Most Impressive Nugget - So Far This Year

[NuggetsWY]

Which Nugget has impressed you the most this year? This isn't about "most valuable" or "most improved" or "most surprising". It isn't about stats - it's just your opinion.

Choose one, two, or three. Poll will be locked after 12 days but the thread will remain open. Polls are limited to 10 options, so some players are not listed.

[TunaFish]

Murray is my choice but only because of recent play. Until Jokic reasserts himself, Murray is a key contributor. Millsap and Barton have been surprises and you could make a case for any of these three.

[skywalker33]

Millsap has been our leader IMO, he's led the defense and that's why we are where we are.

[NuggetsWY]

I selected just two players, although I was tempted to pick a couple of bench players but I just didn't think they'd impressed enough.

Millsap has been great. His mpg are down but he's taking just a many 2pt & 3pt shots and his 2pt% is the same and his 3pt% is up - impressively up. Even his FT% is up. His rebounding is close to last year (with fewer minutes). He's been active on defense and I think perhaps more active than last year - and I've always like his defense.

Will Barton has really impressed me with his defensive effort. Although he's not a stopper and still needs to improve, he's at least adequate. Add to that his offense; I'm very impressed. His shooting is overall about the same but his 3pt% is way up - 45%. But the most impressive is his career highest rebounding at 7 rpg! Last point would be his turnovers are down.

[THE J0KER]

Jokic is our best player, but that is expected. His numbers are actually below expectations, but it is already some kind of a tradition now for the Joker to have a cold and lazy start. Every season so far around Christmas Jokic put his game on another level, and this time it should be MVP-candidate level, so I waiting for that.

Thanks to improved consistency Murray is now our clearly 2nd best player and leading scorer, but that is also expected. I see him keep progressing this season to an all-star or very close level.

If we compare expected production and what we see so far, the clean winner is Will Barton. This season in just 14 games Will collected 1.6 Win Share, which is already much more than 1.2 WS entire last season (not to mention that in 14 playoff games his overall win share was negative!?).

If we should choose the most impressive segment of the game, the winners are Gary Harris defense and insane Millsap percentages. When some player at 34 in his 14th pro-season improving his FT% from career-average 73% to 88% and 3p% from 33% career average to 49% I have no words to explain that, because 16 games and his playing time is not so small sample.

[SkillzFromThe6]

Tied between Jamal Murray & Paul Millsap

Paul Millsap has become a knockdown shooter, which I did not see coming. I wish he had more shot attempts tbh.

Jamal Murray has been one of the most impressive because he's finally not starting the season terribly.

[THE J0KER]

The pretty unexpected look of Denver Nuggets PER 36 minutes stats so far this season

In red are warnings, and in Yellow are praises.

I blacklisted Jokic and Grant, but the fact is in the last two weeks their form very improve. I praised MPJ despite his worst +/-, because his per 36 minutes stats are great for a rookie, and it is not his fault he does not get enough playing time so far to become a true part of the team. Jokic and Murray numbers should improve, and Grant and Beasley from the bench too, but I'm not sure will Millsap will hold this insane 3pt% and FT% high percentages, or Barton this level of the game. Sad to see Gary Harris this mediocre in the offense, but I did not blacklist him because he was pure gold on the defensive end this season, which you can't see from these raw stats.