{"id":304026,"date":"2025-11-20T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/304026\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T22:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:23:08","slug":"how-jonas-valanciunas-is-fixing-denvers-backup-big-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/304026\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas Is Fixing Denver\u2019s Backup Big Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Nuggets are 10-3 so far this NBA Season. Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a> 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\u2019s on pace for another MVP. <\/p>\n

But the quietest reason this team finally feels deep enough to win the West isn\u2019t Jamal Murray<\/a>\u2019s hot start or Aaron Gordon<\/a> playing like an all-star; it\u2019s Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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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\u2019s become the single most significant upgrade on Denver\u2019s roster this season. JV so far is averaging 8.2 points, 4.7 Rebounds, and 1.2 assists on 55\/33\/72 splits. <\/p>\n

The Backup Big Curse Is Dead<\/p>\n

Remember last year\u2019s playoffs? When Joki\u0107 sat, the Nuggets got destroyed on the glass, and the offense turned into mud. Non-Joki\u0107 minutes were a -4.5 net rating disaster in the regular season and even worse in the Minnesota series. Out of DeAndre Jordan<\/a>, Zeke Nnaji<\/a>, and Dario \u0160ari\u0107<\/a>, none of them could provide serviceable minutes to boost the bench. <\/p>\n

This year? Non-Joki\u0107 minutes are a +4.1 net rating<\/a>. That +9.3 swing is one of the most significant bench improvements in the league. Valan\u010di\u016bnas is the entire reason. In his 155 bench minutes so far, Denver is +25 points. That\u2019s the best mark of any Nuggets reserve. Those are precisely what the front office saw when they traded \u0160ari\u0107 for him in July (a move that almost fell apart when JV flirted with Panathinaikos).<\/p>\n

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He Does the Dirty Work So Joki\u0107 Doesn\u2019t Have To<\/p>\n

JV isn\u2019t here to shoot threes or run the break. He\u2019s here to do three things exceptionally well. Set monster screens, vacuum rebounds and finish everything at the rim<\/p>\n

He does them all at an elite level in limited minutes. Denver\u2019s offensive rebound rate jumps from 24.8% to 29.1%<\/a> when Valan\u010di\u016bnas is on the floor. That\u2019s a top-5 mark league-wide in those minutes. Opponents\u2019 points in the paint drop by roughly 14% when he\u2019s playing backup center minutes.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Joki\u0107 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<\/a> after figuring out how to work both of them together. <\/p>\n

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\u201cJonas gives us a pro who doesn\u2019t need touches to impact winning. He just bangs, rebounds, and keeps the train moving when Nikola sits. That\u2019s gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Twin Towers Lineups Are Actually Working<\/p>\n

Everyone assumed<\/a> JV would only play when Joki\u0107 rested. Wrong.<\/p>\n

Adelman has already used Joki\u0107-Valan\u010di\u016bnas frontlines for 42 minutes this season, and Denver is +22 in those minutes. That\u2019s a +26.4 net rating per 100 possessions. <\/p>\n

Against Minnesota last week<\/a>, the JV-Joki\u0107 pairing bullied Gobert and Reid on the glass and dared the Wolves to shoot over them. It worked. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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Add in the fact that Cam Johnson is an elite three-pointer shooter who just hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Why This Isn\u2019t Sexy, But It\u2019s Championship Equity<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the move that broke the internet.<\/a> No midnight Shams bomb with six fire emojis. Not a \u201cwelcome to Denver\u201d hype video set to Kendrick Lamar. Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas isn\u2019t going to make All-Defense. He\u2019s slow in space on some switches. He\u2019s 33, and on certain nights he looks every day of it. But he\u2019s also shooting 60.6% at the rim, turning Joki\u0107 kick-outs into the easiest bunnies of his career, anchoring the paint when Joki\u0107 roams, and keeping the Nuggets from bleeding points the second their best player sits. <\/p>\n

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Denver\u2019s bench was a tire fire in the playoffs last year. Right now, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Give Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace credit; they went out and made the daring move that Calvin Booth<\/a> 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 Joki\u0107 timeline. JV\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

Flexibility on top of fit. That\u2019s how you build a contender without ever making the headline scroll.<\/p>\n

But right now? For the first time since that 2023 championship run, Denver finally has something they haven\u2019t had in two painful years: a backup center you can actually trust in playoff minutes. A guy who lets Joki\u0107 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.<\/p>\n

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Denver just went out and got meaner. Tougher. More grown-man stubborn.<\/p>\n

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 + Joki\u0107 isn\u2019t a highlight package. It\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not sexy. That\u2019s a juggernaut. And that might be the scariest part of this Nuggets team.<\/p>\n

The post How Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas Is Fixing Denver\u2019s Backup Big Problem<\/a> appeared first on The Lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets are 10-3 so far this NBA Season. Nikola Joki\u0107 is putting up video-game numbers again,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1750,6430,1751,21404,1753,157936,1754,4137,6429,355,1756,99,6427,157935,16735],"class_list":["post-304026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-cam-johnson","tag-christian-braun","tag-deandre-jordan","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-gobert","tag-jamal-murray","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-minnesota","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-sports","tag-timberwolves","tag-valanciunas","tag-zeke-nnaji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}