THE NUGGETS CONTINUE TO DOMINATE!

THE NUGGETS CONTINUE TO DOMINATE!

It comes as no surprise that the Denver Nuggets are still one of the best teams in the NBA the reigning Champions are the fourth seed right behind the Clippers and Thunder in the regular season standings the Western Conference has become even more competitive than it was in 2023 which may seem hard to

Believe as the Western Conference was already pretty stacked they have slightly fallen down in the standings compared to the 2023 season as of the of February 2023 they were the first seed there are a few reasons to this in my opinion first the Western Conference got harder the second seed last season was

4.5 games behind and the third seed was seven games behind the Nuggets this season as I said before the second third and fourth seed have pretty much the same record so it’s safe to say that the West is tougher than ever right now another explanation would be that the

Nuggets have just won the title and maybe winning another one in 2024 isn’t as much of a priority as it used to be for the players including Nica yic whose shooting efficiency has slightly decreased now I’m not saying they don’t care about winning another championship I’m just saying that the nuggets have

Proven to everyone in the NBA that they’re able to win one so maybe going back to back is their goal But ultimately yic and the squad got their ring also there hasn’t been a single repeat in the last 6 years meaning that it’s become incredibly hard to go back

To back and win a championship coming back to the roster it hasn’t changed that much compared to 2023 the most notable change was the departure of Bruce Brown who was key to their playoff run he signed with the Pacers but was then traded in January of 2024 to the Raptors so despite not

Making any major change to their team the nuggets are actually in a very good position in terms of Team chemistry if they’re determined to win another title we’re going to focus on their offense and see how good they actually are the Nuggets only have the 13th highest offensive rating at

World his numbers are 26 points 12 rebounds and nine assists he’s also shooting 58% from the field and 35% from three which is slightly worse than last season but he’s taking about three more shots than last year which is a very significant increase in shots taken he’s actually sixth in three-point percentage

Among centers so he is still one of the best three-point shooting bigs in the league Jamal Murray is our ing very good numbers 21 points four rebounds and 6 and 1 half assists while shooting 47% from the field and 41% from three needless to say he’s a very efficient shooter this

Season Yin and Murray are one of the best Duos in the NBA and it shows on this play joic Cuts immediately to the basket after creating enough separation with his Defender and Murray is great at these bounce passes so that leaves yic in space to finish at The

Rim this time yic actually sets a screen for Murray and while herb Jones tries to fight through the screen and recover on Murray valent chunes has to help out on Murray but that leaves joic wide open for a bounce pass you can see how he creates space for himself as Murray is

Attracting both Defenders everyone knows that Nia yic is pretty much Unstoppable offensively he’s got that undescribable feel for the game and all though he’s not the most athletic player on the court nor the fastest he’s the smartest one and will punish defenses for their mistakes by beating his defender or passing the ball

To an open man in fact he’s so good offensively that the team’s offensive rating when he’s on the court is 124.32607 this just goes to show how much he impacts their offense not only is he averaging 26 points he’s averaging nearly 10 assists as a center what’s

Crazier is that he’s fourth in assists per game in the entire league just behind Luca donic and in front of James Harden who’s averaging eight and a half assists he’s doing all of that as a center yish is in his own lane he’s an unbelievable playmaker and can score if

He needs to but the reason the nuggets are so good is because of the unselfishness and the team chemistry the NBA today is about spacing stretching the floor and yic is really comfortable on the perimeter thus bringing traditional bigs out of their comfort zone which is the paint he’s

Able to knock down three-pointers if he’s left wide open but if he’s bringing up the ball most of the time he’ll initialize the offense and pass the ball to his teammates and then set a screen for an examp example but the most important thing is that he’s a really

Good playmaker able to dictate the offense of course yish is surrounded by really good players that complement one another Jamal Murray who I’ve previously mentioned is having a great year he’s averaging 6 and a half assists which puts him 13th in the NBA in that category in fact 4.7 of his assists

Convert to two-point plays and 1.9 of them convert to three pointers and the reason for that is half of his twoo assists are at The Rim so they come from pick and rolls and cuts mostly here are some of his assists that translate to two-point baskets on this

Play pay attention to Murray and kcp initially kcp sets a screen for Murray on the left wing then he cuts towards the basket and there’s confusion among the Raptor’s defense as OG thinks Dennis shudder is going to stick to kcp so with Murray having two Defenders on

Him he identifies the open kcp who settles for a wide open mid-range shot here you see that same type of play as before where yic creates some separation after Murray attracts two Defenders on the pick and roll coming back to his three-point assists 75% of them translate to above

The break threes which are non Corner threes and that’s because the Nuggets run a lot of five out motion offense which I’ll talk about later have a look at these two assists by Murray that lead to open threes on this play OKC is running in 3-2 Zone and one way of

Beating that defense is to look for open Corner threes and that’s exactly what Murray does as he drives to the basket forcing Lou do to help leaving Brown wide open for the corner three once again Jamal Murray drives to the basket and by now you’ve probably figured out that he’s great at

