虎扑体育网

In the words of
coach Michael Malone, the talk about Denver competing for a championship is
“all bullshit” right now

用迈克尔-马龙教练的话来说，有关掘金争夺总冠军的说法现在看来“都是胡扯”。

The Denver Nuggets
seemed like a good bet to get off to a fast start this season. They had
league-leading continuity. They boasted a deep roster of 25-and-under talent.
And they had the one thing you need most to win big in this league—a
cornerstone franchise superstar—in Nikola Jokic.

丹佛掘金看起来极有可能在本赛季快速起步。他们拥有领先全联盟的延续性，有25岁及以下的天赋球员组成的深厚候选名单。他们还拥有在联盟中获得大胜最需要的人——一个基石型超级巨星——尼古拉-约基奇。

 

Rather than racing
out of the gate, though, Denver has opened the new season with something akin
to the disinterested yawn of a large cat unhappily roused from a midday nap.

丹佛掘金开启了新赛季，不过却如同一只大猫午睡醒来不高兴地打了个乏味的哈欠，而不是冲出门外。

The Nuggets won
their first three games, but didn’t exactly inspire hosannas in the process.
The free-flowing and potent offense that Jokic orchestrated last season was
sputtering in the middle of the NBA pack, and Denver needed overtime to beat
Phoenix (who might be pretty good!) and a late-third-quarter push to gain some
distance from Sacramento (who might be extremely not!). The worries grew a bit
when the Nuggets (who, in fairness, were on the second night of a back-to-back)
blew a fourth-quarter lead at home to the Mavericks’ role players; they were
unavoidable on Thursday, when Denver got smoked by a previously winless
Pelicans team, trailing nearly the entire way and by double figures for just
about the entire second half.

掘金赢下了他们的前三场比赛，但与此同时并没有激起对上帝的赞美。约基奇上赛季组织的自由流畅而强有力的进攻没有了（像发动机噼啪几声后坏了）。丹佛还需要加时才能击败菲尼克斯（这赛季相当不错！），在第三节末才能对萨克拉门托取得一些领先优势。而当掘金（为公平起见，得说明这是一次背靠背赛程的第二晚）主场面对独行侠时在第四节时才取得领先时，对他们的担忧加重了。不可避免地，在周四当掘金被未尝胜绩的鹈鹕队纠缠时，他们几乎一直落后并且在整个下半场落后两位数。

Michael Malone
watched his team half-step through possession after possession, especially when
New Orleans pushed the pace; the Pelicans scored 37 fast-break points on
Thursday, far and away their highest mark of the young season, and the most a
Denver team has given up in nearly four years. And the Nuggets head coach was
pretty pissed off about it.

迈克尔-马龙看着他们的球队在控球的时候半步半步地推进，尤其当鹈鹕加快节奏的时候；鹈鹕周四有37次快攻得分，远远超出他们赛季初的最高次数和掘金在几乎最近四年的最高次数。丹佛掘金的主教练对此感到非常生气。

“I’m embarrassed,” Malone told reporters
after the game. “That was an embarrassing effort defensively. Gave up 37
fast-break points. You can give all the transition defense rules that you want.
To me, transition defense boils down to one thing—effort.”

“我非常尴尬”，马龙在赛后告诉记者：“那是一种非常令人尴尬的防守尝试。丢失37次快攻得分。你可以给出所有你想要的防守转换规则。对我来说，防守转换归根到底看一样东西——努力。”

Denver holds a
winning record but a negative point differential through five games, and Malone
hasn’t seen enough of the sort of effort, energy, and intensity that he’d
expect from a team with championship aspirations.

丹佛保持着获胜纪录但是却有五场得失分差为负，马龙还没有看到那种他期望的一只渴望总冠军的球队所有的足够努力，能量和紧张感。

“We’re a great ‘talk’ team,” Malone said.
“We can talk before the season starts about all the things we want to
accomplish, and we want to be a championship contending team. It’s all
bullshit. Don’t tell me about it. Show me. And right now, we’ve got a lot of
guys that aren’t showing me much.”

“我们是一只‘说大话’的球队”，马龙说道：“我们可以在赛季开始之前谈论我们想达到的所有目标，我们想成为一支竞争总冠军的球队。那都是胡扯。别和我说那些东西，做给我看。而目前我们有很多人并没有做太多事给我看。”

Malone then put an
even finer point on what he’s looking for: “Just care. I know you’re going to
make a mistake. Just show me that you care.”

马龙随后指出他更加关注的一点：“仅仅是在意它，我知道你会犯错。没关系，只要让我知道你在意它”

He specifically
called out his starting five—Jokic, Jamal Murray, Paul Millsap, Gary Harris,
and Torrey Craig, in the lineup for the injured Will Barton—for being “low
energy,” and not playing with the same spirit as Denver’s second unit, led by
center Mason Plumlee. It’s true that nobody in the starting lineup is covering
himself in glory right now. The Nuggets have the NBA’s fourth-worst
first-quarter scoring differential, and are barely averaging a point per
possession in opening frames. Murray and Harris are both shooting under 42
percent from the floor. Millsap repeatedly got dusted on defense by Brandon
Ingram on Thursday.

他尤其指出他的首发五人——约基奇、贾马尔-默里、保罗-米尔萨普，加里-哈里斯和托里-克雷格，以及受伤的威尔-巴顿“缺少能量”，没有以和中锋梅森-普拉姆利带领的掘金第二阵容相同的精神打球。在首发阵容中目前确实没有人满身荣誉。掘金拥有NBA第四差的首节得失分差，默里和哈里斯在场上的命中率都低于42%。保罗-米尔萨普在星期四面对布兰登-英格拉姆的防守时碰了一鼻子灰。

But while there’s
plenty of blame to go around at the moment, it’s hard not to see Malone’s
postgame frustration as a finger ja****g squarely in the direction of Jokic.
The playmaking center seems a few degrees off so far this season, and he also
doesn’t appear to be in shape; Jokic reportedly turned up for training camp at
284 pounds after a summer spent playing for Serbia in the 2019 FIBA World Cup,
although he denies experiencing any disruption to his summer routine.

然而在有如此多的指责的同时，从手指直接指向约基奇的方向很难不看出马龙赛后的沮丧。这位控球中锋这赛季目前为止表现看起来差了几分，他似乎不应该是这种体型。约基奇在这个夏天为塞维利亚出战2019男篮世界杯后以284磅的体重到训练营报道，尽管他否认任何扰乱他夏天计划的经历。

The 24-year-old
Serbian is averaging 15 points, 11.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.4 steals per
game, which would sound really great if we hadn’t spent last season and the
playoffs watching him put up even bigger numbers. He’s taking three fewer shots
per 36 minutes of floor time—he totaled just six in 27 minutes against New
Orleans—than last season and he’s just 3-for-14 from 3-point range, continuing
a decline in accuracy from the 40 percent clip at which he drilled long-range
shots two seasons ago.

这位24岁的塞尔维亚人场均得到15分，11.2个篮板，6.4次助攻和1.4次抢断，这看起来十分不错，如果我们不看他上赛季和季后赛取得的更好的数据。他在场上每36分钟的投射少了三次——他在面对新奥尔良的比赛中27分钟里总计出手6次，相比上个赛季。而且他在三分范围只有14投3中，命中率从他2个赛季前训练长距离投射的40%持续降低。

His usage rate is
down, his turnover rate is up, and his on-court demeanor … well, let’s just say
it’s not exactly suggesting a raging competitive inferno within, and seems more
akin to a kid performatively tantruming his way through cleaning up his room
after being yelled at a third time:

他的使用率在下降，他的失误率在上升，而他的场上态度…就这么说吧，没有像无法控制的烈火一样的求胜欲望在里面，看起来就像一个小孩在清理他的房间时候被吼第三次的时候故意耍性子一样。

Six months ago,
Jokic was named to the All-NBA first team. On Thursday, he got taken to the
woodshed, repeatedly, by Jahlil Okafor, a reclamation project working to
re-establish himself on his third team in five NBA seasons. This is the sort of
matchup the Nuggets can’t lose on a nightly basis; if they do, their entire
team concept begins to flicker and fracture.

