Devoted DTB devotees (DeevoTeeBees?) will know of my most revolutionary and forward-thinking theory regarding the Denver Nuggets as a team, and not only will they know of it, but they will agree with it wholeheartedly. And that theory is:
Paul Millsap is ruining the Nuggets.
I’m man enough to acknowledge that Millsap does good things sometimes. He just doesn’t do them often enough, and in a high enough volume, to justify that mondo contract of his that pays him thirty million smackeroos per year. He remains just relevant enough to force Mike Malone to give him minutes at the expense of Jerami Grant and Michael Porter Jr. and Tyler Lydon. Okay, Tyler Lydon’s not on the Nuggets this season, but he would be if his career hadn’t been BRUTALLY RUINED by Paul Millsap’s ruinous presence on the roster.
To prove how much of a man I am, I’ll throw this stat out there: Millsap scored 14 points in the third quarter. He was a force for those twelve minutes of game time. The Nuggets cut their deficit from twelve points at the half to just seven points at the end of the third. That’s a good thing! And I’m a good person for acknowledging the good thing!
Then Millsap got subbed out with ten minutes to go and the Nuggets down ten. Guess what? In perfect harmony with my theory that Millsap is ruining the Nuggets, the Nuggets turned things around and ended up winning the game by six. That’s a sixteen point swing in the span of ten minutes, all with Millsap on the bench begging and pleading Malone to put him back in so he can resume his usual duties of “ruining everything” and “being a money vacuum”.
One might be tempted to assert that Michael Porter Jr. is the one causing strife among the Nuggets players due to his comments to the media about not getting enough touches. That would be foolish. Millsap is sowing discord in a much more insidious way, by ruining the team from the inside out. Never forget that.