Name: Kiszla: Paul Millsap is $30 million of dead weight. Nuggets need to bench him to avoid getting bounced from NBA playoffs by Utah.
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Kiszla: Paul Millsap is $30 million of dead weight. Nuggets need to bench him to avoid getting bounced from NBA playoffs by Utah.

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By | | The Denver PostLAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. –&nbsp;The Nuggets’ bubble is about to burst. Their pathetic defense succeeds only as an exercise in social distancing. Injured starter Will Barton has gone home. And his teammates acted as if they didn’t want to be here during a distressing 124-105 playoff loss to Utah on Wednesday.“We can’t be afraid to look in the mirror and see why we lost,” Denver coach Michael Malone said afterward.The first person requiring deep reflection is Malone. He’s paid to make tough decisions. It’s time to bench veteran forward Paul Millsap, who has been $30 million of dead weight since Denver arrived in Florida more than a month ago.Insert Jerami Grant in the starting lineup.Yes, Malone will be tempted to stay the course. But just as he reluctantly benched a struggling Barton in order to survive a first-round scare from San Antonio a year ago, Malone must contemplate a lineup change again now.“We’re not going to panic after a loss,” Malone insisted.Panic? There’s no need.But if Denver wants to avoid a first-round upset, something’s got to change in a big way. And pronto.With the best-of-seven series tied 1-1 but momentum shamelessly making goo-goo eyes at the Jazz, it’s long past time for the Denver front office to flush foolish pride down the same drain where Tim Connelly tossed a three-year deal (for the ridiculous amount of $90 million) to Millsap.With an app on my cell phone showing test results that proved me to be COVID-free, I was granted admission for the first time to be an eye-witness in the NBA bubble. Know one of the most striking things about the Hoops House of the Mouse on the Disney campus?Everything, from virtual fans on giant monitors to a camera mounted on a track chugging up and down the sideline opposite the team benches, is meticulously constructed, with enough technological artistry to impress Elon Musk. But …Games here feel more like they’re being staged on the set of a TV game show than inside an arena where you can smell both the beer breath and the passion of thousands of crazed fans smushed together.Why is this important?Despite the league’s best efforts to pump up the volume with an endless playlist of party tunes played on top of canned crowd noise, it’s almost eerie how a losing team stews in silence as a game slips away.“We have to get on each other more. We’ve got to keep the energy up,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said.”I feel like we got flat, especially that third quarter.”Since the days when George Mikan and glorious basketball dinosaurs roamed the earth, there’s been a tendency for a team that wins the playoff series-opener to relax and be rocked by the intense desperation of its foe in Game 2.That’s precisely what happened on this sunny Florida afternoon, when the Nuggets couldn’t rally without the uplifting noise of Pepsi Center, which they missed almost as much as Barton. He has decided after weeks of failing to get an aching knee healthy to depart the bubble and seek more focused rehab elsewhere.Denver fans are as loud and proud as any in America. Maybe they could’ve pulled the Nuggets out of their funk, before the team got whacked with a 43-29 Utah hammer shot in the third quarter.“We guarded nobody,” Malone harrumphed.Well, you have to admire the Nuggets for being coronavirus aware and diligently staying at least 6 feet away whenever Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles or Jordan Clarkson launched a shot from beyond the 3-point arc. When Utah took an 81-62 lead with six minutes, 13 seconds, remaining in the third period, the Jazz had been ridiculously accurate with the 3-ball, making 16-of-29 attempts.Denver is down two injured starters, and at this point, it’s probably wishful thinking to expect Gary Harris to contribute much more to the cause than Barton, who sounds as if he might be done for the playoffs.“For us, it means we have to step up,” said forward Michael Porter Jr., who scored 28 points. “One of our best players is out. If we want to do big things out here, it’s going to take a team effort and we’re all going to have to step up in a major way.”Malone needs to shorten his rotation and stop hoping for a miracle from Millsap. He has been awful for more than a month, averaging a measly 8.3 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 43.3% from the field.Averaging 15.5 points in the bubble and much more adept at getting out to pressure Utah’s 3-point attempts, shouldn’t inserting Grant in Millsap’s place be a no-brainer?The lopsided nature of this loss stung. But it’s time to move on. “If we let this stay with us going into Game 3, it will be more of the same,” Malone said.A hurting team cannot afford to have anything less than its five best players on the court.Bench Millsap. Start Grant.We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. 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By | | The Denver PostLAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. –&nbsp;The Nuggets’ bubble is about to burst. Their pathetic defense succeeds only as an exercise in social distancing. Injured starter Will Barton has gone home. And his teammates acted as if they didn’t want to be here during a distressing 124-105 playoff loss to Utah on Wednesday.“We can’t be afraid to look in the mirror and see why we lost,” Denver coach Michael Malone said afterward.The first person requiring deep reflection is Malone. He’s paid to make tough decisions. It’s time to bench veteran forward Paul Millsap, who has been $30...

Kiszla: Paul Millsap is $30 million of dead weight. Nuggets need to bench him to avoid getting bounced from NBA playoffs by Utah.

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