5 Coaching Improvements Denver Nuggets' Brian Shaw Must Make During 2nd Season
The Denver Nuggets were decimated with injuries in head coach Brian Shaw's first season, but he must address some key points in the 2014-15 journey.
Shaw was already given a huge task in making changes to a team led by George Karl for nine seasons. But finishing the year with six of your key players injured and a rotation that is forced to change constantly makes the transition significantly more challenging.
Now that everyone will likely be back at full strength, plus the additions of Arron Afflalo, Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic, this is a roster Shaw has plenty of flexibility with. Denver is a legitimate sleeper in a brutal Western Conference.
There are plenty of areas Shaw needs to focus on, but five stand out above the rest.
Overall Defense
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This is a no-brainer. The Nuggets were ranked 20th in defensive efficiency last season, and they gave up a 28th-best 106.5 points per game.
Obviously, that will not fly in 2014-15.
On March 13 last season, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post said the following about why the Nuggets were taking to long to make defensive adjustments:
"This isn't the answer anyone wants to hear -- but it just did take that long. There's no concrete finger of blame to be pointed. There's a period of time a coach has to give players to learn what he's teaching. That can be long because coaches aren't giving up on what they believe works quickly, especially if there are glimpses of the athletes getting it.
Most of the season, the Nuggets had been pretty good in their initial defense, but would not secure the rebounds from misses they forced. Then you had the injuries with the Nuggets, which put a dent in learning defensive schemes as a unit and gaining the chemistry that teams need on that end of the court.
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That is why the turnaround after Karl couldn't be accomplished immediately. The Nuggets often gambled on steals to get their transition game going, and they would switch and rotate constantly.
Shaw has his team geared toward fighting over screens and wants fundamental improvement. Many of the Nuggets players are young and have defensive deficiencies Karl tried to cover up.
The communication and schematics should be in place now.
The Nuggets did run a second-ranked 102 possessions per game last year, so it's not like they are going to have a top-notch defense in terms of points allowed. Shaw will likely bring that number down some this season.
Ultimately, though, Denver needs to aim for a top-10 finish in defensive efficiency and give up no more than 100 points.
Free-Throw Shooting
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Another obvious area.
In an interview with NBA TV during the 2013 Summer League, Shaw mentioned that he wanted to improve Denver's free-throw shooting.
2012-13 free-throw percentage: 70.1 percent. 2013-14 free-throw percentage: 72.6.
I'm sure Shaw wants better than that. Injuries are no excuse, either.
Ty Lawson led the Nuggets with 6.5 free-throw attempts and made a solid 79.8 percent from the line. There's no issue there.
It's mostly the next guy in terms of attempts per game, J.J. Hickson. He made a career-low 51.7 percent on 4.2 shots.
Hickson's massive decrease was fairly surprising, as he was a career 67.2 percent from the line before last season.
He might have been getting acclimated to the altitude, as it was his first season in Denver, but it's hard to imagine that big of a drop-off due to that factor alone.
Kenneth Faried could also make a few more free ones. He finished last season at 65 percent with 3.9 attempts.
Faried is now 64 percent from the line in his career and actually improved from the 61.3 percent mark he posted in 2012-13. He also made 69.7 percent of his attempts after last year's All-Star Game, which was when he really started to improve under Shaw.
Furthermore, getting Danilo Gallinari back and bringing in Afflalo will help. Gallo converted 82.2 percent of his free throws in 2012-13, while Afflalo connected 81.5 percent of the time with the Orlando Magic last year.
As long as Hickson gets back to where he normally is and Faried continues to make progress, Denver should be fine. But Shaw must address this issue right away.
Allow Kenneth Faried to Be One of the Primary Leaders
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This is a big year for Faried. Once The Manimal got on the other side of last year's All-Star Game, he averaged a double-double. He followed that up with 12.2 points and 7.7 rebounds on Team USA, winning the FIBA World Cup.
