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The Nuggets Real Question: What Matter Most Right Now?

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“You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.”

– Stephen C. Hogan

In what was so long ago it feels like a past life, I was trying to make my living in the world as a singer, and told the world around me that it was my dream. There was some success along the way, with a couple of years in the mix that it made up most of my income, but it was never something that ended up looking like it would make me a comfortable living, let alone an extravagant one. And while I can mourn the moments and issues that kept me from further success there, I can also look back and honestly say I didn’t take the gig seriously enough, either. Too many missed voice lessons, too many days of skipped practice. Too many brief distractions for other opportunities, too many excuses made for reasons why I was not focusing on my “dream”.

In retrospect, I wanted other things more than I wanted to be a singer. The math shows it pretty clearly in what I spent my time on.

There are a dozen reasons the Denver Nuggets lost an(other) embarrassing game this season, this last week to the lowly Memphis Grizzlies, and you can give them latitude for each of them, even in this single example. From an over-late arrival in Memphis on yet another back to back, to missing one of their key pieces in Aaron Gordon, to some questionable calls and non-calls, there are more than enough reasons to give the Nuggets grace for a tough loss. Injuries galore, an incredibly unforgiving schedule, hodgepodge lineups, you name it. But there is also a case to be made that Denver is not prioritizing winning above all else at this moment of the season.

Adam Mares made a fascinating point in his Thursday chat with Miroslav Cuk, detailing how Denver came storming back on Memphis in the fourth quarter of that night’s game when they finally dropped Nikola Jokic into the low post, a move Memphis simply had no counter for. It wasn’t enough to win the game, and Denver didn’t do it for the first three quarters, primarily becasue they are trying to keep Joker from the constant abuse he faces down low. While he is a force to reckon with from anywhere on the floor, he doubles down on what a load his is to handle when he is in the mix down low. But he also doesn’t need 328 regular-season quarters worth of that sort of manhandling to make it to the end of the season at his best. A balance has to be struck.

And so the Nuggets choose to play him further out on the floor, to preserve him for “moments that really matter”. It is an understandable, nuanced, and (probably) wise tactic for the team to get the most out of him when it truly will matter most.

Aaron Gordon has gone through two lengthy injury recoveries this season, and is a key to the team enjoying it’s greatest successes. But with that injury history, and their eyes on the prize, AG does not play in the second half of back-to-backs, with an attempt at doing so a part of what knocked him out for the second time this year.

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Jamal Murray, while playing through a sore shoulder, has also let his foot off the gas to some degree after carrying the team through its protracted injury bug this year. Here’s guessing he’s doing so to have something in the tank for the postseason. But that has also resulted in Jamal flashing on and off on the court like a firefly. When he’s hot, there’s no one who can touch him. When he’s not… Well…

You can carry views of this nature up and down the bench. Including to the coaches. Head coach David Adelman is the guy pulling may of these strings, both in terms of the lineups he has available, but also in the style of play he’ll use to keep his guys as fresh as he can. It’s a thankless job, and at times his newness to the role has shone through. While his usual goal may be to win each and every game, his overarching goal is to get to (and into) the playoffs with the best version of this Nuggets team he can muster.

And each of them – personnel mentioned and unmentioned above – won’t make the right choices every single time they are faced with them. Even with the quote up top, no one is saying that these Nuggets have a minimum-wage work ethic. Or at least I’m certainly not. The work and dedication they put into this for hours every day is evident if you follow the team at all. But where I do think the quote lines up is more like this:

You cannot achieve your ultimate goal if you are focused on other things that don’t point towards your ultimate success. Jokic has to find a sense of peace about the shitty whistle he may always receive. Gordon may need to find stretching and strengthening methods that are not what he has done up until this point. Adelman may have to go ahead and loudly voice his disappointment at times. And so on. And so on. Because if you are focused on referee arguments, or doing things the same old way, or preserving your squad for another day… you may not be focused on the pieces that matter most to your million dollar dream.