RealGM

Pretty insane. 39 assists tonight! They're averaging the most in NBA history when adjusted for pace of play. 1984-85 LA played a few possessions more per game than 2024-25 Denver currently is. The Nuggets play a beautiful brand of basketball, like a modern version of an '80s team.

Wjhhaaaaaaaat??!!!?????!!!!??????????....?????????????.......????????.....????????

For the first time, I feel like Westbrook, Murray and even MPJ aren’t passing for the sake of passing. Jokic and Westbrook (I can’t believe I’m saying this) are making passing into an art and fun. Once the team sees Westbrook making several layups on simple give and go, it’s contagious.

Wjhhaaaaaaaat??!!!?????!!!!??????????....?????????????.......????????.....????????

The early offense and transition play, the grab-and-go, the outlet passing, the post-entry passing, the touch passing, the post passing, the cutting. About as close as we'll get to a modernized '80s-style team.

FrodoBaggins wrote:The early offense and transition play, the grab-and-go, the outlet passing, the post-entry passing, the touch passing, the post passing, the cutting. About as close as we'll get to a modernized '80s-style team.

They have a top 2 offense in the league with being in bottom of the league 3pt attempts. Posters are complaining about so many 3s put up in the game today and yet yoy have the nuggets who don’t spam the 3 point line. Maybe more people should watch the Nuggets play. You have Jokic second in the league in 3 point percentage but only takes less than 5 a game.

It's almost as if they have the best offensive player in the history of the NBA.

How come? I was told Westbrook has the lowest BBIQ in the league history by the RGM stat sheet experts.

I always thought that Westbrook was an all time passer, and IMO is a slightly better passer than Harden. Especially good at making all kinds of passes in tight spaces in the lane. You combine him with Jokic and you can pencil in 20 assists. Because they pass from completely different positions they don't really negate each other's passing. They compliment it. You have an all time post passer in Jokic and you have an all time drive passer in Westbrook.

JN61 wrote:How come? I was told Westbrook has the lowest BBIQ in the league history by the RGM stat sheet experts.

I was one of them and I'm eating crow. I was wrong.
For large chunks of their games, it's the most fun Nuggets team of the last few years - they still don't win like recently, but aesthetically they are great, and Westbrook is a huge part of it. Come playoff time and they will be dangerous.

Even Deandre Jordan minutes suddenly look fine and he is not an automatic -10 in 4 minutes of play, at least not recently. Without any data, I can only guess he shares plenty of minutes with Westbrook.
PS: thanks, google:

Only note I would make to WB is that it seems that now that he is having fun he tends to risk a lot of balls and therefore in the last 10 games the Ast/TO ratio is quite falling compared to the start of the season (from 2.4 to 1.7)... take care of ball, damn, Westy

JN61 wrote:How come? I was told Westbrook has the lowest BBIQ in the league history by the RGM stat sheet experts.

this is Jokic effect,I always believe Westbrook has the lowest basketball IQ but now I know Murray has the lowest. Jokic is that kind of player.

For the note Westbrook with Jokic +13,5, only Westbrook -19,5.

Would love to see them get some additional 3pt shooting.

Maybe the only thing they are missing that really will stop them having a a title chance.

jmo21 wrote:Would love to see them get some additional 3pt shooting.

Maybe the only thing they are missing that really will stop them having a a title chance.

And a legit backup big. Booth should be fired for DAJ being their only backup big in rotation at this stage of his career. They’re basically admitting that Saric was a mistake.

Jokic is 2nd in the league in apg. Westbrook is 14th. Murray is 22nd.

Wallace_Wallace wrote:For the first time, I feel like Westbrook, Murray and even MPJ aren’t passing for the sake of passing. Jokic and Westbrook (I can’t believe I’m saying this) are making passing fun. Once the team sees Westbrook making several layups on simple give and go, it’s contagious.

It's a beautiful thing watching happy Russ in Denver with the better player in the world.

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using RealGM mobile app

JN61 wrote:How come? I was told Westbrook has the lowest BBIQ in the league history by the RGM stat sheet experts.

Westbrook was always great at creating shots.

He was horri-bad coming off of the bench, but the move into the starting lineup has been extremely productive. Without any ability to hit a shot outside the RA and inside the arc, without competent FT shooting, he is still doing pretty well. He's taking over around 45% of his shots as cuts, in transition, on putbacks and from hand-offs, which is really helping him score efficiently without any sort of finishing ability out of the RA inside the arc. And he's also clicking within 0.1% of his career-high from 3. So that, as a starter, has really helped him individually score pretty efficiently. He's at something like +2.2% rTS as a starter.

