Two weeks into the season, and there are rumblings about the Nuggets’ lack of production from shooting guards.
Two things:
One, I hear you.
Two, simply singling out shooting guard is not exactly the issue.
Earlier in the week, ESPN ranked the top 30 shooting guards in the NBA. Nothing wrong at the top: James Harden, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Bradley Beal.
And then…
Dwyane Wade, Khris Middleton, Wesley Matthews, Danny Green. So, before we even get to the end of the top 10, we have a player in the twilight of his career — albeit playing great to start the season, one averaging just 14.7 points per game going into Saturday night, one still working back from Achilles surgery … and Danny Green.
The role of shooting guard has changed the most over the years. It used to always house a team’s deadliest offensive player. Not anymore. Now it can be as offensive or defensive as you want it to be. When the Nuggets advanced to the 2009 Western Conference finals, Dahntay Jones was the starting shooting guard. He averaged 5.4 points per game.
When he’s healthy, Cleveland starts defensive specialist Iman Shumpert at shooting guard. Oklahoma City starts former CU star Andre Roberson at two-guard, and while he’s a defensive dynamo, he’s not a big scorer. Small forward Green is a defensive specialist, not a player the Spurs lean on to get them 20 a night.
Gary Harris is at the beginning of a complicated process. His best skill is his defense, and because of that his first task is to be the Nuggets’ primary perimeter defender.
Here is a list of some players he’s had to try and stop early this season: James Harden, Andrew Wiggins, Russell Westbrook and Klay Thompson. In those games, he scored five, four, seven and 16 points, lending more evidence to the fact that chasing around some of the NBA’s elite while finding the energy to make shots on the other end is difficult.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich discussed this very subject about his own star, Kawhi Leonard, to reporters in a recent pregame news conference.
“There aren’t too many guys in the league who can excel at both ends,” Popovich said. “They’re good players, but they’re mostly offensive. … You think about the best players in the league, they’re not two-way players.”
And Harris is doing all of this while learning what it is to be the starting guy, playing about 25 minutes per game.
It’s going to take some time.
The Nuggets don’t necessarily need production from a specific spot. They just need anyone else on the perimeter to be a consistent source of points alongside Danilo Gallinari.
And that’s generally how it works in the NBA. Doesn’t matter where the points come from, just that they are there and that they are consistently there. Teams need things — shooters; a player who can score from anywhere on the court and make plays late in the shot clock or when the offense gets stagnant; guys who can break a defense down, get to the rim and finish; post-up guys. Where they are on court isn’t as big a deal as actually having them.
This is where the Nuggets are offensively: still figuring things out and very much missing the attributes injured players Wilson Chandler and Jusuf Nurkic can provide. Harris should be pressed to improve, and he will as the season wears on. At the end of it all, a thorough evaluation can be made.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
Spotlight on …
Stephen Curry, PG, Golden State
When: Off to one of the hottest starts by any player in NBA history, Golden State’s Stephen Curry is The Post’s player of the week.
What’s up: Curry was brilliant in his past four games, averaging 37.0 points, 6.5 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 2.8 steals. He shot 57.3 percent from the field and a scorching 55.1 percent from 3-point range — while averaging 12.3 attempts per game from long range.
Background: The Nuggets got their first taste of regular-season Curry. He merely scored 34 points against them, three under his average for the week. Curry has made at least one 3-pointer in 79 consecutive games, matching former Nugget Michael Adams. Curry has scored at least 30 points in five of the six games he has played, the first to do that at Golden State since Rick Barry back in the 1974-75 season.
Dempsey’s take: When you watch him, it’s hard to believe Curry is a real player. He’s ridiculously accurate, with a lightning-quick release. Most impressive is many times during a game, Curry takes the kinds of difficult shots defenses actually want an offensive player to attempt, whether it’s from long distance or a difficult angle. He just makes them all. And while that is extremely frustrating for defenses to deal with, it’s also immensely fun to watch. He’s the best show in the NBA by far, and he doesn’t need to dunk to be that.
