It is very hard for me to maintain my position that Paul Millsap is ruining the Nuggets when they own the second seed in the West. It’s also hard for me to maintain that position when Millsap’s on-off rating is a stout +8.3. The fact that he dominated everybody the Blazers threw at him in this game is unhelpful to my cause. However, if I’m unable to support the position that Millsap is a team-ruiner, that makes me look like a moron because I’ve been stating it repeatedly for some time now. So I’m just going to double down on it and see if I can somehow justify my idiotic opinions.
Imagine how good the Nuggets would be if they gave Trey Lyles all of Millsap’s minutes. Lyles has shown that he can be a pretty good inside/outside scorer when he gets a larger role, but he also doesn’t need the same amount of touches on offense that Millsap commands. If Lyles was the Nuggets’ full-time power forward, Jokic would get the ball so much more often. Isn’t that what Nuggets want? For Jokic to have a 100% usage rate? The only way this can be achieved is by benching Millsap and playing Lyles all those minutes instead.
While we’re at it, bench Murray and Harris too. Start Morris and Beasley. They don’t need touches either. If the Nuggets can manage to put together a starting lineup where Jokic gets all the touches and decides what to do with the ball on every single possession, they should have no problem making the finals. Unfortunately, coach Malone is too much of a COWARD to try out my visionary new lineups. He sees Millsap’s contract size and bows to the pressure.
So, yeah. Paul “Chemistry Killer” Millsap is ruining the Nuggets. It’s so obvious.