It feels a little strange, starting the season off with three consecutive home games. The Toronto Raptors get to enjoy a comfortable two weeks at home between the conclusion of training camp and the start of the regular season, and even Wednesday, they’ll duck out for just a day before returning home for two more. Even shorthanded, this should give the Raptors a bit of an edge on their early competition, as the combination of their continuity and scheduled – they don’t even have a back-to-back until mid-November – should make them pretty comfortable.
The Denver Nuggets, however, will likely make things far less cozy when they visit the Air Canada Centre on Monday. The bruising frontcourt pairing of Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic, with Kenneth Faried in support off the bench, will be a nice, physical test for the Raptors’ bigs here in game three, and the amount of skill – Danilo Gallinari, Jamal Murray – and athleticism – Will Barton, Emmanuel Mudiay – across other positions should push the Raptors’ defense, which has been quite solid so far. That combination of talent and physicality leads Raptors head coach Dwane Casey to believe the Nuggets could be a sneaky pick to crack the playoffs in the Western Conference.
“They’re very talented. Young and talented,” he said SUnday. “Jokic has probably done one of the best jobs with his body of any big guy in the league. They just try to physically come and knock you on your keester. It’s gonna be a physical, inside game. They run the floor, their active, they’re very skilled. They have a nice young team, very talented team. I think by the end of the ye ar, they’ll be one of the top teams in the West.”
That’s high praise but not at all off base given how open the bottom end of the West playoff bracket feels. Assuming, of course, the Nuggets don’t pivot and push their timeline back just a little bit at some point. Regardless, here on Halloween, it’s a great test.
The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. on Sportsnet One and TSN 1050.
As a side note, tonight was originally supposed to be the debut of the Raptors’ new Huskies alternate, but that’s been pushed back to Nov. 12. That makes sense, given the game that night is against the Knicks, against whom the Huskies opener the inaugural BAA season in 1946 (a predecessor of the NBA), but the team is claiming the change was made due to “logistical reasons.” The smart money is on that having something to do with the new court design that’s coming.
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To help set the stage, I reached out to Adam Mares of Denver Stiffs (and a teammate of mine at Vice), surely as he donned his usual black hat. Or a Blue Bombers jersey, whatever that is.
Blake Murphy: Jamal Murray didn’t exactly hit the ground running in his NBA debut – he has one point in 25 minutes over two games – but he had a mostly solid preseason and a strong Summer League showing. How excited are Nuggets fans for my area code-mate, and how big a role does he figure to play when Gary Harris is healthy?
Adam Mares: Nuggets fans are very excited for Murray. The Nuggets have a lot of great young talent but most of that talent is of the solid #2 or #2 option type. Murray’s best skills are shooting and scoring so he certainly seems to fit a big need on the roster and on the young core of the roster. It’ll be hard for him to beak into the rotation this season since Emmaneul Mudiay, Gary Harris, Will Barton, and Jameer Nelson are all ahead of him on the depth chart but I’d look for him to earn more minutes at point guard as the season progresses.
Blake Murphy: The Nuggets are somewhat surprisingly rolling with a Nikola Jokic-Jusuf Nurkic frontcourt pairing that threatens to pose a major problem for smaller, less physical teams. How’s that experiment going through two games (the Nuggets rank first in defensive rebounding and fourth on the offensive glass), and do you see it lasting the season?
Adam Mares: The experiment has very mixed results. It is a net negative overall through two games but the biggest problem with it from my perspective is that it messes with the bench rotation behind it. Jokic looks like he is much more comfortable as a center than as a power forward and most of the team’s best lineups will feature him at center. At 280 lbs, Nurkic is clearly a center. There is room to play both of those guys together but I think it makes a lot more sense to stagger most of their minutes while mixing in short 3-5 minute stretches where they overlap. Malone has yet to find the proper balance and has even played Kenneth Faried at center for heavy minutes through two games.
Blake Murphy: The Jokic-Nurkic duo means Kenneth Faried is coming off the bench. Is this finally the year the team moves on from him?
Adam Mares: I think that is still very likely, although Faried has been great off of the bench for Denver. His skill set makes him more of a bench type player than a starter, so I think he can have a lot of value for the Nuggets as a 6th man. However, with Darrell Arthur set to return any game now and Juancho Hernangomez looking like a solid stretch four prospect, the Nuggets might still be interested in moving on from Faried. Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler are also great options at power forward so Faried is probably expendable.
