Team Grading The Week has a New Year’s resolution this month we think everybody can get behind: more Russell Westbrook.
The stats don’t lie. In the three games before Friday night’s Nuggets-Nets showdown, Beastbrook averaged 18.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists and was generally a Swiss Army Knife of awesome. You needed him to run the offense? No prob. You needed him to guard Victor Wembanyama? Well, he did that, too.
But the kids up in the GTW offices also can’t shake the notion that the Nuggets are going to run into one of those “good” problems going forward: Once Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon come back, who goes back to the bench?
Russ’ shot, and looks, aren’t going to be the same when the Nuggets are operating at full tilt again. Denver’s at its best when Jokic, Murray and Gordon are humming together, with added punch off the wing from Michael Porter Jr. and then … well, the off-guard of your choice.
So should that guard be Westbrook or Braun, at least to start the game?
Keeping Russ in starting five if Nuggets are healthy — D
Our GTW statniks were curious, too. And torn. So much so, in fact, that we decided to try out the advanced stats tracker over at NBA.com to see which three-man lineup in the first quarter this season — remember, this is about who starts and not who finishes — had more punch: Jokic-Murray-Braun, or Jokic-Murray-Westbrook?
It wasn’t all that close.
• Joker-Arrow-Braun: 168 minutes before Friday, 119.4 Offensive Rating, 129.5 Defensive Rating, Net Rating: minus-10.1. (Not great.)
• Joker-Arrow-Beastbrook: 66 minutes before Friday, 130.5 Offensive Rating, 131.7 Defensive Rating, Net Rating: minus-1.2. (Meh, but better.)
So, hey, Braun to the second unit, right?
Well, it might not be quite that simple.
For one thing, the sample size on the Nuggets’ three-headed superstar look (Jokic-Murray-Westbrook) is still relatively small. For another, it hasn’t exactly gone gangbusters, either.
In fact, if you’re just comparing three-man lineups in the first quarter, here are the four most effective trios to open a game this season, based just on Net Rating, that had played more than 90 minutes together going into the weekend:
• Jokic-MPJ-Westbrook — 135 minutes, plus-15.7 points
• Jokic-MPJ-Gordon — 115 minutes, plus-12.2 points
• Gordon-MPJ-Braun — 102 minutes, plus-8.0 points
• Jokic-Braun-Westbrook — 120 minutes, plus-7.2 points
As a data set, those four lines don’t really help you much on the question of benching Westbrook or Braun, do they? But they do underscore three conclusions Nuggets fans have long since come to:
1. 94-foot players such as Gordon, Braun and (most of the time) Westbrook are felt on the defense end, especially when they’re not there;
2. MPJ is doing more on a given night than you think;
3. This team will go, and this season will go, as far as Murray can carry it. Same as it ever was.
At any rate, the Braun-Russ debate is probably a moot point given who’s filling out the metaphorical lineup card. Coach Michael Malone prefers what he trusts — and while he respects Westbrook, he trusts Braun. End of story.
And even with Westbrook, the Nuggets’ second unit still feels as if it’s a shooter short. So why do we get this uneasy feeling that GM Calvin Booth’s answer to that might be making a small move for another backup big and calling it a day?
Carle and hockey gold — A
No matter which country he’s in, DU’s David Carle can’t stop winning, can he? This past Sunday, the Pioneers’ venerated hockey boss became the first coach to lead Team USA to back-to-back golds in the World Junior Championships. Under Carle, the Stars & Stripes rallied for a 4-3 overtime win over Finland in the gold-medal game up in Ottawa, Canada. But eyebrows were raised Thursday when Frank Seravalli of “Daily Faceoff” reported that Carle said he wouldn’t chase a three-peat in 2026.