 

6个月前，约基奇被提名入选NBA最佳阵容第一阵容。星期四他再次被贾利尔-奥卡福惩罚了，贾利尔-奥卡福只是一个尝试在自己五个赛季里的第三只NBA球队重塑自我的“待改造项目”。这是那种掘金每晚不能输掉的那种基本比赛。如果他们输了，他们整个队伍的信念就开始动摇并崩溃。

Denver hasn’t
played fast with Jokic at the wheel, ranking 16th in seconds per offensive
possession in 2017-18 and 21st last season, according to Inpredictable. It
didn’t really matter, though, because the Nuggets moved the ball so much (12th
in passes per game in ‘17-18, fifth last season) and so well (fifth in assists
and fourth in points created by assist in ‘17-18, second in both categories
last season) that they still fielded a top-seven offense even without
prioritizing pace. Things have puttered along at a noticeably glacial tempo
this season, though—dead last in the league—and Denver hasn’t been nearly as
active, sharp, or potent.

丹佛掘金没有在约基奇带队时打过快节奏篮球，根据Inpredictable 的数据，掘金2017-18赛季每次进攻所花时间排名全联盟第16，2018-19赛季排名第21。但这问题不大，因为掘金传导球非常多（17-18赛季场均传球数排名全联盟第12，上赛季全联盟第5）而且质量非常好（17-18赛季助攻数排名第5，助攻创造的得分排名第4，上赛季这两项数据均排名全联盟第2）因而他们仍然拥有联盟前7的进攻即使没有优先考虑速度。这赛季掘金的进攻就像在冰河上迤逦而行，排名联盟倒数。丹佛掘金的进攻不再活跃，清晰，强有力了。

The Nuggets are
throwing 36 fewer passes per game than they did last season, ranking just 19th
in assists and a dismal 28th in potential assists (passes that would’ve turned
into dimes if the shooter had made the bucket). As much as the Nuggets defense
improved last season, this team is built to revolve around its capacity to bury
opponents in an avalanche of points; a below-average offense that generates
what pbpstats.com tabs as the sixth-worst quality of shots in the NBA (defined
as expected effective field goal percentage based on the location of the shot
attempt and play context) just won’t cut it.

相比于上赛季，掘金每场传球减少了36次，助攻数方面仅仅排名第19，潜在助攻数（传球能转化为得分如果投篮者进球）仅排在凄凉的第28位。尽管掘金的防守在上赛季提升了，但这支球队是围绕着把竞争者埋在如雪崩一样的得分中这样的目标来建设的。低于平均水准的进攻，从pbpstats.com生成的数据表明这是联盟质量第6差的投射（被定义为基于尝试投射的位置和场上环境的期望有效得分率），并不能满足这一目标。

 

“We are not making shots, not passing the
ball on time, on target,” Jokic told reporters after the loss in New Orleans.
“They are putting us away from our system. They are pushing screens up, chasing
us. They are aggressive. We just didn’t get into our stuff.”

“我们没有按照目标投篮，没有及时传球”，约基奇在新奥尔良失利后告诉记者：“他们把我们带离了我们自己的体系。他们的得分一直在刷屏，他们一直追赶我们。他们打得有侵略性。我们就是没干我们的活儿。”

Some
responsibility falls to Malone to scheme up ways to leverage opponents’
defensive aggression and create cleaner passing lanes and shooting windows. A
lot of it, though, falls to the Nuggets themselves to meet aggression with
aggression—to sprint to their spots, to seal defenders off to create passing
lanes, to throw feeds with purpose, to cut hard and keep moving when the
initial action gets blown up. Having flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and
baking powder is great, but you have to, like, do stuff to all of that for it
to become a cake. Right now, the Nuggets are just kind of throwing the
ingredients in a bowl. That shit ain’t dessert.

