The Denver Nuggets have recently gotten their guys back healthy, and because of that they have been playing a little bit better. Denver has won three of its last four games, including Wednesday night's game against the Golden State Warriors. The Nuggets biggest strength might be the center spot where they have three young players who are all capable of playing and playing well in Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic and Joffrey Lauvergne. Head coach Mike Malone played Nurkic and Jokic together for a short amount of time last week but doesn't expect that to continue, according to Harrison Wind of BSN Denver.
Nurkic was the Nuggets' starting center last season, and he showed a ton of promise as a rim protector and somebody who can develop as an offensive player. Nurkic, though, had offseason surgery on his knee that kept him out until recently so the Nuggets had to fill in for him with Lauvergne and Jokic who have done a great job in his stead.
With all three centers now healthy and available Malone has some tough decisions to make in terms of playing time, but don't expect to see Nurkic and Jokic on the floor together very much.
"I don't think so. To be honest, I think you saw it against Memphis because they have one of the few lineups nowadays that plays that power forward, center lineup, with Gasol and Randolph. Most teams in the NBA are going much smaller. They'll play together at times but the way the NBA is going, smaller and smaller, I don't know if we'll see that lineup in heavy minutes together," said Malone.
Malone did leave the door open for Jokic and Nurkic playing together at times, but he doesn't see it as ideal. Lauvergne wasn't even mentioned here as he has been in and out of the rotation, but he has played well enough to earn some playing time, there just aren't enough minutes to go around. Nurkic has been back for six games and is playing 14.8 minutes per game and playing extremely well, while Jokic has been a huge surprise this year and has a PER of 20.8 in just 18.7 minutes per game.
The Nuggets seem to be pretty well stocked at the center position for the present and the future; it is now up to Malone to figure out how to allocate the minutes among them. Let's not forget they also have Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur in the frontcourt, so there are three guys fighting for minutes at one spot, especially when you consider that Malone is not thrilled about playing two of his centers together.
