Denver Gazette beat writer Vinny Benedetto takes you around the NBA and inside the Nuggets:

NBA Insider

Let’s fix the NBA Cup.

The in-season competition is in its second season of existence, and the excitement level doesn’t appear to be headed in the right direction. Here’s how to make it better.

Make it separate from the regular season

As it stands, the group-stage games double as regular season contests.

That’s convenient for the schedule makers, but it doesn’t help the NBA Cup establish its own identity.

Teams more focused on winning the standard championship could use the games to develop younger players and get their stars some extra rest. It also allows teams more interested in landing a top pick in the upcoming draft the ability to get the key pieces of the future competitive experience without hindering their lottery odds.

There’s a way to do this without changing the number of games teams play before the playoffs.

Change the format

The NBA Cup borrows a lot from European soccer and should take even more.

In the EUFA Champions League, which operates separately from Europe’s top domestic leagues, draws teams into groups of four. Each team plays the other teams in their group once at home and once on the road. That’s much more equitable than the NBA Cup format that has teams play each other only once. That means some teams play the tougher teams at home and go on the road against weaker competitions.

Only playing four games also limits the amount of drama when so few teams – four from each conference – advance to the knockout stages.

To facilitate the extra games, the NBA should reduce the regular season to 72 games. Eight group stage games and a couple of added games in the knockout stage gets teams back to 82 before the postseason.

Stats acquired during the NBA Cup could still count toward career stats, giving players equal opportunity to break records.

Ditch the courts, change the jerseys

The wildly colorful courts used in the NBA Cup were meant to be attention grabbers. But most of them are hard enough on the eyes to actively discourage people from tuning in.

Let teams break out alternate jerseys with an NBA Cup patch and throw some additional signage on the court to make it apparent it’s a different competition.

What I’m Thinking

The same thing that makes Nikola Jokic one of one makes it incredibly difficult for the Nuggets to win when he’s unavailable.

It’s impossible to replicate the style of play that Jokic has mastered. Dario Saric is a good passer by big-man standards, but he doesn’t see the court anywhere near as well and can’t make half the passes in Jokic’s arsenal.

Denver relies on that identity for 35 to 40 minutes every regular-season game that Jokic is available, and even more in the postseason. Without Denver the last two games, the Nuggets have failed to crack 100 points. In the five-game win streak leading up to the road trip, Denver posted more than 120 in each game.

“It’s an inability to score right now. That’s two games in a row. Obviously, a big part of that is sitting home in Denver,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after Sunday’s 90-point performance.

“When Nikola Jokic isn’t playing, the whole game plan is to shut down Jamal and Michael. Obviously, tonight that was effective.”

It’s the same reason Denver has struggled to find an every-night option behind Jokic on the bench. DeMarcus Cousins was as close as the Nuggets have gotten to finding a back-up capable of keeping the style of play somewhat consistent for the rest of the players who split their time on the court between Jokic and the bench center. That’s not a critique of the players who have been behind Jokic.

Isaiah Hartenstein has proven to be a much more valuable player than what looked possible during his short time with the Nuggets. The same goes for Jay Huff, who enjoyed a productive game against his former team Sunday in Memphis.

Jokic is just so good and has such a rare blend of talents that Denver’s best bet on the rare occasions he’s not available is getting offense from their defense. That’s a huge difference from getting offense from arguably the most efficient and effective offensive player the league has ever seen.

What They’re Saying

Shooting was the primary issue for Malone after Sunday’s loss, but he didn’t question his team’s heart or effort.

“What I loved about our group is that we’re down 24 with nine something to go in the fourth quarter and we have it down to 11 and (get) two great looks – one from Dario (Saric), one from (Christian Braun) – with a chance to cut it to eight, because our guys just kind of stayed with it and never gave up,” Malone said. “I think we’ve seen that time and time again early in the season.”

Julian Strawther offered a more critical assessment of the team’s energy in Memphis.

“I think we beat ourselves tonight,” Strawther said after scoring 19 points Sunday. “I feel like right now we’re walking out there kind of just with a helpless energy. We’re not going out there to attack the game.”

One thing the Nuggets coach didn’t like was the way Memphis was allowed to defend Murray.

“I thought he was being held and grabbed and fouled all night long. I was saying that to the refs, and it never changed,” Malone said.

What I’m Following

– The Nuggets spent their off day in Memphis doing some good. Members of the organization visited St. Jude Hospital on Monday and visited the National Civil Rights Museum.

– James Harden moved into second place on the NBA’s career 3s list. The Clippers guard passed Ray Allen on Sunday. Stephen Curry still has 800 more 3s than Harden atop the list.

– Tuesday’s game between the 15-0 Cavaliers and the reigning-champion Boston Celtics marks the first time a team on a 15-game winning streak has matched up with the previous season’s champion since a 1996 meeting between the Bulls and Rockets. The only other applicable matchups are a matchup between the Lakers and Bucks in 1972 and a Bucks-vs.-Knicks game in 1970.

The List

Sportsbooks are starting to take notice of Christian Braun’s year-three leap. After moving into the Nuggets’ starting lineup, Braun has scored in double figures in each of Denver’s first 12 games. Here are the seven players with better odds than Braun, at +2,000, per Oddsshark.com

1. Jalen Williams, Thunder, +500

2. Jalen Johnson, Hawks, +550

3. Norman Powell, Clippers, +1,000

4. Cade Cunningham, Pistons, +1,100

5. LaMelo Ball, Hornets, +1,100

6. RJ Barrett, Raptors, +1,400

7. Gradey Dick, Raptors, +1,800