David Adelman on Nuggets’ debut of Nikola Jokic-Jonas Valanciunas lineup: ‘It was hilarious to watch it on tape’

In one of the greater part peculiar sights of the decade so far for hard-core Nuggets fans Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas played hot potato It was Sunday in Los Angeles in the middle of Denver s third preseason encounter Peyton Watson was having trouble feeding Jokic in the high post so Valanciunas flashed to the top of the key to give Watson an outlet The Lithuanian center collected the ball and fast passed it to the Serbian center the original intended target But Jokic had limited options with both Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac sitting back in the paint unconcerned by the -point threat of Valanciunas Jokic right away passed back out to the open Valanciunas who reluctantly fired away Yes the Nuggets were playing two centers together as first-time coach David Adelman promised before training camp Their - win over the Clippers marked the preseason debut of their new double-big look with the three-time MVP center Jokic essentially playing power forward And yes the floor spacing looked a little funky at times Adelman could only chuckle about it later I thought it was hilarious to watch it on tape he mentioned Tuesday before the Nuggets hosted the Chicago Bulls We haven t had a ton of time practicing with those guys They ve scripted together but they haven t played together But it s kind of like rip the Band-Aid off and just see what happens That s precisely what preseason basketball is for Adelman will attest Denver played only five offensive possessions with Jokic and Valanciunas on the floor together that night scoring four points for an offensive rating of But again note the minuscule sample size and the lack of practice time devoted to this particular lineup so far If they end up playing together a lot we ll slowly but surely add a package for those two guys Adelman commented And not just for them but to make the other three guys peaceful I ve made this point about Houston Offensively with the two bigs Alperen Sengun was the point person and Steven Adams just crushed the glass So it s like our personalities are a little bit different Val can crash the glass but he s also skilled So I have to find a way to get those guys secure in space so they re not right on top of each other It wasn t all bad on Sunday night either A timeout was called in the middle of the short stint allowing Adelman to draw up a set ATO play using both big men Jokic set a screen to bring Christian Braun up to the ball then a second screen under the basket to get Valanciunas coming across to Braun s side of the floor Los Angeles switched that second screen making the entry pass to Valanciunas challenging but allowing Jokic to flash to the foul line He knocked down an open jumper from there The ATO was great Adelman disclosed We got them organized with the high-low and that s gonna be effective I don t know how people will handle that I m sure they ll come up with something The Rockets are a nice template to survey after they discovered resounding success with Sengun and Adams last year but double-big lineups have been a growing trend around the league for longer than that Adelman is nothing if not an experimenter and he has expressed an earnest curiosity all preseason about how opponents will guard Denver s version of the twin-towers look The concern might be at the defensive end There too Adelman is drawing inspiration from Houston by trying a zone scheme with both centers next to each other at the bottom On Sunday he placed Valanciunas in the middle and Jokic on the edge forcing him to defend from the corner to the wing on a couple of possessions Adelman pointed out on Tuesday that he put Jokic in that same location in the zone a scant times during the playoffs which allowed Aaron Gordon to play the middle and defend pick-and-rolls I thought we did a really good job as a gang defense behind him You tilt a little bit more Adelman explained If he ends up with a quality offensive sportsman wing sportsman you bring that second defender over a little bit more as opposed to if it was I don t know Peyton Watson down there So a little bit of a difference but not much And he s just so smart with his angles he ll invariably force the ball back to where we want it to go Related Articles Nuggets vs Clippers Christian Braun Peyton Watson adding to their event in preseason Nuggets Journal Spencer Jones spends spare time teaching students who ve been through criminal justice system Nuggets testing the refs with more aggressive defense Nikola Jokic says What makes Bruce Brown and Nuggets a perfect match His former coaches weigh in David Adelman on Cam Johnson s start with Nuggets We re just getting him settled The lineup around Jokic and Valanciunas prioritized length Watson Braun and Julian Strawther Whether that s the best combination remains to be seen After all Denver was just ripping the Band-Aid off And there s still time to tinker more games of it I m not saying it s going to be the perfect thing Adelman reiterated but I definitely 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