RealGM

In a couple of highlight videos I noticed that Nnaji is pretty good at striping guys when they go up, he has strong quick hands. It made me wonder if Kmart is still looking to be an assistant coach? While he was a bit of an ass, he had a huge defensive IQ and knew all the tricks, even after he lost most of his athleticism. Not the worst mentor for a guy like Nnaji.

The Rebel wrote:In a couple of highlight videos I noticed that Nnaji is pretty good at striping guys when they go up, he has strong quick hands. It made me wonder if Kmart is still looking to be an assistant coach? While he was a bit of an ass, he had a huge defensive IQ and knew all the tricks, even after he lost most of his athleticism. Not the worst mentor for a guy like Nnaji.

I'm hoping part of Millsap's $10M salary is to help mentor our bigs, certainly has to be something because his play has diminished quickly. Wouldn't mind seeing him added to next year's coaching staff.

Looking to the near future.



Already looking to see if Zeke can play along side of Jokic

Is there a team better at drafting than the Nuggets?

I like Nnaji's shooting form. I think he has a potential to be a decent midrange shooter. Got a lot of upside in defense too.

First game didn't look impressive - in the box score. But on the court, he looked like a great fit. I do wonder though if he can be a center for anything more than 10-15 minutes of small ball. He looks like he might be a great fit next to Jokic.

NuggetsWY wrote:First game didn't look impressive - in the box score. But on the court, he looked like a great fit. I do wonder though if he can be a center for anything more than 10-15 minutes of small ball. He looks like he might be a great fit next to Jokic.

To me it looked like he could be a long term fit at PF with our starters. He showed good defensive instincts, he also did well guarding on the perimeter, and was fast enough to get to the paint off the corner. while I never looked at the stats for the game he sure seemed to have a nice confident outside shooting stroke.

I know it is a preseason game but just what I saw from the game took me from mildly high on him to being as high on him as any of our young additions and you guys know I really like Hampton.

Dude just continues to show he has an IT factor, wonder where he would've been drafted had he waited another year or two ??

Would really like Millsap to work with Zeke, try to help him develop faster we may need him as soon as next year. With all the money we've paid him, this should be something PM steps up to do IMO. Same with MPJ too.

https://www.sportscasting.com/zeke-nnaji-convinced-the-denver-nuggets-to-draft-him-by-playing-piano/
Fascinating article

NuggetsWY wrote:https://www.sportscasting.com/zeke-nnaji-convinced-the-denver-nuggets-to-draft-him-by-playing-piano/
Fascinating article

Sorry WY, that's a hack site if ever I've seen one.....gave drafting the PAC-12 freshman of the year at #24 a C-...they must not think much of him.

Watching Nnaji last night, 2 things I think he has to work on to become our starting PF/C.

1) He needs to get stronger. While he young at just barely 20yo, he's already 240lbs but I'd love to see him put on another 15-25 pounds of muscle. Help him work inside the paint, muscle with bigger PF's and really looks like his frame can handle it without affecting his agility IMO.

2) Obviously, improve his defense. This can be said of most all rookies but improving his D will only help create cohesion with Joker, providing more reason for Malone to play him. Given that Millsap is likely gone next year (how many times do I have to say that ?) we will need someone with his inside/outside presence to fill that void, better defense will be icing on the cake.

Listening to PM will help him out, his shooting looks strong already, we could have a diamond in the rough. He already looks better than Bol IMO, may make Bol Bol expendable.

skywalker33 wrote:Listening to PM will help him out, his shooting looks strong already, we could have a diamond in the rough. He already looks better than Bol IMO, may make Bol Bol expendable.

Same observation. It's beginning to feel like Zeke is the better fit than Bol. He looks more comfortable when he's out there, doesn't force things and just let's the game come to him. Malone probably trusts him more than Bol at this point.

Zeke's development is definitely a good thing for the Nuggets, but I kinda feel bad for Bol as well.

FilNugsFan wrote:

skywalker33 wrote:Listening to PM will help him out, his shooting looks strong already, we could have a diamond in the rough. He already looks better than Bol IMO, may make Bol Bol expendable.

Same observation. It's beginning to feel like Zeke is the better fit than Bol. He looks more comfortable when he's out there, doesn't force things and just let's the game come to him. Malone probably trusts him more than Bol at this point.

Zeke's development is definitely a good thing for the Nuggets, but I kinda feel bad for Bol as well.

Considering Nnaji has been getting minutes over Bol I would say it is safe to say Malone trusts him more. I have a hard time feeling bad for Bol, his lack of instincts and bad defense are a problem, but a bigger issue to me is his body language. He looks like he wants no part of being on the court when I watch him.

The Rebel wrote:

FilNugsFan wrote:

skywalker33 wrote:Listening to PM will help him out, his shooting looks strong already, we could have a diamond in the rough. He already looks better than Bol IMO, may make Bol Bol expendable.

Same observation. It's beginning to feel like Zeke is the better fit than Bol. He looks more comfortable when he's out there, doesn't force things and just let's the game come to him. Malone probably trusts him more than Bol at this point.

Zeke's development is definitely a good thing for the Nuggets, but I kinda feel bad for Bol as well.

Considering Nnaji has been getting minutes over Bol I would say it is safe to say Malone trusts him more. I have a hard time feeling bad for Bol, his lack of instincts and bad defense are a problem, but a bigger issue to me is his body language. He looks like he wants no part of being on the court when I watch him.

To me Bol is saying “Trade me, trade me”

Zeke minutes per game in 26 Nuggets games so far are: 0-0-4-1-0-1-0-0-2-4-0-0-0-5-0-0-0-2-1-2-3-0-0-19-6-24

In only two games when he gets the real chance, Nnaji TS% was sky high, including an unreal 8-11 shooting for threes. That is just a small sample, of course, nobody is 3p% that good in the long term especially when opponents once realize that someone is a very good shooter from the long-range, but even during preseason we can see that he is a very good 3pt shooter for a player playing PF/C. He also shows many signs he can be a very useful defender with good BBIQ, and the only notable weakness we can see so far is bad rebounding skills. That is a big problem in general for a player playing on PF or center spot, but not so big in a team that already has several good rebounders in Jokic, Porter, Hartenstein, Green, Millsap, even Hampton. After all, last season nobody complained about Grant's bad rebounding skills with his good defense and 3pt shooting.

This guy needs starters minutes. And needs minutes alongside Jokic. Looks like a good pairing with MPJ also

Interesting to look ahead, Nnaji's PER 36 he's scoring at 19.5ppg. For comparison value, our 3rd BIG3 member, MPJ's PER36 right now is 19.3ppg

A stretch 4 for the future and maybe he will get a chance real soon with Millsap out.

I like Nanji guarding the small forward on the perimeter and MPJ guarding the power forward while staying closer to the basket for rebounding purposes. Because of their size they should alternate well. Jokic is going to love this scoring duo. Hopefully, Malone will let this happen.