DENVER, Colo. — After playing at an above league average pace of 98.16 possessions per 48 minutes last year, coach Michael Malone wants the Denver Nuggets to run even more this season.
“I that’s when were at our best,” Malone said of Denver’s ability to get out on the break. “In transition before the defense sets, looking for early seams, drive, kick, and attack the mismatch.”
With a starting point guard just ten games in the Chinese Basketball Association removed from high school, a second-year shooting guard who logged fewer than 750 minutes his rookie season, and an unheralded five-man who forced his way into the starting lineup largely due to injury, the Nuggets didn’t have the experience necessary to play effectively and efficiently in transition last season.
Now, a year older and with 82 games under their belt, Malone is ready to give his players free reign to run as long as they do so responsibly.
“No doubt,” Malone said on if getting out in transition is a point of emphasis this season. “We want to be a team who wants to pride ourself on defense, then rebounding, and then running. With the running, we have to have discipline within that and that’s where our turnovers and shot selection haven’t been great all the time.”
This preseason, Denver is already averaging a little over 106 possessions per 48 minutes through three games, but preseason possession numbers are typically high and historically will drop when wins and losses start to count. Nevertheless, the Nuggets have shown they’re willing to run in situations where they would have pulled the ball out and gone into a formal offensive set last season.
Denver also has the personnel to run effectively. In Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, the Nuggets pack a plethora of guards and wings who are good enough with the ball in their hands to facilitate in the open floor. Last year, Nikola Jokic showed he has the ball handling, passing aptitude and IQ to lead the break as well.
“We have two very capable playmaking bigs that have great vision. Emmanuel Mudiay is a big, strong guard and we’ve challenged him to average more than 3.5 rebounds per game. The beauty in that, a la Will Barton last season, when you defensive rebound ignite the break, push the break, and Pat Riley used to always say defense and rebounding are the triggers that ignite the break and that’s what we want,” Malone said. “We’re going to give our bigs the freedom to rebound and push for a couple of dribbles to make a play. You saw Jokic do it quite a bit last year, but it’s best when your point guard, Emmanuel Mudiay, your perimeter players, Wilson Chandler, Gallo, rebound, everybody else run and push.”
Although watching Jokic with the ball in his hands off a defensive rebound is one of the NBA’s true titillations, how fast the Nuggets elect to play this season will largely depend on Mudiay. The 20-year-old, who had a rough start to his rookie year but showed he was able to command and orchestrate an offense over the second half of last season, is the driving engine that will get Denver up the floor and swiftly into their offense this year.
Through just a few preseason games, it’s apparent that Mudiay is looking to push the ball, improvise when possible and rely on his playmaking instincts to run Denver’s offense even when he might not have numbers or an advantage.
“If I rebound and I push the break, we don’t have to run as many plays, honestly we don’t need to be a halfcourt team, that’s not what we need to be doing,” Mudiay said. “We get the rebound, we go, get the best shot, get more possessions on offense. Because last year, we started doing that towards the last couple months, just running more, and we want to get into that momentum going into this year. That’s something me and Gary (Harris) were talking about; just staying in that aggresive attack mode.”
Denver succeeded in the regular season from 2005-2013 under George Karl largely by outrunning and outpacing their opponents. The Nuggets will run more responsibly and strategically than Karl’s teams, but opening up the floor and executing in a more free-flowing offense is something Denver hopes to accomplish this season.
“The way we’re trying to play is not run so many plays,” Mudiay said. “Just run-and-gun and stuff like that.”
