Stan Van Gundy has a specific way he wants his teams to play basketball. If you have any doubt about that, consider what job he finally accepted after his firing from the Orlando Magic. He wants to play with a physically dominant big, surrounded by shooting, and with a PG who can run pick and roll with said big. In Detroit, he has that with Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. Together, they form a duo that should excite Pistons‘ fans about the team’s future, and also scare the rest of the league.
However, beyond those two, the Pistons are a bit on the thin side. SVG is playing his starters a ton of minutes. Any time you’ve had to have Steve Blake and Anthony Tolliver as primary bench players, you know that you’re a team lacking in depth. One key for a Nuggets victory tonight will be to make sure those starters are working hard all game. Kind of like a running game in football often doesn’t pay dividends until the fourth quarter, making a team work hard on defense for the first three quarters of a basketball game can lead to fatigue and mistakes in the final frame. Denver should look to play fast, both in running on breaks when the opportunity arises, and in the half court, where ball and player movement can be just as devastating as the fast break game.
REMINDER: STIFFS NIGHT OUT WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD
Join us at Jake’s Sports & Spirits (3800 Walnut Street, Denver, CO 80205) as our Nuggets take on the Jazz in Utah at 7pm.
Attendees can win Denver Stiffs T-shirts and Nuggets tickets and Jake’s will be serving 50-cent wings for us all night long.
We hope to see you there!
****
