Richard Miller wrote:The Rebel wrote:Richard Miller wrote:
He's not out yet, the unofficial word is that his issue *could* jeopardize his season. However even if true, if Jamal is back and the rest of starters remain healthy they will still have a decent chance.
Most guys coming off of ACLs may come back in 8-12 months, most of them take a full 18 months before they get to their top level again.
Honestly at this point, if MPJ is out for the season, than I think we sit Jokic for any excuse we can and tank the season. Give some of the young guys all the minutes they can handle and see if we can't develop a quality bench for next season.
Young guys also need to learn to play with Jokic, this is not OKC or Detroit though. I don't think Jamal plans to sit out the entire season, we'll see I guess. And tbh, the first game without MPJ was vs Heat and the Nuggets dominated one of the best Eastern teams, they are perfectly capable playing without him if everybody else are in form.
Of course Murray is coming back this season, but anybody who expects him to be 100% is ignoring history. Best case scenario is that he is back to himself next season.
While we looked good 1 game, a lot of that has to do with the Heat not knowing what we were doing, Bones not in the scouting reports, and Jokic carrying this entire roster. You can easily have JOkic play 30 mpg for 2 1/2 months and still get a decent lotto pick which may be a huge deal if MPJ is truly having nerve pain in his back. I also think if we lose MPJ than Nnaji is the long term fit at PF for this team, Bones can grow into a true 6th man for next year, and we can see what we have in the other young guys. If this is a long term problem for MPJ than we have to get our production out of our draft picks, especially next year.