But the quieter reason this team finally feels deep enough to win the West isn’t the hot start of Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon playing like a star; I am Jonas Valančiūnas.
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Yes, the same JV that almost played in Europe this summer. The same joint venture that was negotiated twice in six months. The 33-year-old Lithuanian averages just 11.9 minutes per game, but has become the most significant improvement on Denver’s roster this season. JV so far is averaging 8.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 55/33/72 splits.
The great curse of backups is dead
Do you remember last year’s playoffs? When Jokić sat down, the Nuggets were destroyed against the glass and the offense turned to mud. Jokić’s non-jokić minutes were a -4.5 net rating disaster in the regular season and even worse in the Minnesota series. Aside from DeAndre Jordan, Zeke Nnaji and Dario Šarić, none of them were able to provide useful minutes to boost the bench.
This year? Non-Jokić minutes have a net rating of +4.1. That +9.3 swing is one of the most significant bench improvements in the league. Valančiūnas is absolutely right. In his 155 minutes on the bench so far, Denver is +25 points. That’s the best mark of any Nuggets reserve. That’s precisely what the board saw when they traded Šarić for him in July (a move that almost fell through when JV flirted with Panathinaikos).
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He does the dirty work so Jokić doesn’t have to
JV is not here to shoot threes or take advantage of the fast break. It’s here to do three things exceptionally well. Set monster screens, vacuum yf reboundsfinish everything on the edge
He does them all at an elite level in limited minutes. Denver’s offensive rebound rate jumps from 24.8% to 29.1% when Valančiūnas is on the court. That’s a top-5 mark in the entire league in those minutes. Opponents’ points in the paint drop approximately 14% when he plays backup center minutes.
The most important thing is that Jokić plays 33.8 minutes per game instead of 36-38 like last year. It may not seem like much, but in April and May it will feel huge. David Adelman said it best after figuring out how to both work together.
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“Jonas gives us a pro who doesn’t need touches to impact victory. He just hits, bounces, and keeps the train moving when Nikola sits down. That’s gold.”
Twin Tower Alignments Are Really Working
Everyone assumed JV would only play when Jokić was rested. Mistaken.
Adelman has already used the Jokić-Valančiūnas first line for 42 minutes this season, and Denver is +22 in those minutes. That’s a net rating of +26.4 per 100 possessions.
Against Minnesota last week, the JV-Jokić pairing intimidated Gobert and Reid on the glass and dared the Wolves to shoot over them. It worked.
Having two elite post players allows Denver to go with a full lineup against big teams like the Timberwolves or Thunder, while maintaining space for Jokic, Hardaway and Gordon.
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Add in the fact that Cam Johnson is an elite 3-point shooter who simply hasn’t found his groove, but will surely shine later this year. In addition, Jamal Murray averages 23.1 points and Christian Braun is still looking for his opportunity. Suddenly, this Nuggets team became scarier than expected.
Why This Isn’t Sexy, But It’s Championship Equity
This is not the movement that broke the Internet. No Midnight Bomb Shams with six fire emojis. This is not a “welcome to Denver” promotional video aimed at Kendrick Lamar. Jonas Valančiūnas will not be part of the senior defense. It’s slow in space with some switches. He is 33 years old and on certain nights he shows it off every day. But he’s also shooting 60.6% at the rim, making Jokić’s kickoffs the easiest of his career, securing the paint when Jokić roams, and preventing the Nuggets from bleeding points the moment their best player sits down.
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Denver’s bench was a fire in last year’s playoffs. Right now, it’s a top-10 unit in the league. That trade is the difference between a great team that shines in the second round and a legitimate title favorite that can really close the deal.
Give credit to Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace; They came out and made a bold move that Calvin Booth probably wouldn’t make. In an offseason full of flashy trades and max contracts, he made the quietest, shrewdest, most old-school move imaginable: He traded a backup forward for a proven veteran big who fits perfectly into Jokić’s timeline. JV’s contract is no longer guaranteed after this season, so the Nuggets can keep him cheap, extend him, or trade him at the deadline for even more assets.
Flexibility in addition to fit. This is how you build a contender without even making headlines.
But right now? For the first time since that 2023 championship run, Denver finally has something it hasn’t had in two painful years: a backup center you can actually rely on for playoff minutes. A guy who lets Jokić breathe, who punishes smaller lineups, who kills off defensive rebounds instead of leaving them out for a second-chance slaughter. A guy who turns five-minute breathers into stretches to maintain leadership instead of here-comes-the-breakdown moments.
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Denver just went out and got meaner. Harder. More stubborn than a grown man.
Now, when the games slow down in May, when the air gets thinner and the bodies get heavy, that stubbornness will look an awful lot like inevitability. JV + Jokić is not a standout package. It’s a luxury most contenders never find: the ability to play their best player 33 minutes a night and still win those other 15 by double digits.
That’s not sexy. That’s a giant. And that might be the scariest part of this Nuggets team.
The post How Jonas Valančiūnas Is Fixing Denver’s Big Backup Problem appeared first on The Lead.