The Denver Nuggets have gotten off to a decent start to this season as they are 5-5 and have exceeded some expectations especially when you consider the injuries they have dealt with. The Nuggets have lost their top two centers, Jusuf Nurkic and Joffrey Lauvergne, for a significant portion of the early season due to different injuries but their replacements have played well. When Lauvergne and Nurkic do come back they will not just be given playing time, they will have to earn it, according to Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post.
Nurkic underwent surgery to repair a partially torn patellar tendon back in May and he has been recovering from that ever since. His initial target for a return was November but now he is hoping to return at some point in December. Nurkic was Denver's starting center last season and was expected to get that job back when he returned but that may not be a given now.
In Nurkic's place Lauvergne took over as the starting center for the first three games and played extremely well but he injured his back and has missed the last seven contests. Lauvergne is much closer to a return than Nurkic is but his starting spot may not be guaranteed either. Head coach Mike Malone said that Lauvergne won the starting spot out of training camp but getting that spot back "may be a challenge for Joffrey initially."
With Nurkic and Lauvergne out the Nuggets have been using a four man rotation in the frontcourt of J.J. Hickson, Kenneth Faried, Nikola Jokic and Darrell Arthur for the most part. Faried was always going to be the starting power forward so his spot is not in danger while Hickson and Jokic have played very well in their opportunities. Arthur on the other hand, has not made much of his opportunities and would likely slide out of that rotation once everyone is healthy but that still leaves five guys that deserve minutes.
This is definitely an interesting situation for Malone and a tough one because all of these guys deserve minutes but it may be unrealistic to get five frontcourt guys consistent time. Malone said he will likely go based on matchups on how the game is going down the road.
"The challenge is going to be when we get healthy in our frontcourt, when we get Joffrey back, when we get Nurkic back, now all of a sudden you're looking at six guys who are all capable of playing, but there's only so many minutes. And that's a good challenge and problem to have as a head coach, but every night the game takes on its own personality, and we'll put the guys out there that we feel are going to give us the best chance to win, depending on matchup, situation, whatever it may be," said Malone.
