![]() In the 2018-19 season, Jokić and the Nuggets happily learned how to putt, playing good defense for the first time in the Malone era. It was disappointing, but the Nuggets knew they had something special in Jokić, who produced 35 points in the overtime loss and showed up big time in the highest pressure environment of his career. Denver won 46 games that year, losing to Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the final game of the season to be eliminated from playoff contention. During the 2017-18 season, Paul Millsap was brought into the fold and helped the Nuggets young players grow up. Over the course of the next three seasons though, Jokić helped to put those fears to rest. Had the Nuggets chosen wrong? Was Nurkić about to become the better player? Nuggets fans remained happy with Denver’s choice in Jokić for a number of reasons, but there was still some inkling of doubt at that point. To close the 2016-17 season, the Nuggets won 40 games, eliminated by Nurkić and the Blazers in one of the final matchups of the season. The Nuggets also benched Mudiay, starting Jameer Nelson in his place and later moving onto Jamal Murray, trusting in his development. That incited a rivalry during the last six years and has potential to reignite as the Blazers have improved again. The Nuggets benched Nurkić, who didn’t take the demotion well, and later traded the Bosnian center to the Portland Trail Blazers. Six years is a short time for some and a long time for others, but in the span of Jokić’s career, many can remember those early moments like they were yesterday. This day six years ago is a reminder of how quickly life can progress and how dependent fandom can be. The Nuggets won the game, playing a read-and-react style highlighting Jokić’s strengths as a passer and playmaker. On the 26th game, December 15th, 2016, the Nuggets switched their lineup with Jokić for the final time. There was a trend beginning to form that the Nuggets were winning Jokić’s minutes even in losses, so much so that the Nuggets had to revisit their starting lineup plans 25 games into the season. The Nuggets went 7-11 in their next 18 games, culminating in an embarrassing blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks that saw Jokić play well from the bench. Faried and Nurkić started next to each other, and with Mudiay as the lead point guard in just his second season, there wasn’t much hope for a functional starting lineup. ![]() Things didn’t change much for the next 18 games. Prior to the eighth game of the season, Jokić approached Malone and offered to come off the bench, stepping aside for Nurkić in the hope that a more traditional lineup would lead to wins. ![]() Seven games in, the Nuggets had a 2-5 record, losing because their starting lineup wasn’t good enough. There would be some staggering involved to give each player their individual shine, but it was clear from the get-go that the experiment wasn’t going well. Ultimately, Malone decided to start both of his talented centers, Jokić and Nurkić, at the same time, sending longtime starting power forward Kenneth Faried to the bench. It was clear that the Nuggets were doing a good job of amassing talented young players, but there was very little order behind the established veterans on the team, and the Nuggets still had no idea how they were going to make it work. The following year, Jamal Murray, Juancho Hernangomez, and Malik Beasley were selected in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft. Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and Kenneth Faried were still the main pieces of the team, while young players like Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Nikola Jokić, and Jusuf Nurkić were receiving opportunities to develop in a low-pressure environment. The Denver Nuggets won 33 years that year, a three-game improvement on the final season of Brian Shaw. Now ask your partner to read a sentence out loud while you try and act out the punctuation.The 2015-16 season was Michael Malone’s first year on the job. Read and act three sentences before swapping with your partner. Now read it again, while acting out the punctuation as you read. Pair up with the article between you and stand up to make it easy to demonstrate your Kung Fu punctuation. List at least five reasons why you think it is an impressive sporting feat. ![]() Write a letter to Jack White expressing your congratulations and explaining why you admire his achievement to become one of only seven Australians to win an NBA championship. Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity Once you have located this information in the article, use it to write a paragraph that summarises the article. Read the article carefully to locate who and what this article is about, and where, when, why and how this is happening. Use the 5W & H model to help you find the key points of this article. It does not usually include extra detail or elaborate on the main points. A summary is a brief statement of the main points of something.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |