Andrew Bynum
A free agent to be this off-season, Bynum is making $16.8 million to rehab his knees on company time. His latest setback coming from a bowling accident. Bynum likes to bowl, as do many Nuggets, but putting extra twists on your aching knees in slippery shoes probably wasn’t the best idea.
Nuggets free throw percentage
The Nuggets are in sole possession of last place in free throw percentage. Denver, as a team, is shooting just 66% at the charity stripe – that’s a full two percentage points lower than the 29th place Lakers (68%). For a team that values getting free throw attempts, the Nuggets might need a new offensive philosophy if things don’t pick up!
Nuggets three point percentage
Behind shots at the rim and free throws, the Nuggets want to shoot threes on offense. The problem? They rank 25th in the league through 11 games and are shooting a miserable 30.6% from beyond the arc. The Thunder, Heat, and Mavericks go one, two, and three in the league from beyond the arc and all three teams are shooting above 41% or 11-percentage points better than Denver.
Nuggets team assist rankings
The dribble-drive offense doesn’t allow for a ton of assists if the lanes are open, but add in poor shooting nights from deep and the Nuggets team assists are a bit down this season. Denver currently ranks 14th in team assists with 21.64 per game. The Bucks lead the league with team assists with 24.89 and it would be nice to see Denver get back above 25 assists per game on a regular basis.
Ty Lawson’s offensive percentages
More troubling than Lawson’s scoring average dipping from 16.4 ppg last season to 11.8 ppg this season is the fact that Lawson is averaging roughly the same shot attempts per game over the last two years. He averaged 12.6 shots per game last season and is at 12.9 spg this season. His field goal percentages are down from 48% to 37%, his three point shooting is down from 36% to 26% (attempts down 3.3 to 2.1), and his free throw shooting is drastically down from 82% to 54% (attempts down from 3.5 to 3.0). Lawson is averaging a career high 7.2 assists, but the team sure could use some better percentages from Ty.
