Joker of the second unit

Vlatko Cancar takes the time-tested custom of effusive pre-season reward to new extremes. Even his coach needs him to pump breaks.

Because the Nuggets formally welcomed Dario Saric to the health club this month, his new teammates beamed on the potential of his versatility. Nevertheless it was Cancar’s prediction about him that discovered the strongest echo.

“We simply have to search out the appropriate system for him right here and match him nicely on the second unit,” Cancar mentioned. “As a result of I am fairly certain he’ll be the Joker of the second unit.”

Michael Malone want to respectfully interject.

“Properly, there is just one Nikola (Jokic). So I’d by no means say we have now a second unit Nikola until Nikola performs with the second unit,” the Tenth-year coach mentioned with fun. “As a three-time MVP.”

Saric himself has reservations concerning the comparability. Chatting with reporters lately about the potential of sharing the ground with Jokic, he described the duo with self-conscious specificity: “I will play in opposition to him. …I feel I’ve a stable IQ. He has a excessive IQ.

Why this distinction between “stable” and “excessive” IQ?

“I imply, he’s excessive,” Saric mentioned with fun. “I can’t get entangled in his dialog.”

Even when the ambition is clearly extreme, Cancar’s remark kind of displays the stylistic imaginative and prescient that Denver has for its new huge alternative. Saric could also be crucial instrument Malone has off the bench this season, however his arrival in Denver has been at a curiously low quantity. He was the Nuggets’ most costly acquisition in free company this summer time, with a $10.6 million dedication over the following two seasons. Exterior hype merely doesn’t correlate with inner valuation.

It is fairly simple to grasp why. Russell Westbrook is a extra prolific and polarizing newcomerAnd his standing as a revered teammate instantly attracted consideration at coaching camp. Saric offers an applicable steadiness to this character, making him a optimistic addition to group chemistry in different methods. He and Jokic are shut buddies, for instance. Once they performed for various groups, they met sometimes for dinner and frolicked collectively when Saric was in Colorado for video games.

The Balkan roots of the Denver roster have strengthened. Saric provides Croatian illustration, becoming a member of Serbia (Jokic) and Slovenia (Cancar). And as this area turns into an increasing number of part of the Nuggets’ id, so does the corresponding basketball dogma.

“I feel in America you’ve gamers with a excessive IQ. However that is the way you be taught to play basketball. It’s all the time, “How am I going to cheat on you?” “, Saric mentioned. “That is not how I will be sooner than you, or how I will deal with you. It is extra (targeted on) how I will cheat on you. …That’s how we be taught. I feel we play extra group basketball as a result of often we have now golf equipment, so (within the) golf equipment, all 12 guys know easy methods to play somewhat little bit of the identical type, and everybody matches in collectively. one way or the other on the group.

“However within the States, it is extra like you’ve just a few guys on the group who’re going to get the ball and go to work and that sort of factor. So it is somewhat totally different. However clearly in the USA you’ve… one-on-one gamers who’re simply unimaginable, actually arduous to protect one-on-ones. So it is extra like one-on-one basketball right here. It is extra like, as an example, 5 to 5 there.

How does Saric match into the five-on-five puzzle for Denver? That is the place the keenness of the teammates comes from. Malone ought to be capable to have some enjoyable experimenting with totally different lineup setups, utilizing Saric at a number of positions to focus on totally different elements of his sport.

“I feel backup 5, backup 4, can play with Nikola at instances, little question,” Malone mentioned. “If we go huge, play it with a man like DeAndre Jordan. … What you want about Dario is he is been a three-man, a four-man, and later in his NBA profession he is been a backup 5, a small-ball 5. Very competent. Can deal with it. Can move. Can shoot. Larger than folks assume. Robust, bodily. I am excited to discover all of the choices Dario will give us.

Most likely probably the most important of those choices is backup middle, a perpetual void that the Nuggets have sought to fill all through Jokic’s profession. This is not Saric’s pure place, but it surely’s one he is grown into with age.

The offensive adjustment is simple to think about, as Cancar identified. Saric can act as a hub, like Jokic, making performs from the submit or exploiting mismatches as a screener. If Michael Porter Jr. falters in these four-man lineups, or with Cancar applied, the Nuggets can attempt taking part in five-man with their second unit.

“He made issues actually troublesome for us final yr. It’s arduous to select on him in case you’re small, and if a giant one is on him, he can decide and bounce, which makes it troublesome as nicely,” Christian Braun mentioned. “He made quite a lot of pick-and-pop photographs (in coaching camp). … Simply taking part in in opposition to him, I understand how arduous it’s to transition to a smaller man. And even guys my dimension. He’s robust. He can play the place.

The defensive adjustment is trickier. Saric may wrestle to protect taller, extra conventional facilities, and the Nuggets may danger dropping a second likelihood with no dependable rebounding huge. It was already a second unit drawback final season when Malone used Zeke Nnaji because the 5. The hope is likely to be that Westbrook can fill a few of the rebounding hole and Peyton Watson can present rim safety in these lineups. However that sacrifices taking pictures and spacing on the opposite finish. Most choices contain give and take.

If Saric performs quite a lot of backup fours, Jordan may discover his means again into the rotation, as Malone has hinted. This setup would doubtless contain quite a lot of pick-and-roll between veterans Westbrook and Jordan to deliver Russ down as creator. A stretch of 4 would appear vital. Saric is absolutely able to being positioned farther from the basket if he isn’t a part of the preliminary motion. He was 38.1% on catch-and-shoot 3s with the Warriors final season.

His recognizing sport can in fact be a weapon in Jokic’s lineups. However the Nuggets additionally used Jokic’s deadly floater sport to show the dunker spot right into a haven for energy forwards — a defining facet of their championship-winning offense. That, too, Saric is keen to discover if he slots in subsequent to Jokic whereas Aaron Gordon staggers.