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The Denver Nuggets are melting down in real time.
Anyone with eyes could see how the Nuggets have wilted in the face of adversity amid an embarrassing three-game losing streak to the Minnesota Timberwolves, which now has Denver's season on the brink. The Timberwolves lost both Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo to injury early in Game 4 — their starting backcourt — and somehow still punked the Nuggets to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. If the Nuggets were a serious group with a stronger will, they would never have let the Timberwolves back into the game after two demoralizing injuries like that.
They wouldn't have given a moment to breathe. They would have stomped them into oblivion.
Instead, the Nuggets watched Ayo Dosunmu drop 43 points in one of the most efficient bench scoring performances in NBA history. Instead, after once again making minimal impact in the fourth quarter, Nuggets franchise talisman Nikola Jokić lost his composure over a rival daring to stunt on his team.
The Nuggets haven't looked resilient. They look soft. They look like a group that wants to be anywhere but the basketball court the moment the Timberwolves have given them any pushback. They look like a team without real leadership. Given the apparent lack of heart shown by his players, you would think Nuggets head coach David Adelman would have gone scorched-earth in his postgame press conference. Anything to try to get his sleeping, juiceless team to wake up with its back against the wall.
Instead, when a reporter (fairly) questioned the team's apparent lack of competitive spirit, Adelman took a bizarre exception to his notion. He stuck to the same company line he had after Denver's Game 2 and Game 3 defeats: the offense just wasn't good enough to win.
If the Nuggets' league-leading offense looking so lackluster was the only reason for their 3-1 series deficit, a question about Denver's heart wouldn't have irked Adelman so much:
Adelman would later harp on this "narrative" further, claiming he doesn't care what anyone says. He knows what he has in his Nuggets, after all. He's the coach. He's supposed to!
"I don't care what you write," says a man who definitely cares about what people say, particularly when he knows there's a degree of truth to it.
On some level, I understand why Adelman doesn't necessarily want to call out his players' toughness. The Nuggets are getting shut down by the Timberwolves. The league's best offense during the regular season isn't making the same open shots and generating the same looks it made all season. The Nuggets hadn't shot under 40 percent as a team in a game all year, and just managed that in back-to-back losses in Minnesota. From a surface-level glance, their offensive failures are, in fact, why they can be eliminated from the playoffs on Monday night.
Still, NBA teams with more grit generally find different ways to win when their shots aren't falling. They lock in and focus up. They make little plays. They fight back. Newsflash: Sometimes your offense will go cold, and you have to adapt.
In response to their offense sputtering at the worst possible time, the Nuggets have either felt sorry for themselves or looked otherwise rudderless, without a reasonable pivot. No one is stepping up and trying to galvanize them. And even if Adelman did try to be more of a firebrand motivator coach, his taking exception to the sentiment that the Nuggets aren't tough enough makes it apparent that he doesn't think he's capable of doing that. So, his only option is to lean on a "make or miss league" cliché. Yawn.
The Nuggets seem like they don't really listen to Adelman in the first place. Now, of all times, how do you think they would respond if he actually raised his voice at them? After an entire season of never really doing so? I can't imagine the results would be any different. They would likely wave him off.
And he knows it.
The Nuggets' backs are against the wall with Game 5 coming up in Denver on Monday night. If they want to keep their season going, someone, anyone, better step up and lead. I feel pretty confident that it won't be Adelman, a man who may never have even had a firm grasp on his team in the first place.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: David Adelman's weak response to Nuggets' heart question said it all
Continue reading...
Anyone with eyes could see how the Nuggets have wilted in the face of adversity amid an embarrassing three-game losing streak to the Minnesota Timberwolves, which now has Denver's season on the brink. The Timberwolves lost both Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo to injury early in Game 4 — their starting backcourt — and somehow still punked the Nuggets to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. If the Nuggets were a serious group with a stronger will, they would never have let the Timberwolves back into the game after two demoralizing injuries like that.
They wouldn't have given a moment to breathe. They would have stomped them into oblivion.
Instead, the Nuggets watched Ayo Dosunmu drop 43 points in one of the most efficient bench scoring performances in NBA history. Instead, after once again making minimal impact in the fourth quarter, Nuggets franchise talisman Nikola Jokić lost his composure over a rival daring to stunt on his team.
The Nuggets haven't looked resilient. They look soft. They look like a group that wants to be anywhere but the basketball court the moment the Timberwolves have given them any pushback. They look like a team without real leadership. Given the apparent lack of heart shown by his players, you would think Nuggets head coach David Adelman would have gone scorched-earth in his postgame press conference. Anything to try to get his sleeping, juiceless team to wake up with its back against the wall.
Instead, when a reporter (fairly) questioned the team's apparent lack of competitive spirit, Adelman took a bizarre exception to his notion. He stuck to the same company line he had after Denver's Game 2 and Game 3 defeats: the offense just wasn't good enough to win.
If the Nuggets' league-leading offense looking so lackluster was the only reason for their 3-1 series deficit, a question about Denver's heart wouldn't have irked Adelman so much:
Adelman would later harp on this "narrative" further, claiming he doesn't care what anyone says. He knows what he has in his Nuggets, after all. He's the coach. He's supposed to!
"I don't care what you write," says a man who definitely cares about what people say, particularly when he knows there's a degree of truth to it.
On some level, I understand why Adelman doesn't necessarily want to call out his players' toughness. The Nuggets are getting shut down by the Timberwolves. The league's best offense during the regular season isn't making the same open shots and generating the same looks it made all season. The Nuggets hadn't shot under 40 percent as a team in a game all year, and just managed that in back-to-back losses in Minnesota. From a surface-level glance, their offensive failures are, in fact, why they can be eliminated from the playoffs on Monday night.
Still, NBA teams with more grit generally find different ways to win when their shots aren't falling. They lock in and focus up. They make little plays. They fight back. Newsflash: Sometimes your offense will go cold, and you have to adapt.
In response to their offense sputtering at the worst possible time, the Nuggets have either felt sorry for themselves or looked otherwise rudderless, without a reasonable pivot. No one is stepping up and trying to galvanize them. And even if Adelman did try to be more of a firebrand motivator coach, his taking exception to the sentiment that the Nuggets aren't tough enough makes it apparent that he doesn't think he's capable of doing that. So, his only option is to lean on a "make or miss league" cliché. Yawn.
The Nuggets seem like they don't really listen to Adelman in the first place. Now, of all times, how do you think they would respond if he actually raised his voice at them? After an entire season of never really doing so? I can't imagine the results would be any different. They would likely wave him off.
And he knows it.
The Nuggets' backs are against the wall with Game 5 coming up in Denver on Monday night. If they want to keep their season going, someone, anyone, better step up and lead. I feel pretty confident that it won't be Adelman, a man who may never have even had a firm grasp on his team in the first place.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: David Adelman's weak response to Nuggets' heart question said it all
Continue reading...
