The Nuggets wrapped preseason on Friday night with an impressive win over the Lakers, their best performance in what was essentially their dress rehearsal.
Overall the takeaways have to be positive. The emergence of Julian Strawther before his knee sprain (out 6 weeks) and Trevon Brazile bring excitement, and under the radar, Alpha Diallo is a player who is going to have a massive impact this year. More on him later this week before the opener.
The defensive principles for Denver are still a work in progress; in particular the Nuggets’ starters struggled to execute the crash-and-stall scheme that has them crashing the glass and then pressing the ballhandler to slow down transition attack, though I think Christian Braun showed good process in it.
The offense remains elite, Joker is in a good place, and the bench looks considerably better than expected given its ragtag, minimums, second-rounders, and European transfers.
Preseason is messy and often a liar, but there are solid takeaways to at least layer contextually on season expectations.
Here’s a look at each Denver Nugget from preseason and a five-star review of their performance relative to my preseason expectations.
