Playoffs? Playoffs??

Brian Shaw had his Jim Mora moment Monday, high-pitch squealing notwithstanding.

“I’m not even talking about playoffs now. We have to get back to the point where we can just play a complete 48 minutes and feel what it’s like to win a game, especially with the number (of players we have),” said the Nuggets coach, whose team is without Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Andre Miller, JaVale McGee, Nate Robinson, Fat Lever, T.R. Dunn and Danny Schayes. “That’s the starting point.”

The all-star break is over and Denver is 24-27, six games out of a playoff spot. But there seems to be this sentiment that Shaw is a failed experiment, that Shaw is the wrong choice for the job. I’m not ready to join you just yet — believe me, I’ll let you know when I do — but this is a process, and he’s still implementing his plays and principles. And I’ll be quite frank here: Even if every Nugget were healthy, what would this be, the fifth-best team in the West? Sixth?

But all eyes are on Shaw.

He was brought here to develop players, like he did with the Indiana Pacers’ studs, and win playoff rounds, which Denver did just once though making 10 consecutive postseasons. Kenneth Faried is barely buying in. You can read between the lines in his quotes. You can see it in some of his decisions. Faried is either a key part of the future or a key part of a future trade. Shaw must find a way to connect with this guy. He’s not uncoachable; this isn’t J.R. Smith.

I’ve grappled with this whole Andre Miller thing. Yes, imagine squabbling with your boss, then your boss saying: “Go home, don’t come to work … but we’ll keep paying you.” It’s bonkers. But I believe Shaw and the Nuggets made the right decision. They had to keep this guy away. Shaw is setting the tone. He’s a rookie coach, and not everyone in the locker room is sold on the guy. Miller defied the coach, embarrassed the coach. Even if it costs you a couple of wins, even if it means wedging Randy Foye into the point guard position, it’s worth it to stick to your principles.

Look, if they brought Miller back in the short term, it’s Shaw saying guys can get away with this behavior and mind-set. And if they brought Miller back, this disgruntled man-child (not “manchild,” I mean “a man who’s a big whiney baby”) would have been spewing negative things in the locker room to, Shaw’s words, “a young team that’s very impressionable. … I’m setting the tone, I’m trying to build and create a culture around here that will give us some sustainability.”

It’s like my favorite sports movie, “Hoosiers.” (No offense to the cinematic feat about the football-playing dog, “Air Bud, Golden Receiver.”) The new coach benched a guy for not passing the ball, but after some players fouled out late, Hickory had only four guys on the court. But the coach wouldn’t let the defiant benched player back in the game. He sacrificed the win for the sake of the message. Well, that’s what Denver has done — for the greater good.

“It’s a tough situation, he is the rookie coach, but we also do need ‘Dre,” Nuggets forward Darrell Arthur said after Monday night’s practice. “But we really can’t come to the point where they can link up and squash it. It was kind of a big moment in the season that kind of broke off.

“(Shaw) is setting the tone. He said at the beginning of the season that he’s not taking any (nonsense). That’s what you look for in a coach; you don’t want him to go back on his word. You want him to make a statement and stick to it.”

What’s the endgame here? I’ve said it before and will say it again: If the Nuggets are going to ever make a playoff run, the best or second-best player on that team is not on the current team. But that’s not on Shaw. Right now, the coach just has to get the guys to play with purpose and with swagger. Monday at the Pepsi Center, there was more swagger on the main court, where WWE wrestlers were on display, than on the practice court.

“You have to have something to have swag about,” Shaw explained.

Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman