Why Denver Needs a true Point Guard: As fans rejected

What is the purpose of a point guard? For many teams that’s an easy answer, but for the Denver Nuggets the answer to that question is different than most. The preseason games in Abu Dhabi showed one thing very clearly: the Nuggets only have two lead guards on the roster.

Jamal Murray looked good for most of his court time,

certainly healthier and more active than he looked for Team Canada in the Olympics,

and the sigh of relief from fans was audible up and down the Front Range.

Russell Westbrook also looked good in his minutes in the first game,

pushing the pace and leading the team in assists –

while Game 2 laid out in stark relief how the Nuggets do not have depth behind those two.

Which of course brings up the question – why are they trying so hard to make it happen?

Jalen Pickett was given the point guard role for much of the game,

an unfair measuring stick considering Denver did not play four rotation players: Russ, Aaron Gordon, Peyton Watson and Michael Porter Jr. While trying to survive deep bench minutes – and with the Celtics playing some starters into the third quarter while Denver did not – those minutes quickly got away from Pickett.

The problem for him, of course, is that he’ll be playing against real rotation players in the regular season too, not the scrubs who also lit up Denver’s bench players without mercy. The Celtics are an incredibly deep team, but that just highlighted that Denver is not.

Trey Alexander, Denver’s two-way signee after he went undrafted this year,

has the easiest job in basketball: 4th point guard. In football it’s being the backup quarterback,

who will never have to get into a game, and similarly in basketball the odds that you will be called upon to actually run the offense as a fourth lead guard in significant minutes are slim to none.

The Nuggets played him almost entirely off-ball in the second preseason game, getting a look at his wing defense against shooting guards and his ability to move without the ball.

He’s still better with the ball in his hand, but if an injury takes Russ or Jamal out of the lineup then Denver’s point guard solutions account for 122 combined minutes in the League.

That’s not a strong base to work from when trying to patch a hole Denver absolutely

knows will need to be patched at some point this year.

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