"That's what the teams that win do": Nuggets newcomers getting accustomed to Denver's championship mentality

Four days after two separate trade deadline deals to bring Keita Bates-Diop, Noah Vonleh and Jordan McRae to Denver were completed, all three new Nuggets additions got their first crash course in proper Nuggets bench etiquette.

As Denver’s starting five readied at the center circle for the opening tip of last week’s matchup against the Phoenix Suns, Monte Morris gathered the Nuggets’ “bench mob,” for a customary pregame huddle. The sideline tradition involves every member of Denver’s bench coming together for a quick pre-tip-off rallying cry.

Morris, the ringleader of the Nuggets’ bench, said the tradition started last season. It was designed to offer a last-minute reminder to Denver’s reserves to compete, have fun, play with confidence and bring energy to the game.

“I was like, ‘This is weird,'” Bates-Diop said about Denver’s pregame sideline huddle. “But the whole game we were energetic.”

It was nothing like Bates-Diop or Vonleh experienced in Minnesota prior to the four-team 12-player deal between the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Rockets and Hawks that brought both of them to Denver. Around 24 hours before the trade was agreed upon, the 19-31 Sacramento Kings handed Bates-Diop, Vonleh and the Timberwolves their 12th-straight loss which dropped Minnesota 15-34 overall on the season, good for the second-worst record in the West.

In Denver, Bates-Diop, Vonleh and Jordan McRae, who was acquired from Washington — another team currently outside of playoff position — in a separate deal, join a Nuggets team that’s jockeying for a high playoff seed atop the Western Conference. The three newcomers have all noticed stark differences between their two latest NBA stops.

“I just noticed how connected the guys are. It’s a brotherhood over here,” said Vonleh. “Everybody’s for each other.”

After the four-team trade was agreed upon, Vonleh took a 7 a.m. flight to Denver the following morning. He then got a call from president of basketball operations Tim Connelly who asked Vonleh if he’d be open to hopping on another plane that afternoon to Utah where a seven-man skeleton Nuggets squad was set to take on the Jazz. An eager Vonleh jumped at the chance to make the trip but couldn’t suit up because the trade wasn’t finalized.

“If the opportunity is presented,” Vonleh said. “Of course I want to play.”

At training camp in October, Nuggets coach Michael Malone and his players broke bread at the team’s first dinner by discussing a “championship mindset.” A championship, Malone and Nuggets management thought, had become an identifiable goal heading into the season for the first time in recent memory, and drilling what it would take day in and day out to reach that lofty aspiration into their players’ heads at the team’s first organized function of the season would set the table for the rest of the year.

Denver’s ability to keep its championship mindset has waxed and waned over the year, but heading into the All-Star break there’s no doubt that the Nuggets are currently exemplifying many the championship traits Denver identified back in October.

Two weeks ago in Milwaukee, the Nuggets, without three starters and Mason Plumlee handed the Bucks just their third loss at home all season. Five days later in Utah, the Nuggets only played seven players due to the pending trade and relied on a bench that consisted of two-way player P.J. Dozier and seldom-used rookie Vlatko Cancar. The Nuggets won 106-100 in what will go down as one of if not the greatest regular season win in franchise history.

“Everybody has one goal,” said Vonleh, who also noted that he’s heard good things about the Nuggets’ player development program. “They want to try and keep chasing towards a championship and I’m happy to be a part of that.”

Bates-Diop said the biggest difference he’s noticed between his time in Minnesota and first week as a Nugget was the energy around the team and attention to detail.

McRae, who already had a prior relationship with a handful of Nuggets including fellow Atlanta offseason resident Paul Millsap, Jerami Grant, who he played with in Philadelphia, Torrey Craig, Gary Harris and Will Barton, was thrilled to come to Denver as well.

“Being a Nugget, it feels good,” McRae said.

Both Bates-Diop and McRae have logged minutes over their first full week with Denver. Bates-Diop played 14 minutes off the bench in his debut in Phoenix and five minutes during the Nuggets’ come-from-behind win over the Spurs on Monday. McRae sunk two 3s in his Nuggets’ debut against San Antonio.

Denver’s trade deadline acquisitions will have a difficult time carving out minutes in a fully-healthy Nuggets rotation, but being a part of a winning environment and taking on a championship mentality while having an opportunity to contribute for the last several months of a season if something all three are embracing.

That championship mentality shows up everywhere, on Pepsi Center’s second floor practice gym, in film sessions and on the Nuggets’ sideline before games where Denver’s bench mob gathers for their pregame huddle.

The energy exuded from the Nuggets’ bench prior to tip-off continues over the next four quarters too and many around the league have commented for the last two seasons about how Denver’s sideline is among the most active in the league.

“I even feel myself standing up a lot more and even just being more connected with the group,” Vonleh said.

It’s another piece to the Nuggets’ championship puzzle.

“That’s part of the wining environment,” McRae said. “For guys on the bench being just as happy for themselves as they are for their teammates, that’s what the teams that win do.”