Blake Murphy: Not to keep banging the trade drum in October, but please sell me Danilo Gallinari. Realistically, is there any chance he hits the market this year? What kind of package would the Nuggets be looking for if he does?
Adam Mares: The time to trade Gallo would’ve been last year. Now he has the option to become a free agent so I’m not sure how hot the market will be for him. However, if the Warriors and Cavs don’t look like runaway favorites come February, teams might be willing to go all-in and risk Gallo being a rental just because he is the type of piece that can get a good team over the hump. He’s a super efficient player, one of the best in the league at getting to the line, and fits into a wide variety of lineups and styles of play. He’d be an incredible 3rd or 4th option on a good team and teams like Boston and the Clippers have been rumored to have a lot of interest in him in years past.
Blake Murphy: Have you been encouraged by Emmanuel Muiday’s progress through a year and change? I’m still really high on him, despite some struggles from the floor and with turnovers.
Adam Mares: I also still really like Mudiay’s upside, but he certainly has some glaring holes in his game, namely shooting and turnovers. But those holes seem to be compounded by the fact that he is playing so many minutes with very sub-optimal lineups. He is great at getting into the paint and in transition. Playing alongside two centers crowds his driving lanes and forces him to play more of a perimeter game. I think once Malone and the coaching staff realizes that he can thrive alongside small-ball lineups and lineups with only one center, he’ll turn a corner and really show signs of what makes him such an interesting prospect.
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Raptors updates
Jared Sullinger and Delon Wright remain sidelined long-term, and Lucas Nogueira’s status remains up in the air. It’s been nearly two weeks since Nogueira sprained his ankle, so it wouldn’t be shocking if he’s back here, but my money is on Wednesday, or even Friday. He was still spending ample time rehabbing in the trainer’s room as recently as yesterday’s practice
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, Terrence Ross
PF: Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam, Bruno Caboclo
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl
INJ: Delon Wright, Jared Sullinger, Lucas Nogueira (TBD)
If Nogueira doesn’t go, there’s heavy pressure on rookies Siakam and Poeltl to match Denver’s intense physicality. If and when the Nuggets go smaller, the Raptors may have an opportunity to match smaller with Carroll at the four opposite Gallinari or Chandler. That could #FreeNorm (guys, it’s way too early for that), or at least unlock some of the fun, small looks the Raptors have had success with in the past. There’s no doing that with Jokic at the four, mind you, and I wouldn’t risk Patterson at the five opposite Faried…you could talk me into Siakam as a small five when Faried’s at the pivot, though.
There are a lot of fun wrinkles that could come out in this one.
Nuggets updates
Darrell Arthur (knee) and Gary Harris (groin) both sat out Saturday and are yet to play this season. Arthur is considered doubtful, while Harris is questionable. No Harris would mean Canadian rookie Jamal Murray stays in the rotation, which looks fine given his performance so far but whom Cory Joseph would be keeping an eye on. 519 stand up.
“The preseason game we played him he played really good, especially down the stretch of the game. He’s getting a little bit more adjusted to the NBA game and I feel like as he gets more adjusted people will see the talented kid that he is,” Joseph said Sunday. “Hopefully he’s not that talented tomorrow.”
PG: Emmanuel Mudiay, Jameer Nelson
SG: Will Barton, Jamal Murray, Malik Beasley
SF: Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Mike Miller
PF: Nikola Kokic, Juan Hernangomez
C: Jusuf Nurkic, Kenneth Faried
INJ: Gary Harris (TBD), Darrell Arthur (TBD)
The line
The Raptors are seven-point favorites, which maybe seems a bit steep. This should be a really tough matchup, and the Nuggets don’t leave a lot of room for error. The Raptors have a major edge in guard play, and if Valanciunas can use his quickness advantage to get to Nurkic in transition and early in sets, he could tilt the frontcourt battle back Toronto’s way, too. The rookies have really responded well through two games, and if Nogueira’s out once again, there’s a lot being asked of them (not to mention a chance for Poeltl to continue running with Nogueira’s job). There are a lot of ways this one could go, and I think the Raptors will do enough to stand the test and lock it down late.
Raptors 101, Nuggets 97
