree. This was going to be mine. That had to be fives.
Yep.
I don't know how much he'll play. I probably won't play with Zeke Nagy much, but at least Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson, guys that have been like, all right, we know you're not big, but can you just be big? And they're like, we're not big. And we're like, well, just be big. And now he is big. Yeah. Big Val.
Yeah. I think... I actually, I do think it's Jamal Murray. I do think that's the right answer. But if I went to another one, I would go with Zeke Nagy. And here's the thing, man. We just know that he can't rebound like a center. He can't play big like that. And he's going to have to tonight because he'll probably spell Val, which means he'll play a lot of minutes as backup center. But there's a difference between like he could go out there. Big Val can go out there and eat up five minutes. And now you come in against a little bit more of a tire. You have more energy you can put to it.
Who else on the Nuggets might see increased opportunities with Valančiūnas back?
It's just it's a little bit different. when you're not tasked with being the center, but the backup, this or that. I would love to see a Zeke Nagy bounce back the game. We were feeling good about Zeke for a minute there.
It was a short minute. Is he going to play alongside Val?
No, but I'm saying it's different when you don't have to do 48 minutes of center. As I just mentioned, they don't have bigs either, so there's going to be a lot of minutes where Zeke's actually the biggest guy on the court. So I think tonight could be a good bounce-back spot for him, and I pray it happens.
It literally is so much easier for me to say, but you want someone to grab him and be like, finish strong at the rim. That's what you were doing well before. He had one in the last game where just my view on it live, like... he essentially had bodied his way out of any contests. Like, he was clear at the rim, and he just short-armed it from point blank.
Oh, we remember.
Yeah. Like, brother, dunk the basketball. You are athletic. You are strong. So I think, Eric, a wise man once put it well, there's insecure Zeke and there's confident Zeke. Oh, man. Or anxious Zeke and confident Zeke. And the latter is what we want to see tonight.
Insecure Zeke is annoying. Confident Zeke, a little annoying. But also, like, very helpful. Confident Zeke.
I also wonder, I mean, the Nuggets are still very shorthanded. David Adelman did go to an eight-man rotation.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who benefits the most from Jonas Valančiūnas' return to the Nuggets?
0:00–0:18
2
How does Valančiūnas impact Jamal Murray's performance?
0:18–1:18
3
What role does Valančiūnas play in relieving pressure on the Nuggets' offense?
1:18–2:17
4
Who else on the Nuggets might see increased opportunities with Valančiūnas back?
2:17–4:56
5
What challenges does Zeke Nagy face as a backup center?
4:56–5:55
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