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Is it time for Denver to join the "Load Management Movement"?
Would Malone even understand the concepts of load management? He seems to push players to come back early (my opinion).

Barton has played in 80+ games only twice in his 8 year career, although both of those were in his last four years.

Harris has played in more than 70 games only his second year out of five.

Hernangomez has had trouble staying off the injury list all three years - not county games because Malone seems to dislike playing him.

Millsap has traditionally played lots of games but his last year in Atlanta was just 69 games and his two years in Denver have been 38 games and 70 games.

Now we add Porter to the mix. Does he need "load management"?

That list includes 3 starters that have trouble staying on the court plus a bench player and a rookie.

Last season Nuggets don't have anyone under Load Management regime, and Jokic and Millsap are partly under the playing time restriction program.

This season my recommendation is about 10 games free for Jokic, with using the smart method schedule (vs weak opponents which Denver would beat anyway, and few away games where Denver would not try too much). Talking about Jokic, playing time restriction must finally to stop this season, as a real franchise player he should be scheduled 35+ minutes at least vs playoff level opponents. For Michael Porter jr, I would sit down him on all 13 back-to-back games, with the separate decisions (depending on the case) every time will he miss 1st or 2nd game. Due amazing team's depth, all players except Jokic and Murray will indirectly suffer some kind of playing time restrictions anyway, so the only ones which should be restricted even more are Paul Millsap. Despite Nuggets paying him 30M, and despite he is still our starter and TOP5 (if not TOP3) player, I would limited our veteran on 25 minutes during the regular season as a precaution.

THE J0KER wrote:Last season Nuggets don't have anyone under Load Management regime, and Jokic and Millsap are partly under the playing time restriction program.

This season my recommendation is about 10 games free for Jokic, with using the smart method schedule (vs weak opponents which Denver would beat anyway, and few away games where Denver would not try too much). Talking about Jokic, playing time restriction must finally to stop this season, as a real franchise player he should be scheduled 35+ minutes at least vs playoff level opponents. For Michael Porter jr, I would sit down him on all 13 back-to-back games, with the separate decisions (depending on the case) every time will he miss 1st or 2nd game. Due amazing team's depth, all players except Jokic and Murray will indirectly suffer some kind of playing time restrictions anyway, so the only ones which should be restricted even more are Paul Millsap. Despite Nuggets paying him 30M, and despite he is still our starter and TOP5 (if not TOP3) player, I would limited our veteran on 25 minutes during the regular season as a precaution.

Something like?

Jokic 30+ mpg with 10 games off
Millsap 24 mpg with 10 games off
Barton 24 mpg with 10 games off - Porter 15 mpg with 13 games off
Harris - 24 mpg with 10 games off
Murray 30+ mpg and he hates games off

As you say, we have plenty of depth

Last I heard both Jokic and Murray did not want to miss the 1 game they were given off last year, and I am also not convinced that it leads to more career longevity either. It is not like there are less injuries or guys are playing substantially longer than they did in the 80s or 90s.

The Rebel wrote:Last I heard both Jokic and Murray did not want to miss the 1 game they were given off last year, and I am also not convinced that it leads to more career longevity either. It is not like there are less injuries or guys are playing substantially longer than they did in the 80s or 90s.

Jokic's style of play is earth-bound, so I'm not overly concerned about his minutes. Murray doesn't like to miss any games and while he's not earth-bound, if you've noticed, he's not one of those jump-jack type of players. He can jump and does but he doesn't jump constantly and jumping is often the cause of leg injuries (actually the landing usually ).

But I do believe Millsap & Barton & Harris would all benefit from load management and maybe Porter, I don't know enough about him yet to make that call.

In fact, I've said for a long time, that Barton is best off the bench and that usually results in limited minutes. I'm beginning to believe Harris might do better coming off the bench simply because it would limit his minutes.

I'm not sure about Millsap. It might be best for the Nuggets for Millsap to start at the beginning of the year, but I'd be tempted to start Grant and bring Millsap off the bench also --- the problem is, I'm a big fan of Millsap next to Jokic on both ends, especially defense.

NuggetsWY wrote:

The Rebel wrote:Last I heard both Jokic and Murray did not want to miss the 1 game they were given off last year, and I am also not convinced that it leads to more career longevity either. It is not like there are less injuries or guys are playing substantially longer than they did in the 80s or 90s.

Jokic's style of play is earth-bound, so I'm not overly concerned about his minutes. Murray doesn't like to miss any games and while he's not earth-bound, if you've noticed, he's not one of those jump-jack type of players. He can jump and does but he doesn't jump constantly and jumping is often the cause of leg injuries (actually the landing usually ).

But I do believe Millsap & Barton & Harris would all benefit from load management and maybe Porter, I don't know enough about him yet to make that call.

In fact, I've said for a long time, that Barton is best off the bench and that usually results in limited minutes. I'm beginning to believe Harris might do better coming off the bench simply because it would limit his minutes.

I'm not sure about Millsap. It might be best for the Nuggets for Millsap to start at the beginning of the year, but I'd be tempted to start Grant and bring Millsap off the bench also --- the problem is, I'm a big fan of Millsap next to Jokic on both ends, especially defense.

Harris I would be fine with having some load management, in fact I hope that he and Beasley basically split minutes this season. If he has to miss a few games than so be it.

After 1 major injury I am not ready to call Barton a candidate for load management, but he needs to come off the bench due to fit. He would make a good 4th starter if he focused on defense and knew how to pick his spots. I do wonder how many minutes he is going to get if MPJ and Juancho are both healthy if Malone gives them a fair shot.

I think that Millsap does need load management, both in MPG and overall games. He looked gassed in the playoffs at times. He is another one that should be splitting minutes and I think that is why we went and got Grant. Vanderbilt looks like he has talent and showed it enough in summer league that I think he can play those games that Millsap misses as well.

It’s not load management but statistics and value management. There will have to be a rotation of dnp’s for almost everyone outside of Murray and Jokic or else there’s just not enough minutes to play everyone without tanking their values.