Don t treat Westbrook as a life-saving straw on the bench! If the Nuggets want to win the King of Heaven, Adelman needs to expand the rotation

Time goes back to the season when the Nuggets won the first championship in team history in 23. At that time, the team's green leaf lineup could be said to be quite luxurious, with many top-notch auxiliary players such as Jeff Green, Bruce Brown, and Pope. But a pity is that the Nuggets did not maintain their championship lineup. In the second season, they let Green and Brown go, and then Pope also traveled to Orlando. This season, the Nuggets played so anxiously with the Thunder, who lacked experience in the semi-finals, was a large part of the reason why they played so anxiously in the semi-finals and the Thunder, who lacked competition experience, was because of their weak bench.

Last year, after the Nuggets let go of Pope, they signed Westbrook, but they were still relatively weak in the substitute lineup. At least Waters, Strauser, Pickett, and Jordan Jr. entered the rotation lineup in the regular season. However, in the playoffs, Adelman Jr., who replaced Malone, was quite cautious in employed people. There were basically only 6-7 players in a tight rotation in one game. Except for the starting five Tigers of Jokic, Murray, Gordon, Braun and Porter Jr., only Westbrook and Watson averaged double-digit playing time. Westbrook contributed one average of 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, basically one person contracted the scoring burden of the Nuggets bench.

But Westbrook, who was no longer as brave as before, is indeed difficult to maintain a stable state in every game. If he feels cold here, the Nuggets will be very passive in the game. For example, the Nuggets and the Thunder's G4, before this game, the Nuggets led 2-1. If they can win another game, they will go to Oxford City with the initiative of 3-1. Unfortunately, the Thunder's bench was only 8 points in this game, which is not as much as Caruso on the Thunder's side (Caruso scored 10 points in this game). Westbrook contributed 6 points per person, but only hit 2 goals in 12 shots, and the plus-negative value of -20 is the worst in the team.

As a comparison, in this G4 game, the Nuggets only dispatched 8 players, among which the substitutes Strauser and Watson both played less than double-digit playing time. In this key game, Dagnot boldly expanded the rotation lineup and allowed 10 players to play. For the 5 substitutes, Joe only played less than double-digit playing time. When both sides return to the same starting line, if the Nuggets want to win the Battle of Kings Mountain in G5, Adelman should indeed take bold steps to expand the rotation, rather than continue to make Westbrook the "savior" on the team's bench.

During the regular season, Waters and Strauser played more than 20 minutes, and both averaged 8+ points per game. In the game against the Spurs, another substitute player Pickett even scored a triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. This is enough to show that the Nuggets are not without reliable personnel. However, as a young coach, Adelman did not dare to boldly expand the depth of rotation due to lack of experience. But after these games, both sides have basically figured out their respective trump cards. If Adelman does not take the lead in seeking change, but continues to believe in Westbrook, who is in a state of fluctuation, then the Nuggets may really be dead on the line if they lose the key victory in Tianwang Mountain.