There are countless stories to watch ahead of the Nuggets’ first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, with most of them revolving around the stars and main characters on both sides. But one big question mark surrounding this series will be the bench play for Denver and how they can steal minutes.
The five starters, despite some obvious flaws, are pretty reliable and David Adelman should be able to confidently trot those guys out for 35+ minutes a night if need be. Beyond that, it gets pretty dicey pretty fast.
With Peyton Watson, the Nuggets run the risk of essentially playing 4-on-5 on the offensive end and with Julian Strawther, it’s the opposite risk. Jalen Pickett and Zeke Nnaji have had moments, but is either one going to be a trustworthy playoff commodity?
That leads us to the most polarizing player on the Nuggets and perhaps in the entire NBA, Russell Westbrook. Russ has had a good year in Denver, vastly outplaying the value of the veteran minimum contract he signed last summer. But the playoffs are a different beast.
Adelman must be wary of trusting Westbrook in Clippers series
Westbrook has had some great playoff moments throughout his illustrious career, but has never gotten over the hump and things haven’t always gone well in the biggest moments. In recent years, things have been expedited a bit as he has had a hard time earning an impactful role in the playoff rotation by the end of his tenure with the Clippers.
Westbrook notably came from the Clippers where he spent the past two seasons playing for head coach Tyronn Lue. Lue knows Russ’s ins and outs and he determined just last season that he couldn’t survive with him on the floor.
Lue drastically cut back Westbrook’s minutes, not allowing the team to live and die with him on the floor. Russ’ play is simply too sporadic and with teams hyperfocused on every possession, they are inclined to put him in bad situations, like daring him to shoot.
This is the problem with Russ and we have all known, all along, exactly what teams are going to do to him in the playoffs. The fact that it’s his former coach Ty Lue, just makes it that much more obvious. They are going to double Jokic and Murray with Russ’ man and see if the Nuggets are willing to kick it out and allow Russ to let it fly from three.
He’ll happily oblige and shoot his team out of a game, or he’ll force the action and become a turnover machine. No matter how you spin it, it’s likely to go poorly. Sure, there are times when Russ can get hot, he’ll make energy plays, and Denver will certainly need his defense.
The depth is bad enough that Adelman really has no choice but to play Westbrook in this series. But he has to have a short leash and be willing to take him out quickly if things are going south. If he hesitates and is willing to go down with the ship, we already know exactly how this is going to play out.
