An awards campaign has already been launched two weeks into the Nuggets’ 2023-24 season, but its true origins are as organic as a one-on-one pickup basketball game. The inspiration dates back to February 2015.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was no longer a rookie when Reggie Jackson joined the Pistons at the trade deadline, but the second-year guard was still building his reputation. Jackson, three years older than KCP, faced him in one-on-one shortly after the trade.
“I think I can play ones pretty well,” Jackson told The Denver Post. “I haven’t met too many guys that can stay in front of me.”
But Caldwell-Pope could. Jackson tried three different moves and couldn’t score on him. “He cut me off three straight times,” Jackson recalled. “I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be fouling. There’s gotta be something you’re doing that’s illegal.’ I’ve got quite a few moves. I’ve got a lot of stuff in my bag, and he was on everything. Head fakes, hesies.”
Jackson quickly learned the defensive prowess of Caldwell-Pope and continued to witness it across three seasons as Detroit teammates. Now, reunited in Denver six years later, Jackson is taking action because he can’t believe Caldwell-Pope still hasn’t made an NBA All-Defensive team. According to Caldwell-Pope, Jackson has been reminding him almost every day of the ambitious goal he has established by telling him “first team” without context.
“That’s really a goal,” Caldwell-Pope told The Post. “I feel like I’ve been snubbed a couple years from that. Or even just being mentioned. I don’t think I’ve even been mentioned in that category, and now it’s a goal this year. I’ll make some noise, so they can’t ignore me.”
The All-Defensive team campaign has legs, so far. Michael Malone awarded Caldwell-Pope the team’s “Defensive Player of the Game chain” four consecutive games to start the season. Not that it was anything new. KCP is often assigned to defend top guards, and he often rises to the occasion. On Denver’s first road stand in front of strong opening-week crowds, he was the primary matchup on Desmond Bane in Memphis (4 for 17 from the field, 1 for 10 from 3-point range) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in Oklahoma City (2 for 16 total).
After the win in OKC, Michael Porter Jr. was workshopping nicknames worthy of Caldwell-Pope’s lockdown defense.
“When you’ve got good defense, we call them puppies. Like, your puppies are moving. Your feet,” Porter said. “I called him a ‘puppy master’ today. A ‘puppy lord.’ His defense has been unbelievable the first three games, guarding some really, really good players. He has the toughest assignment every night.”
From across the room, Peyton Watson chimed in: “Puppy lord!”
Caldwell-Pope’s analytics such as individual defensive rating and win shares aren’t quite on pace with elite guards and wings who were recognized last season, like O.G. Anunoby. But as of Saturday, he was fifth in the league with 2.3 steals per game, a counting stat reinforced by a steal percentage (43.8%) higher than the four players above him on the leaderboard.
Most notably, in the Nuggets’ first six games, opposing players shot 18 for 57 from the field (31.6%) when defended by Caldwell-Pope. As of Saturday, only two players in the NBA with a minimum of 30 shots attempted against them were holding opponents to a lower percentage: Victor Wembanyama (23.3% on 43 shots) and Al Horford (29.4% on 34 shots), a pair of big men. Wembanyama is almost a full foot taller than Caldwell-Pope, with an inhuman wingspan. Entering Saturday’s slate of games, the most comparable perimeter defender was Jrue Holiday, whose DFG% was 31.7% on 60 shots against him. He has made an All-Defensive team five of the last six years, including first-team honors last season.
“A couple seasons (throughout my career), I was thinking going into the offseason, ‘Man, I think I’m gonna be either first team or second team,’ just the way I played,” Caldwell-Pope said. “Even last year I thought I’d be considered.”
“That’s supposed to be his goal, because I think he has a shot,” Nikola Jokic told The Post. “He’s always guarding the best players, so he’s always there. (And) not just one-on-one. He’s really good in the team defense too. So he has a shot. Why not?”
For a sense of what Jokic means, you only have to look eight minutes into the season. Early in the first quarter against the Lakers, Caldwell-Pope had mostly been assigned to D’Angelo Russell or Taurean Prince, neither of whom touched the ball much. Once Jamal Murray went to the bench in the first substitution of the season, KCP started guarding Austin Reaves. One possession illuminated Jokic’s point.
Reaves brought up the ball to the left wing around a ball screen. Caldwell-Pope switched to cover the screener, Gabe Vincent, up top. Jackson, now on Reaves, got caught on the next screen from Anthony Davis, which Reaves followed to his right. As he drove and Jackson tried to recover, Jokic was playing deeper in the paint, so KCP slid to the elbow and got a hand on the ball to disrupt Reaves enough for Jackson to get back in front of him.
Reaves no longer had a clean shot, so he turned to seek the kick-out option. But Caldwell-Pope was now crowding the passing lane to the top of the key, denying Vincent the ball. Reaves resorted to Rui Hachimura, who quickly picked up his dribble on the right wing. As Porter prevented Prince’s backdoor cut attempt, Vincent rotated out toward the logo as the safety valve, and KCP jolted into action again, clogging that passing lane also as Hachimura turned toward Vincent.
It was too late in the shot clock. A desperate give-and-go with Davis was easily intercepted by Gordon, completing 24 exceptional seconds of collective defense. Caldwell-Pope, despite not guarding the ball for more than a second or two, was the central cog keeping the offense uncomfortable. In one sequence, he demonstrated his perimeter switchability, sturdy gap coverage, ability to take away angles off-ball and lateral foot speed. (Translation: His puppies were moving.) He also made a corner 3-pointer in transition stemming from Gordon’s steal.
“What he’s done has been remarkable: on the ball, getting through screens, iso situations, switching,” Jackson said.
Jackson has been around the league long enough to understand its inner machinations. If a player wants award consideration, he might have to drum up attention. Defensive accolades are tricky because the analytics, while a guide, are notoriously unreliable. The eye test is especially important, but eye-test equity doesn’t exist in the NBA. Some teams are on national TV more often (that might actually favor KCP this season), and some players already have top-tier defensive reputations built up.
Caldwell-Pope is still trying to get over the hump.
“It’s been a goal since we’ve been in Detroit together,” Jackson said. “I think a lot of times, media, of course, will kind of push names out there. The narratives of guys that don’t get talked about a lot kind of get lost in the archives. … I think he’s been All-Defensive for years. Years and years. I just don’t think the narrative has been pushed for him. I don’t think guys have necessarily talked about it as much. And nothing is wrong with that. … But I know for myself, the comfortability of where I’m at, I’m OK being the one to push a narrative. He definitely deserves it. I know we’re in a smaller market, so he might be overlooked. But I want people to respect what he does every night.”
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