For the third year in a row Roundball Mining Company will feature a series of articles ranking who our writers feel are the best players on the Denver Nuggets roster. This has come to be known as #NuggetsRank and occurs in conjunction with ESPN.com’s annual #NBARank series where all 500 players in the NBA are voted worst to first. Our writers have been polled and the scores tallied, creating as close as you’ll get to a definitive echelon of the entire Denver Nuggets roster. Falling to No. 11 from No. 9 last year is J.J. Hickson, arguably the most contentious acquisition by Tim Connelly in his tenure thus far as general manager.
In his first season with the Nuggets, Hickson led the team in rebounds (9.2 rpg), was sixth in scoring (11.8 ppg), fourth in PER (16.2) and fourth in eFG% (.508). (via Basketball-Reference.com) Sounds pretty solid, right? Based on numbers like that, it might seem more reasonable for him to at least be ranked in the 7-9 range. So why, then, did our RMC writers end up ranking him so low?
In a word, defense. In two more, stat stuffing. But before we get to that, let’s look at some positives. Hickson was very effective in pick-and-rolls last season, especially when he shared the court with Ty Lawson. And after being relegated to the bench in favor of Mozgov, he started showing signs of improvement which hopefully point to him being more efficiently productive – and more importantly, less of a liability – in limited minutes as Faried’s backup. And although we’ve been rather harsh on J.J. here, in fairness it should be noted that much of the season he was playing out of position at center. With the Nuggets now three-deep at the five, Hickson shouldn’t have to play out of his element this time around.
On the other hand, much of said harshness was fully warranted. There’s really no way around it: Hickson was just outright terrible defensively. Constantly out of position, failing to read plays, losing his man, generally dazed and confused – or worse, just not putting in the effort – J.J. was an absolute sieve, as evidenced by the fact that, despite his offensive production he ended up with a net rating of -5.5, the worst among all Denver’s regular rotation players. (via NBA.com/stats) The result is that his near double-double production essentially amounts to empty stats which don’t translate into wins. And an additional concern that cannot be overlooked is his wretched free throw shooting (.517, by far the worst in the rotation) which not only made him an end-of-game hazard, but also an attractive target for opponents to employ the Hack-a-Hickson and grind games to a halt, pulling the rug out from under Denver’s ability to push the pace.
If we were polled, Hickson would surely be the unanimous selection among RMC contributors as the most frustrating player to watch last season. But with a surging Faried, with Gallo and McGee returning, and with a more restricted bench role, there’s reason to hope that he’ll be more effective and less harmful in fewer minutes.
#NuggetsRank
15. Erick Green
14. Quincy Miller
13. Jusuf Nurkic
12. Gary Harris
11. J.J. Hickson
