DeMar DeRozan’s fit with the Denver Nuggets is becoming harder to ignore.
In Denver’s 110-100 loss to the Houston Rockets, the offense leaned heavily on Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, who combined for 63 of the team’s 100 points. The rest of the group never really found a rhythm, and DeRozan was part of that problem. He finished with 7 points, the most by any Nuggets reserve, but it came on just 2-for-8 shooting and did little to lift an offense that looked sluggish after travel issues kept the team from leaving Mexico City on time the day before.
The bigger issue is that DeRozan’s struggles are now showing up in the numbers, not just the eye test. Denver is 5-4, and head coach David Adelman has a real adjustment to make with how he’s deploying his sixth man and supposed scoring punch off the bench.
DeRozan’s plus/minus in the game was -16, and his season net rating differential sits at -10.4 per 100 possessions. That’s over a meaningful sample: 191 minutes.
By contrast, the Nuggets have been +9.5 in the 246 minutes he hasn’t been on the floor. That gap means Denver is 19.9 points worse per 100 possessions with DeRozan out there.
The pairing with Jokic has been especially rough. When the two share the court, Denver’s net rating differential drops to -11.5 across 110 minutes, and the offense falls all the way to a 105.7 rating. That’s a massive drop from last season’s league-best 121.2 mark.
Not all of Denver’s issues can be pinned on DeRozan. Aaron Gordon hasn’t looked like himself, and Christian Braun and Cameron Johnson have both been inconsistent.
Still, the fit is awkward when DeRozan is dribbling into the elbow while Jokic is on the nail drawing extra attention. That kind of spacing is hard to survive.
And because DeRozan isn’t a three-point threat, the corner isn’t much of a solution either. From there, the defense can sit on the obvious options: a contested jumper or a drive into traffic that’s already been loaded up against him.
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