They called it Boomer. Two guards meet on the wing for a dribble handoff exchange, initiating the offense. The second player swings the ball across the top of the key to the second side. “Already, three people have touched it” in a rapid span of time, David Adelman says. That’s what the Nuggets loved about it: “Everybody touches the ball.” Soon, a fourth does — usually Nikola Jokic, flashing to the second-side elbow and catching an entry pass, or stepping up to screen.
Now the ball is popping, movement away from it is flowing, and Jokic is orchestrating from a comfortable spot on the floor.