ATLANTA — Nuggets coach Brian Shaw is leaning toward carving out a bigger role for Timofey Mozgov, but the 7-foot center has to keep himself on the court to make it happen.
“We may need to go to him a little bit more, in post-up situations,” Shaw said. “Right now, we’re just kind of using him in pick-and-roll situations and he’s just kind of eating off that. But when we have thrown the ball to him in the post, he’s done a pretty good job of scoring at a good rate. We may have to look at doing that a little bit more.”
But to do that, Mozgov has to be there. He’s among the NBA leaders in fouls committed — averaging 3.4 per game — and many of those come early in games. That takes him off the court before he can get going.
Mozgov is averaging 25 minutes of playing time per game. He had 14 points, 11 rebounds and five fouls Sunday.
“A lot of his fouls come from trying to protect everybody else,” Shaw said.
For starters, please help. The Nuggets’ performance at point guard wasn’t good Sunday. Shaw wasn’t able to rely on a few of his reserves, something that has been a problem this season.
Backup point guard Nate Robinson didn’t play because of a neck injury. Also, forward Kenneth Faried was out with a back injury. Faried said he “got hit and fell” in practice Saturday.
“Everybody has to do their job and play their part,” Shaw said. “And it’s unfair to have to have to rely on (the starters) to try to play a 48-minute game. Sometimes I feel like I can’t take them out, and I know that I have to. I just want us to be able to hold (teams) off while they get their rest. I try to use timeouts to get them their rest as well. But we’ve just got to get a better effort collectively from the rest of the guys.”
