The Denver Nuggets are 10-3 so far this NBA Season. Nikola Jokić is putting up video-game numbers again, as he is averaging 29.2 points, 13.4 rebounds, and 11.1 assists on 64/39/86 shooting splits. Somehow, he manages to get better every year, and he’s on pace for another MVP.
But the quietest reason this team finally feels deep enough to win the West isn’t Jamal Murray’s hot start or Aaron Gordon playing like an all-star; it’s Jonas Valančiūnas.
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Yes, the same JV who was almost playing in Europe this summer. The same JV that got traded twice in six months. The 33-year-old Lithuanian is averaging only 11.9 minutes per game, yet he’s become the single most significant upgrade on Denver’s roster this season. JV so far is averaging 8.2 points, 4.7 Rebounds, and 1.2 assists on 55/33/72 splits.
The Backup Big Curse Is Dead
Remember last year’s playoffs? When Jokić sat, the Nuggets got destroyed on the glass, and the offense turned into mud. Non-Jokić minutes were a -4.5 net rating disaster in the regular season and even worse in the Minnesota series. Out of DeAndre Jordan, Zeke Nnaji, and Dario Šarić, none of them could provide serviceable minutes to boost the bench.
This year? Non-Jokić minutes are a +4.1 net rating. That +9.3 swing is one of the most significant bench improvements in the league. Valančiūnas is the entire reason. In his 155 bench minutes so far, Denver is +25 points. That’s the best mark of any Nuggets reserve. Those are precisely what the front office saw when they traded Šarić for him in July (a move that almost fell apart when JV flirted with Panathinaikos).
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He Does the Dirty Work So Jokić Doesn’t Have To
JV isn’t here to shoot threes or run the break. He’s here to do three things exceptionally well. Set monster screens, vacuum rebounds and finish everything at the rim
He does them all at an elite level in limited minutes. Denver’s offensive rebound rate jumps from 24.8% to 29.1% when Valančiūnas is on the floor. That’s a top-5 mark league-wide in those minutes. Opponents’ points in the paint drop by roughly 14% when he’s playing backup center minutes.
Most importantly, Jokić is playing 33.8 minutes per game instead of 36-38 like last year. That might not sound like much, but in April and May, it will feel huge. David Adelman said it best after figuring out how to work both of them together.
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“Jonas gives us a pro who doesn’t need touches to impact winning. He just bangs, rebounds, and keeps the train moving when Nikola sits. That’s gold.”
The Twin Towers Lineups Are Actually Working
Everyone assumed JV would only play when Jokić rested. Wrong.
Adelman has already used Jokić-Valančiūnas frontlines for 42 minutes this season, and Denver is +22 in those minutes. That’s a +26.4 net rating per 100 possessions.
Against Minnesota last week, the JV-Jokić pairing bullied Gobert and Reid on the glass and dared the Wolves to shoot over them. It worked.
Having two elite post players lets Denver go with a complete death lineup against big teams like the Timberwolves or the Thunder, while still maintaining spacing from Jokic, Hardaway, and Gordon.
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Add in the fact that Cam Johnson is an elite three-pointer shooter who just hasn’t found his rhythm, but is bound to bang later in the year. Also, Jamal Murray is averaging 23.1 points, and Christian Braun is still looking for his shot. All of a sudden, this Nuggets team became scarier than expected.
Why This Isn’t Sexy, But It’s Championship Equity
This isn’t the move that broke the internet. No midnight Shams bomb with six fire emojis. Not a “welcome to Denver” hype video set to Kendrick Lamar. Jonas Valančiūnas isn’t going to make All-Defense. He’s slow in space on some switches. He’s 33, and on certain nights he looks every day of it. But he’s also shooting 60.6% at the rim, turning Jokić kick-outs into the easiest bunnies of his career, anchoring the paint when Jokić roams, and keeping the Nuggets from bleeding points the second their best player sits.
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Denver’s bench was a tire fire in the playoffs last year. Right now, it’s a top-10 unit in the league. That swing is the difference between an excellent team that flames out in the second round and a legitimate title favorite that can actually close the deal.
Give Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace credit; they went out and made the daring move that Calvin Booth likely would not. In an offseason full of splashy trades and max contracts, he made the quietest, sneakiest, most old-school move imaginable: he traded a backup forward for a proven veteran big who perfectly fits the Jokić timeline. JV’s contract becomes non-guaranteed after this season, so the Nuggets can keep him cheap, extend him, or flip him at the deadline for even more assets.
Flexibility on top of fit. That’s how you build a contender without ever making the headline scroll.
But right now? For the first time since that 2023 championship run, Denver finally has something they haven’t had in two painful years: a backup center you can actually trust in playoff minutes. A guy who lets Jokić breathe, who punishes smaller lineups, who ends defensive rebounds instead of tipping them out for second-chance carnage. A guy who turns five-minute breathers into keep-the-lead stretches instead of here-comes-the-collapse moments.
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Denver just went out and got meaner. Tougher. More grown-man stubborn.
Now, when the games slow down in May, when the air gets thin and the bodies get heavy, that stubbornness is going to feel an awful lot like inevitability. JV + Jokić isn’t a highlight package. It’s a luxury most contenders never find: the ability to play their best player 33 minutes a night and still win those other 15 by double digits.
That’s not sexy. That’s a juggernaut. And that might be the scariest part of this Nuggets team.
The post How Jonas Valančiūnas Is Fixing Denver’s Backup Big Problem appeared first on The Lead.