The Denver Nuggets, at 42-20, are solidly in the 2-seed in the Western Conference with 20 games to play. Denver has a 3.5 game lead on the Thunder and Blazers, and should, at the very least, find themselves with homecourt advantage in their first round series.
That’s a big deal because Denver has been spectacular at home this season, with a 27-6 record in the Pepsi Center, taking full advantage of the altitude. The Nuggets dropped back-to-back home games this week to the Jazz and Pelicans, however, and some have wondered aloud if working Isaiah Thomas into the rotation has caused some issues for the Nuggets.
Thomas is averaging 10.2 points per game on a 39.6/32.0/68.8 shooting split in just under 16 minutes of the six games he’s played in, as he’s looked like a player trying to find his footing after an 11-month layoff. While it’s understandable why Thomas isn’t back to being the player he was two years ago, some have wondered if the Nuggets are playing with fire taking minutes away from Monte Morris to work Thomas back in, given how well the team has performed this season when Morris is on the floor.
On Monday, coach Mike Malone tried to put a halt to those kinds of concerns, insisting the last two losses were far from IT’s fault. Malone noted that the team didn’t expect Thomas to be the same player he was in Boston right now, but that he felt he was far from the issue in the Pelicans game and he didn’t want anyone to turn him into a scapegoat.
"I don’t want anybody on our team ever becoming a scapegoat for our collective problems." #Nuggets coach Michael Malone had a pointed message this morning for those assigning blame to veteran guard Isaiah Thomas. pic.twitter.com/aXCeMOOt0O
— Chris Dempsey (@chrisadempsey) March 4, 2019
Malone is right to make sure no one thinks Thomas is the root of all problems in Denver — not to mention a two-game losing streak is far from the end of the world. The concerns some have about whether Thomas can be a positive contributor in the postseason is fair, though, but that will also be the job of Malone to figure out what his rotation will be given how deep he’s gone during the regular season with his bench group.
Playoff rotations tend to get smaller and if Thomas doesn’t make tremendous strides over the final 20 games, one would expect him to see fewer than 16 minutes per game in the playoffs. Still, right now the Nuggets are in good enough shape to continue to tinker with lineups and see what they have across the board, all with an eye toward doing what’s necessary come playoff time.
