When the Denver Nuggets began the 2020-21 season without Mason Plumlee as their backup center for the first time in four seasons, it was with the expectation that they would struggle initially. Isaiah Hartenstein, a 22-year-old castoff from the Houston Rockets, was brought in on a small two-year contract to help mitigate the loss of Plumlee, but the Nuggets really approached the position as a job-by-committee.
That might have changed had JaVale McGee been brought in to man the paint from the outset, but even when the 33-year-old was acquired during the middle of the season, the Nuggets still used McGee sparingly.