Attracting multiple Defenders thus creating open shots for his teammates and that’s exactly what he does here with kcp moving on to Aaron Gordon their power forward he’s having a bit of a Down year in terms of points going from 16.3 points in 2023 to almost 14 in 2024

But he’s also taking less shots and he’s still shooting 75% at The Rim which is better than guys like Anthony Davis LeBron James Victor wanyama and Jason Tatum to name a few he is well known for his finishing and these numbers prove it Gordon is also the perfect big next to

Yic as I said yic is a great playmaker and they have great chemistry inside the three-point line these plays show how effective this Duo of jokic and Gordon is here they run a pick and roll with Gordon being the screener and anmo switches on to Gordon so that forces

Brook Lopez to guard yic leaving enough time and space for the Alo to AG on this play yic has a mismatch on Simons who tries to intercept the pass but fails so wreath now has to close out on yic and AG is able to slip inside the paint for

An open dunk it shows how great of a playmaker yic is and how good of a finisher Aaron Gordon is next to him and finally every great NBA team has good choosers and the nuggets have exactly that in kcp and Michael Porter Jr first let’s talk about kcp he’s shooting 38%

From three which may not seem great compared to 2023 where he shot 42.3% from three but he still is an above average shooter he’s a great catch and shoot player 97 of his three-point shots are assisted and 100% of his Corner 3es are assisted as he plays off the ball

And stretches the floor for the Nuggets you’ll often see him sit in the corner corner or on the wings waiting to receive a pass if Murray needs to kick the ball out and he may be shooting 38% from three overall but he is making nearly 42% of his shots from the corner which

Is why the nuggets are really scary offensively as they are dangerous inside and outside the three-point line his above the break Theses are actually bringing his three-point shooting efficiency down as he’s only making 35.6% of them regardless he’s still really important to this Denver Nuggets Squad moving on to Michael Porter Jr

He’s scoring about 16 points per game while shooting 39% from three on seven three-point attempts a game his efficiency is really impressive considering the number of Threes he’s attempting Michael Porter Jr is known for his quick trigger and by that I mean if he gets the ball he’ll most likely

Shoot it unlike kcp he doesn’t attempt as many Corner 3es as they only represent 10.5% of his three-point attempts although he is still shooting 41% from that area most of his three-point shots come from above the break and he’s making nearly 39% of them so needless to say these two guys are

Essential to this team with the spacing they provide the Nuggets run a lot of five out motion offense for those who don’t know this offense is all about stretching the floor and it relies heavily on screens cuts and basically the offense makes plays based off reading the defense it’s a very popular

Type of offense in this day and age here’s how it works really quickly five spots have to always be filled the corners the wings and the Top If a player Cuts either one player must fill in his spot or he has to come back the five out motion offense forces players

To become position and that brings me to the nuggets as you’ll often see yic Murray kcp and even AG sometimes bring the ball up the court showing that positionist brand of basketball here are some plays where the nuggets from the five out motion offense on this play Murray gets the DH from yic

And look how Michael Porter Jr rotates the left corner and how his teammate slide up to F the open spot meanwhile Murray gets double teamed and passes the ball to yic who’s able to get an easy layup and as he gets a shot up Murray has filled the open spot spot in the

Right corner here all spots are filled meaning no Nuggets player is inside the three-point line that leaves a pain being virtually unguarded and Jackson capsizes on that taking the screen by yic and going all the way to the rim another variation of this offense is the four out one-in motion offense teams

Who run this type of offense usually have old-fashioned be whose presence inside around the rim is very valuable to the offense the nuggets actually run this variation of the 5 quite often when AG is on the floor as we’ve seen previously yic and AG have a strong

Two-man game and that comes from AG being down low outside the pain at the start of offensive possessions and then when yic or someone else drives to the basket attracting multiple Defenders AG is able to slip inside the paint and catch lobs basically the 4out onein motion offense is different in the sense

That you’ve got one player inside right and that player the post player must fill in either one side of the low post or one side of the high post basically he won’t be involved in screens and will be utilized as a rim finisher to put it

Simply have a look at these plays where they run this type of offense on this play Aaron Gordon is able to get a mismatch on Klay Thompson while in transition take a look at how each spot is filled the we side corner the wings and the top when Aaron Gordon gets the

Ball sarich comes to help leaving Reggie Jackson wide open for three here yish is the player inside Murray first passes the ball to him then Murray and Michael Porter Jr switch position and as mpj runs up he sets a flare screen leaving Murray wide open on the corner three I really like

This type of offense because it allows the offensive team to have a presence inside the point I’m trying to make is that Denver’s offense is is so good because their offense relies on making smart plays based on reading defenses and that’s why more and more teams are transitioning to the five out motion

Offense and the four out one in offense now with all of that being said I really believe the nuggets are still a top team in the NBA their offense remains one of the best and the players have great chemistry I would not be surprised if they made it to the Western Conference

Finals this year and possibly the NBA finals

The Nuggets are showing they are still one of the best teams in the NBA. This video focuses on their offense and we’ll see how they continue to be so dominant on that end of the floor by looking at stats and breaking down plays.