马龙要承担一些责任来升级战术以借助竞争对手防守侵略性的杠杆效应，创造更干净的传球线路和投射空间。然而很多这些工作都落到掘金队员自己身上，以侵略性对抗侵略性，快速冲向他们的位置，封锁防守者以创造传球路线，有目的地喂球，努力抢断，当初始动作被破坏时保持移动。拥有面粉、糖、鸡蛋、黄油和发酵粉是很棒的，但是你不得不动手做些事把这些东西变成一块蛋糕。现在掘金只是把这些东西丢到一个碗里。这样弄出来的玩意不是点心。

The good news: All
of the stuff that made Denver seem like a good bet to start hot and win a lot
of games remains in place. Murray, Harris, and other young players like Malik
Beasley and Monte Morris have all played better before, and deserve the chance to
bounce back. Michael Porter Jr. made his NBA debut on Thursday and looked like
an immediate offensive mismatch on the wing, scoring a team-high 15 points in
21 minutes off the bench. Jokic will play his way into shape, and did look more
assertive, calling for the ball and doing something with it, in the first half
against the Pelicans before Denver stumbled after intermission. The Nuggets’
depth makes them one of the more intriguing candidates to swing a deal for a
star talent should one hit the market. A few lethargic performances in the
season’s first week isn’t cause to hit the panic button.

好消息是：所有让掘金看起来极有可能取得开门红并赢下很多比赛的人物都还在。穆雷、哈里斯和其他年轻球员比如马利克-比斯利和蒙特-莫里斯都比以前表现得好多了，值得一个重整旗鼓的机会。小迈克尔-波特在周四上演了他的首秀，看起来像一个侧翼错位进攻者，上场21分钟取得全队最高的15分。在对阵鹈鹕的上半场，在掘金中场休息变得寸步难行之前，约基奇按照自己的方式打球，看起来更加坚定自信，要球并且组织进攻。掘金的阵容深度让他们成为更加吸引人的候选队伍，如果他们用一位有天赋的新星在交易市场上做笔交易。但开赛第一周的糟糕表现不应该导致恐慌。

It is cause,
though, to keep a closer eye on things. The Nuggets paid handsomely to lock in
Jokic and Murray as the linchpins of their future, and need them to step
forward into leadership roles. Porter needs minutes on the wing, but Barton’s
the incumbent veteran starter and Beasley, Craig, and Juancho Hernangomez are
all playing for contracts in restricted free agency next summer. Millsap is the
highest-paid player and most respected veteran; Jerami Grant, though, could
often be the better option against quicker power forwards, as he was on
Thursday against Ingram. Malone’s got a lot of mouths to feed, a lot of people
to keep happy, and a lot of work to do to get a would-be Finals contender back
on track. The time for talk is over. Jokic and Co. need to get to work, and
fast.

不过这也正是近距离观察这一切的原因。掘金支付了可观的薪水以锁定约基奇和穆雷作为球队未来的关键人物，需要他们更进一步扮演领导的角色。波特在侧翼上需要时间，但巴顿是现任首发老兵，而比斯利、克雷格和胡安-埃尔南戈麦兹作为受限制自由球员都在为下个夏季的合同努力打球。米尔萨普是薪水最高的球员和最受尊敬的老兵；考虑到周四面对英格拉姆的表现，杰拉米-格兰特，不管怎样，总是可以作为更快速的大前锋的更好选择。马龙有很多人需要养活，要让很多人保持开心，还要做很多工作来使一支未来的总冠军竞争队伍重回正轨。说大话的时间结束了。约基奇和他的队友需要尽快干活了。