This offseason for the Denver Nuggets have been one of the biggest and best to date. We finally signed our superstar in Paul Millsap. We have emerging talent in Jamal Murray and Gary Harris. All the news from Serbia about Jokic's progress to becoming one of the league's best centers has been extremely positive. So it has been quite saddening to hear about how everyone has written off Emmanuel Mudiay as a failed project this offseason.
People like to point to the benching of Mudiay as evidence that the coaching staff has lost faith in him. However, what people fail to recognize is how he was demoted to that position in the first place. Back in February, Emmanuel Mudiay was the trusted starting point guard for the Nuggets as we fought for playoff contention before the All-Star break. He was having himself a decent season, nothing special, but nothing that raised major red flags. Then, Mudiay suffered a back injury that severely limited his play for the rest of the month and he was placed on the bench.
While Mudiay recovered from his injury, Jamal Murray and Jameer Nelson stepped up to fill the gap that Mudiay left. They both played well, Jameer with his consistent play and veteran presence and Jamal with his flashes of potential greatness. On top of this, the Nuggets began to play the best basketball of the season due to the post All-Star game breakout of Jokic. This storm of players stepping up mixed with the Nuggets contention for a playoff position kept Mudiay on the bench, even after he recovered.
Why? Because when you are trying to make the playoffs, you go with the hot hand. It's what you do. Had Nelson or Murray began playing poorly, Mudiay would have been right back in the rotation. However, to the benefit of everyone aside from Mudiay, Nelson and Murray continued their strong performance. So Mudiay had to sit.
When looking at Mudiay's stats, it shows that he actually continued his progress as an NBA player. Although his raw stats are down, this can be attributed to a loss of average minutes. His FG% increased by a percentage point. His FT% increased by 6%. His PER increased an entire point as well as his true shooting percentage. He also had a positive wins shared ratio. Looking at these advanced metrics, he did have a worse season than both Murray and Nelson, but not by much. Mudiay's PER was one point worse than Murray and .6 worse than Nelson. So despite being forced to the bench, he still had a comparable season to our main two guys.
So how do we move forward? I say we continue to do exactly what we have been doing. Force those three guys to compete with one another for minutes. Let the internal competition bring out the best in all of them. Plus, there is no law that states two of them cannot be on the court together at the same time. Murray has shown more than capable of being a shooting guard. Trying to trade Mudiay would simply put the Nuggets in a worse position than they are already in by thinning out our point guard position and likely getting a worse caliber player or pick for Mudiay. If we can't even value our own players, why would the market value them higher? Nelson is on his last legs as a player, so we need a guy like Mudiay who can work with Murray to became a strong point guard pair in the NBA. The best thing we can do for both Mudiay and the Nuggets is to allow him to fight for his minutes, and whoever wins their minutes between the three of them, will have the confidence and pride that comes with winning those minutes.
I am not arguing that Mudiay is the future star of the franchise or that he deserves more playing time. What I am arguing is that by giving up on him, we are hurting the future of the Nuggets. He has shown the ability to play, to improve, to lead and to build a positive team culture. Why throw all this upside away simply because an injury put him on the bench in crunch time?