According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, Faried is pushing for a contract extension with the Nuggets. If Faried doesn't succeed by the start of the regular season, he'll become a restricted free agent at the end of the year, per Basketball Insiders.
Faried took the next step offensively last season in terms of his skill set. He connected on 38.8 percent of his field goals from 10 to 16 feet and added a couple of post moves in addition to his simple right-handed baby hook from the low block.
While there's a lot more room to improve, he made strides on the defensive side of the ball too. He's more in place in pick-and-roll defense and doesn't rely on his athleticism as much.
But while he continues to develop, it's time to let Faried be more of a leader on this squad.
According to Stein, Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski wanted Faried to lead Team USA by communication. Faried told Stein, "I'm gonna take that back to Denver and now try to be more of the vocal leader."
There's no doubt the Team USA experience boosted The Manimal's confidence. Shaw must let that continue.
Get More out of JaVale McGee
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The team won't live or die by JaVale McGee's progress this season. However, if Shaw can find a way to increase McGee's diversity the way he did with Faried, it could give Denver a chance to do a little damage in the playoffs.
OK, that won't be easy. There are differences between the two players. McGee missed almost all of last season, and I don't think he'll be able to avoid Shaqtin' a Fool completely.
But with a deep Nuggets frontcourt in which he isn't needed to play huge minutes, McGee should have plenty of energy to make acrobatic plays while doing some positive things underneath the rim.
It's not out of the question to get a couple of post moves out of McGee that don't involve him using just his physical strength. It's possible for McGee to be more in position defensively and not rely on swatting shots into the stands.
Again, we aren't talking about him getting a double-double every night. He may not play up to the $11.25 million he's making this year.
It's about reducing his weaknesses and making him more than just an energy boost.
If McGee adds a few components to his game, if Faried continues to evolve and if the two can play together on the floor, they have the potential to be a dangerous one-two punch inside.
Slightly Tighten Up the Rotation Before Christmas
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When the Nuggets hit their low point at the end of December last season and lost eight straight, Shaw shortened his rotation in order to develop more chemistry among the rotation.
January was successful. It included a five-game winning streak and victories over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Indiana Pacers and the Golden State Warriors.
But after Lawson and Nate Robinson went down, the season crumbled.
According to Aaron Lopez of Nuggets.com, Shaw said, “As a coaching staff, it’s a matter of trying to get everybody to buy in to getting more done while maybe playing less."
There's no doubt there is a ton of depth on this team. Denver should certainly try to wear teams down.
But 12 of the guys on this roster have played significant minutes for the franchise. Denver also adds two first-round picks in Harris and Nurkic.
Shaw can't play everyone. How do you solve this problem?
His approach is going to be similar to last year's in that he's going to need to try some different starting lineups and other lineup combinations. There's no way around that.
But this needs to be a 10-man rotation with a specific starting five. Shaw can't afford another transition year, even if Denver had an absurd amount of bad luck last year.
What will that look like?
Lawson and Faried are locks to start at point guard and power forward, respectively. It's safe to say Afflalo will be the man at the 2, and Gallo should get his spot back on the other wing as long as he's 100 percent.
As for center, Timofey Mozgov earned the job with his dramatic improvement and consistency last year. McGee should back him up, but he'll have an opportunity to play into the starting five.
Therefore, the bench will be Robinson, Randy Foye, Wilson Chandler, Hickson and McGee.
That will leave Erick Green, Harris, Quincy Miller, Darrell Arthur and Nurkic on the outside looking in. But they will get opportunities early on, and Harris and Arthur will probably be mixed in here and there with their defensive play that's particularly needed.
For Shaw, it's about finding the balance between utilizing depth and maximizing chemistry potential.
All individual statistics are from Basketball-Reference.com.
All team statistics are from TeamRankings.com.
All contract information is from Basketball Insiders.
Nick Juskewycz is the Bleacher Report Featured Columnist for the Denver Nuggets. Follow @NickJuskewycz
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