THE J0KER wrote:I guess now, just like in Jokic case in 2016, or Murray case in 2017, we must to wait December for Malone to realize the obvious about Porter. This time Barton will be in the role of 2016 Nurkic and 2017 Mudiay.
When Malone listed out MPJ from standard rotation before the start of the season despite notable preseason, I see big problems with his playing time at the start of the season. But I didn't imagine how cruel Malone will be in this case, with just one single game with over 13 minutes in first 30 games of the season, with several DNP cases, even against lottery teams.
Yes, Will Barton overperformed (compared to expectations), but other two SF options Juancho and Craig underperformed badly so far with terrible 46%TS%, and also Beasley is partly blacklisted after not re-signing his contract (playing time dropped to 15mpg so far), so Barton played some unplanned minutes at SG, and this season so far Juancho played most of his minutes as PF when we playing small-ball. According to basketball-reference, Porter played so far 90% time at PF and Grant played 40% at SF, but that is clearly wrong. While in the offense it is really confusing who is who, on defense, MPJ is clearly SF and Grant PF (even C sometimes), and the same we can say when Porter playing with Juancho (MPJ is SF, Juancho is PF), with MPJ some minutes really playing at PF, which is no surprise for such tall guy and as we see so far, an elite rebounder.
About two weeks ago on another thread, I compared PER-36 minutes Denver stats, and warm everyone here to watch-up how good MPJ actually was, but due lack of the playing time it is under the radar.
THE J0KER wrote: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.
In the meantime, two of our starters have problems with injuries, so MPJ playing time increased in December, and he improved even more, so today I prepared PER-36 minutes stats for December only (actually until DEC-30) for all under-21 notable NBA players which played at least 100 minutes in this month, which include even some guys from 2017 draft, like Tatum, which are still under 21 old:
For most of these columns, MPJ was not just good but extraordinary good! But thanks to miserable playing time so far he is under the radar even in his rookie class. We all know his medical past, so even with the awesome play, I would not give him to play (much) more than 25 minutes, but 20-25mpg range since the early start of 2020 should be mandatory in MPJ case, to be ready for the playoff as a notable contributor.
