HOUSTON — Nuggets coach George Karl “can’t deny” he has pondered putting J.R. Smith in the starting lineup. But things are going well for the first-place Nuggets, so if it ain’t broke, don’t jinx it.
“I think Dahntay (Jones) has gotten in a little bit of a groove as a starter,” Karl said.
Jones starts at shooting guard despite being Denver’s eighth-best scorer, primarily because he is a defensive weapon who often rattles the opposition’s best guard or forward. Karl, like many other coaches in the league, believes starting is overrated. It’s who plays in the fourth quarter that matters most.
But Karl did enjoy watching Smith play with starting point guard Chauncey Billups in Monday’s victory at Dallas, where Smith often hit shots off the pick-and-roll. After Tuesday night’s game at Houston, Smith has 16 double-digit scoring games, second-most among NBA players who haven’t started a game.
“The only thing is, you don’t know how J.R. would play with Chauncey,” Karl said. “The one thing I see in Chauncey is he’s had Rip Hamilton coming off screens all these years, and (with J.R. at Dallas), that was very effective. The minutes I’m giving J.R., how many of those with Chauncey right now are minimal, so (maybe it’s) switching the personality of the game.”
Karl also talked about wanting to play 6-foot-8 reserve Renaldo Balkman more often, possibly stealing five minutes a game at small forward, but Karl said that probably won’t happen until January or February.
As for starting lineups, Karl said it would be “a truly unique team” that put out a lineup based strictly on matchups and not overall talent, “because I don’t know what ego would let that happen. Even 12-year veterans have a little desire to start.”
In a way, though, that’s what Denver does with Jones in there. And so far, it’s working.
