With the NBA on hiatus for at least 30 days, I'll be coping by posting an article every day with 30 random/interesting facts from each of the 30 teams. Hopefully, the season will resume when I hit publish on the Wizards' article.
Day Eight:
Denver Nuggets
Stats are mostly from Cleaning the Glass, but also RotoWire, NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.
- For bigs, Nikola Jokic is in the 98th percentile in terms of usage (28.8%) and in the 100th percentile in terms of both assist rate (34.5%) and assist-to-usage ratio (1.2).
- In terms of total production, Nikola Jokic is the third-best fantasy player in eight-category formats.
- Nikola Jokic is 173-of-308 (56%) on short mid-range jumpers, ranking in the 96th percentile for big men.
- Nikola Jokic draws a non-shooting foul on 4.5% of team plays, ranking in the 100th percentile for bigs.
- Monte Morris is in the 100th percentile in terms of turnover percentage (7.6%) for point guards.
- Mason Plumlee ranks in the 96th percentile for bigs in terms of assist rate (20.3%) and in the 99th percentile for assist-to-usage ratio (1.09).
- Mason Plumlee is just 23% (10-for-44) on short mid-rangers, ranking in the eighth percentile for bigs.
- Mason Plumlee is fouled on 20.5% of his shot attempts, ranking in the 93rd percentile for bigs.
- Both Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic are in the 90th-plus percentile for their position in long mid-range jumper frequency. Murray takes 24% of his shots from that distance, while Jokic takes 16%.
- Jamal Murray draws a non-shooting foul on 2.2% of team plays, ranking in the 92nd percentile for combo guards.
- Both Torrey Craig and Monte Morris are in the 90th-plus percentile in shooting efficiency at the rim for their positions. Craig is 51-of-70 (73%) while Morris is 70-of-104 (67%).
- Both Torrey Craig and Michael Porter are in the 90th-plus percentile in block percentage for their respective positions. Craig is at 1.9%, while Porter is at 1.6%. They're also both in the 95th-plus percentile in offensive rebounding rate off field goals, with Porter at 7.8% and Craig at 5.6%. In addition, Porter is in the 100th percentile in defensive field-goal rebounding rate (20.5%).
- When Michael Porter is on the court, the Nuggets allow 6.6 more points per 100 halfcourt possessions, which is in the eighth percentile.
- Both Paul Millsap and Jerami Grant are shooting above 40% on non-corner threes. Millsap is at 45% (33-of-74) while Grant is at 41% (58-of-138).
- Paul Millsap has the highest net rating (+12.5) on the Nuggets of all players who have seen at least 200 minutes.
- Jerami Grant averages only 4.9 rebounds per 36 minutes.
- Jerami Grant has the lowest net rating (-12.8) of all Nuggets players with 200+ minutes played.
- Gary Harris is just 37-of-137 (27%) on non-corner threes.
- The Nuggets' best lineup that has seen at least 100 possessions has a +33.4 net rating. It contains Monte Morris, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic. The worst lineup is -22.0 and contains Monte Morris, Will Barton, Michael Porter, Jerami Grant and Mason Plumlee.
- Nuggets small-ball lineups -- no Paul Millsap, Mason Plumlee, Nikola Jokic, Noah Vonleh -- have a -8.4 net rating in a 249-possession sample.
- Nuggets big-ball lineups -- Mason Plumlee and Nikola Jokic on the court -- have a +21.5 net rating.
- Denver has 4.4 more wins than expected compared to their point differential -- the largest discrepancy in the league.
- At home, against bottom-10 point differential teams, the Nuggets have the second-worst spread differential (-7.0).
- Since the All-Star break, Denver has the second-worst spread differential (-8.2).
- Denver is the third-best offensive rebounding team in the league (27.9%).
- Since the break, Denver has the best effective field-goal percentage (57.2%), but the third-worst turnover rate (16.5%) and the second-worst free-throw rate (17.2 made free throws per 100 field-goal attempts).
- Denver shoots the fifth-most mid-rangers as a percentage of attempts (33.9%).
- The Nuggets' long mid-range jumper accuracy (46.1%) is the third highest in the NBA.
- Denver is the third-best defense against both mid-range jumpers (38.1%) and three-pointers (34.7%).
- The Nuggets are the least efficient transition team in the league, scoring just 115.7 points per 100 transition plays.