And he does provide energy with his endless motor. Plus, he is still quite athletic, and moves the ball well. And they're playing him like 25 mpg, so he can go max energy the entire time, create rim pressure. Synergizes well with Jokic. For what he is, for what they're paying him, he's doing well.

The Nuggets are what, 0.5 better in terms of team ORTG than last year? The impact stuff doesn't look huge but the league around them is somewhat worse than last season, so they're punching a little harder with a comparable offense... and winning less. They're on pace for like 51, 52 wins, which is still a step back from last year. They're 11-6 since Russ started consistently starting (1 game off the bench in there), which is a shade better, but not a ton.

So it's tough to really look at Westie as the driving force here. He's fitting in well enough, though, and certainly not inhibiting them the way I thought he would. I honestly thought he'd force the issue a little more, but like I said, he's constraining his volume and getting nearly half of his action in the ways which best deploy him for success, which is awesome to see and has me eating a bit of crow. Which, in this case, I don't mind, heh.

tsherkin wrote:

JN61 wrote:How come? I was told Westbrook has the lowest BBIQ in the league history by the RGM stat sheet experts.

Westbrook was always great at creating shots.

He was horri-bad coming off of the bench, but the move into the starting lineup has been extremely productive. Without any ability to hit a shot outside the RA and inside the arc, without competent FT shooting, he is still doing pretty well. He's taking over around 45% of his shots as cuts, in transition, on putbacks and from hand-offs, which is really helping him score efficiently without any sort of finishing ability out of the RA inside the arc. And he's also clicking within 0.1% of his career-high from 3. So that, as a starter, has really helped him individually score pretty efficiently. He's at something like +2.2% rTS as a starter.

And he does provide energy with his endless motor. Plus, he is still quite athletic, and moves the ball well. And they're playing him like 25 mpg, so he can go max energy the entire time, create rim pressure. Synergizes well with Jokic. For what he is, for what they're paying him, he's doing well.

The Nuggets are what, 0.5 better in terms of team ORTG than last year? The impact stuff doesn't look huge but the league around them is somewhat worse than last season, so they're punching a little harder with a comparable offense... and winning less. They're on pace for like 51, 52 wins, which is still a step back from last year. They're 11-6 since Russ started consistently starting (1 game off the bench in there), which is a shade better, but not a ton.

So it's tough to really look at Westie as the driving force here. He's fitting in well enough, though, and certainly not inhibiting them the way I thought he would. I honestly thought he'd force the issue a little more, but like I said, he's constraining his volume and getting nearly half of his action in the ways which best deploy him for success, which is awesome to see and has me eating a bit of crow. Which, in this case, I don't mind, heh.

the driving force is Jokic, period.
but Russ has been responsible for changing the identity of the team, turning them into the best fastbreak team in the league. And this is something that you can see even when he's not on the floor.
Last year they were awfully slow to bring the ball up.

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:the driving force is Jokic, period.

Obviously. That wasn't my point, lol.

but Russ has been responsible for changing the identity of the team, turning them into the best fastbreak team in the league. And this is something that you can see even when he's not on the floor.
Last year they were awfully slow to bring the ball up.

Yeah, they were like the 4th-slowest team in the league last year and are the 5th-fastest this year.

tsherkin wrote:The Nuggets are what, 0.5 better in terms of team ORTG than last year? The impact stuff doesn't look huge but the league around them is somewhat worse than last season, so they're punching a little harder with a comparable offense... and winning less. They're on pace for like 51, 52 wins, which is still a step back from last year. They're 11-6 since Russ started consistently starting (1 game off the bench in there), which is a shade better, but not a ton.

imho, Denver is much better of his win record

for all season (in the last month even better) Denver has #12 lineups 4-players with at least 200 minutes... all are NetRtg positives, from +18.8 to +6.9


if we consider the other contenders, only OKC and BOS scares me
OKC


CLE


BOS


Note:
For those who will immediately say... "eh, yes, 200 minutes... cherry picking"... I chose 200 to have a fairly consistent sample size of minutes... if I wanted to do cherry picking I would have chosen a threshold of 195 given that the Denver's quartet with the highest NetRtg has 199