The Denver Nuggets are 33-17, the fourth-best record in the NBA. They've got that record despite 80% of their starting roster having missed significant time due to injury, including the best basketball player on the planet, Nikola Jokic. They've got a deeper bench than they've had in years, and those guys have received meaningful playing time thanks to those injuries.
Why make a move at all when you've made all these strides to overcome that kind of adversity together? The Nuggets shouldn't change a thing.
Think about it. The Nuggets have been rolling along this season as if they've only hit a small patch of turbulence landing at DIA. They've spent most of the season as the two seed in the West behind OKC, only recently slipping to third; however, they're only a half-game back from the Spurs. Until the Joker went down in late December, they were leading the league in scoring, too.
Of course, it was a tall order to ask the reserves to keep up the 125-points per game pace, but they played great in Jokic's absence, going 10-6 while he recovered. Peyton Watson blossomed into the Nuggets' third star. Jamal Murray received his first All-Star nod. You can't ask for much more, given all of the games the starters have missed this season.
Coach of the year
David Adelman deserves a lot of credit for the Nuggets' success, too. After Mike Malone was surprisingly let go late last season, Adelman took over and led the Nuggets to the Western Conference Semifinals, falling to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games.
He's had to be a wizard configuring his lineups this season, navigating all the injuries, and obviously, his spells have mostly been successful. He's got the roster combinations figured out. And all the injuries wound up as a blessing in disguise because now Adelman has had a chance to evaluate all the guys on the end of the bench when the game was on the line. The Nuggets emerged from that chaos with the fourth-best record in the league.
Pretty impressive stuff for a coach in his first year. Coach of the Year? There's a compelling argument for it. Keep the band together for him, and let's see what this team can do at full strength come May and June. Don't force Coach Adelman to figure out another Rubik's Cube row. Let him complete the puzzle that he's already been working on first.