Look, I’m sorry I compared Juan Hernangomez (and all the rest of the Nuggets besides Nikola Jokic) to Emmanuel Mudiay. I was heated, I got testy, and my fingers typed some stuff that I didn’t really men. For the record, I think Hernangomez is WAY better than Mudiay. For real. They’re not really comparable players, they’re basically polar opposites, but you can still tell which one is a “winner” and which one is a “not winner”.
It may not seem like it, since he just scored 25 last game, but this is a rare scoring outburst for Hernangomez. He’s been playing really decent minutes lately without a whole lot of scoring to show for it. The Nuggets commentators insinuated that he’s passing up shots. Could that be the problem? Someone who watches the Nuggets more than I do could tell me the answer, but if he is, he should definitely not. He’s good enough this year where he gets to shoot shots.
So first I say Jokic needs to shoot more, and now I say Hernangomez needs to shoot more. Let’s just go all the way and say EVERYBODY needs to shoot more in Denver, from Thomas Welsh to Michael Malone. Those 80’s era Nuggets teams where they literally didn’t play defense were fun as heck. There’s no reason that sort of thing can’t happen again. Don’t even pass the ball. Whoever grabs the rebound gets to dribble up the court and chuck a shot.