National Basketball Association

Denver Nuggets: Will Jurkic Be a Successful Experiment?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Denver Nuggets have started two of their three preseason games with a unique starting lineup composed of two bigs, Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic.

While teams such as Golden State often rely on their death lineup composed of all smaller-than-avergae shooters, the Denver Nuggets have gone the exact opposite.

The Nuggets, who won their first two games, have had their twin towers start. With a healthy, reenergized Nurkic and a experienced Jokic, Coach Malone could take this starting lineup into the season opener in New Orleans.

If that were to happen, we could see Jokic, who is notoriously poor at defense on versatile bigs, take on a top power forward in Anthony Davis.

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What we already know is that this Jurkic combination has been a success against the Lakers and Raptors. But, can they do this against some the NBA’s best power forwards?

HoopsHabit’s Aaron Mah did an article questioning whether this duo work, and in it he said, “The point is: in order to go “big” in today’s league, you would ideally need to house a basketball unicorn; and even so, you may be better off playing said unicorn as the lone big to fully reap the precious rewards of modern floor spacing.”

The full article can be seen here.

The Nuggets, who by Aaron’s standards, do not possess said Unicorn.

The one closely comparing lineup that did work was the Thunder lineup that was used throughout the playoffs with bigs Enes Kanter and Sam Adams on the court together. It is possible, and it is possible to achieve success in such a lineup. At times, the Thunder power lineup would force Golden State to go big; therefore, playing against its break-and-butter death lineup.

Going forward, this lineup will certainly have its quarks to work out, but it has the chance to succeed in an NBA that is mainly going to small ball lineups. Look for more on this developing story as the preseason continues.

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