I am one of the Nuggets fans that believes that Michael Malone is a major problem with this team and should most likely be fired at the end of the season. I'm not going to go into all the details about why I don't like him and/or think he's the right guy. I am going to address why calling plays and/or the type of plays Malone is calling are currently hurting the team, most likely cost us our playoff spot and hurt our offense and Jokic.

Every coach calls plays. It's part of the game. We even ran some plays in February. The biggest issue with Malone right now is before tonight he was specifically calling plays for Millsap. Mostly getting him the ball in the mid-post and having him isolate. It rarely worked because that's not who Millsap is nor has it ever been. Malone admitted to this pre-game today. Said he thought we needed to slow our pace down and get Millsap the ball where he is most effective. This made no sense to me because Millsap is a player who is exactly like Jokic. You don't force him the ball. He finds ways to score without having plays called for him. They just come naturally through the offense. It's why when we signed him everyone thought it was such a great fit. He doesn't need the ball to be effective and he's a great defender. Malone doesn't realize this for some reason and is forcing/wanting Millsap to be a guy he's never been aka a guy you throw the ball to in the post and ask him to score for you. On the season before the last 2 games he was averaging 0.73 points per post up aka a 73 ORTG. Compare that to the Jokic-ball, free flowing ORTG that is 110+ and a top 5 offense last and this year. On to Jokic/play calls.

Tonight we ran a decent amount of plays and a lot of them worked. Jokic was fed the ball in the post and he scored basically at will. His stat line was great and he basically dominated the game from a scoring perspective. This all stems from Jokic being "passive" and not "aggressive" and these play calls were a way to get Jokic playing "aggressive."

This is one of the biggest reasons why I honestly believe Malone either doesn't understand and/or appreciate Jokics game. Jokic scoring every time in the post is not what makes him special. What we did in February is what makes him special and what makes this offense elite. The way that this roster was built, Jokic was basically going to be our de-facto playmaker. He was going to get guys in rhythm, get them the ball in their spots and score naturally through the offense in rhythm. I don't believe Millsap has the ego where he'd flat out refuse to play most of his time in the short corner and the corner/wing if it meant winning. Millsap said himself he wanted to come back and not mess things up. He watched the offense, he saw how incredible it was.

We saw this playmaking in February. Jokic was initiating basically every possession. He was the focal point. He wasn't forcing shots. He wasn't getting plays ran for him. Yet he still was averaging 20 points a night with 9.5 assists. He was having triple doubles on a basically nightly basis. The Nuggets went 9-3 and we got great games from all different guys (Murray early Feb, Harris, Barton, WC) etc.

So basically what Malone has now done by forcing the ball to Jokic and/or Millsap to an extent in the post is he's changed the entire offense around again. The biggest issue being that the Nuggets don't have anyone that can make plays for others when they're using Jokic to be "aggressive" and score. We're basically running an offense without a point guard/playmaker now as we all know Murray is not that type of PG. It's why everyone views him as a great fit to Jokic as well because he just needs to be a catch and shoot/take guys off the dribble and finish guy. Combine that with some Jokic high PnR and you have a great player.

So ultimately, when you force Jokic to be a post scorer and a post scorer only (outside of a few DHOs tonight, basically what Jokic was) the other guys have a very hard time getting in rhythm and getting the ball in their spots. It's a big reason why G, Barton and WC struggled tonight. Guys can't get in rhythm because Jokic isn't getting them the ball in their spots and 99% of the plays being called are for Jokic/Millsap post isolations. Most of the guys on the team need that because they're better off the ball/catch and shoot rather than creating their own shot.

Aggressive is always going to be the wrong word for Jokic. Engaged is the correct term to use. When Jokic is engaged, the Nuggets offense looks great, the ball moves, guys cut and the open man is always found. When he's aggressive, he has the ability to score at will but ultimately have a lesser effect on the game and the team's chances of winning. It's probably too late to save the offense at this point but it is what it is. Malone has 17 games and we'll get some changes most likely. #1 priority has to be finding a coach to coach to Jokic and the rest of the teams strengths while also hiding their weaknesses. Malone has failed at both IMO. (taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/denvernuggets/comments/82wljm/the_ultimate_issue_with_malone_calling_plays/)