Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor and host of Hoops Tonight, The Volume Sports Jason Timpf discuss how the Denver Nuggets are not putting the proper support around Nikola Jokic and suggest that they reconstruct their roster around him in order to be more successful. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Jokic is still this dominant force, but Denver just does not have the support around him.

Mario right now, their defense is horrific.

Is their defense so bad that they’re not quite finals contenders, Jason?

Everything about NBA history.

And everything about my belief and, and my beliefs surrounding the game of basketball tell me that this team is destined to a first, uh, 1st or 2nd round loss, and that, quite frankly, they’re not capable of winning at all.

I think this team relies on Jokic more offensively than previous iterations of the team.

As a result of that, I don’t think he has the bandwidth in terms of energy.

To be as active on defense as he can be.

Since January 23rd, I believe, they’re a 120 defensive rating with Nikole Jokic on the floor.

Like, that’s, that’s brutally bad.

I think there’s actually, Kevin, uh, uh, a big picture conversation to have if the Nuggets need to reconfigure their entire team construct around Jokic with more of a defensive focus.

I think it’s so bad.

That it’s it’s worth considering blowing up with how bad they look defensively.

I, I, I, Kevin, I don’t know how they’re going to get in the post including like Jokic are blowing up around Jokic and still trying to make up around Jokic around him.

I’m interested there because of what they did in last year’s draft.

I think that front office drafted Dron Holmes with the vision that A, they need a better backup than old man DeAndre Jordan behind Jokic, but B, to have the ability to play with two bigs, cause with Deon Holmes at Dayton throughout his career, he became a super switchable big man, and he’s gonna be 22 years old next season, uh, you know, hopefully he’s able to come back from that ruptured Achilles and be, you know, close to his prime athletic self, but I think that was part of signaling what they want to be able to build moving forward as more versatility in that front court.

No work sometimes Gordon can be your 3, sometimes he can be your 4, and maybe that’s part of the vision that that Denver front office had with drafting homes, because you’re right, as currently constructed, I have a hard time coming up with arguments for them to be a true finals threat.