Nikola Jokic after Nuggets’ season-opening loss: “We are not a good shooting team”
Denver Post
Volume from 3-point range wasn’t a problem for the Nuggets on opening night at least.
Efficiency sure was.
Denver missed 32 of 39 outside shots in a 102-87 season-opening loss to the Thunder on Thursday night, statistically crowning the worst 3-point shooting game of the Michael Malone era, which is entering its 10th year.
There are only 12 games in Malone’s coaching tenure — regular season or playoffs — in which the Nuggets shot the 3-pointer worse than their 17.9% clip Thursday. They attempted 30 or more 3s in only four of those games. They attempted 35 or more in only one: Nov. 14, 2015, in Phoenix. That was Malone’s 10th game in Denver. The Nuggets were 6 for 35 (17.1%) that day.
Accounting for volume and success, the 2024-25 opener was as bad as any game he has coached. And even though the Nuggets are only one game into the season, their superstar was conclusive about their current reality.
“We are not a good shooting team,” Nikola Jokic said. “Except probably Mike (Porter Jr.) and then Jamal (Murray). All of us are kind of streaky — not streaky, but you know, just average shooters. So, yeah. But we have something else. We can probably be better, have an advantage in some other things on the floor.”
Not even the caveats that he outlined were caveats in this loss, which is part of the reason Malone himself wasn’t rushing to any conclusions afterward. After a dazzling preseason, Porter shot 3 for 10 from 3-point range. After a less-than-dazzling summer, Murray shot 2 for 5.
They went cold with Oklahoma City’s refrigerator magnets stuck to them. Porter’s shots appeared rushed and forced for the first time since the playoffs, when Minnesota’s similarly elite defenders made him work for every inch of space. The entire Thunder rotation can guard at that level, not just Lu Dort and Alex Caruso. But Dort and Caruso are one nightmare of a tandem to lead the charge.
“They’re really good at pushing you out, and then your actions are a little messed up,” new starter Christian Braun said, while emphasizing that he liked the shots the Nuggets were generating, even if they weren’t converting. “We know those will fall. I don’t think that’s where we lost the game.”
Braun is correct. Denver ended up taking a fair number of wide-open looks. The problem is, those looks were often a product of reputation. Most of the Nuggets’ perimeter players haven’t established one yet to warrant Porter- or Murray-caliber respect. Oklahoma City happily sent double-teams to Jokic on every post-up and lived with the results.
Denver’s trio of young rotation players combined for an 0-for-9 night beyond the arc. Russell Westbrook was 1 for 6.
“I don’t think there’s any need for panic,” Malone said. “Going into the season, shooting is a concern of mine. You lose a guy like KCP, who was a 40% 3-point shooter. I thought Christian Braun was great tonight. Christian Braun is not going to be KCP. So I think we all have to understand that, which I think we do, and embrace CB for who he is. I think he played really good defense, competed, ran the floor. I thought CB did a lot of really good things for us. But no, there’s no panic. Again, I think the bigger question is, are we executing the way we need to? We saw (Jokic double-teams) all postseason, last year in the playoffs. So, did Nikola have a triple-double? Yes he did. So he’s making the right reads.”
On the receiving end of those reads? It’s tricky. Malone stressed throughout training camp that he wants his players taking open 3s with confidence. He can’t swerve away from that message based on one game. But he acknowledged that if opponents are giving a free lane, sometimes it’s worth taking. “You also have an opportunity to be aggressive and not settle,” the coach said.
He took a calm, unperturbed view of the game as a whole, praising the Thunder, praising the Nuggets’ defense even more and focusing on productive lessons from the defeat.
“I’m not gonna make wholesale changes after one game and one loss,” he said.
But this topic will continue to loom until the Nuggets prove it isn’t one. Malone and Jokic both know it. For a team that was scrutinized for its depleted 3-point volume this offseason, volume won’t matter if none of the shots go in. When Jokic was asked if the Nuggets can win the championship as a lackluster shooting team, he was reasonably stumped.
“I don’t know,” he said. “(With) how the NBA is, it’s really hard.”
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