"It's definitely been weird": Finally out of quarantine, Nuggets get back to basics in first practice

How does an NBA coach pass the time while quarantined in a hotel room for two straight days?

Michael Malone started a daily journal, which he intends to keep throughout the Nuggets’ stay at Disney World and maybe sell to the highest bidder one day.

“Maybe somebody will offer me a financial offer, and I can give the rights to my journal,” Malone said Friday while speaking with the media via Zoom following the Nuggets’ first practice inside the NBA bubble.

Upon arriving at the Gran Destino Tower, where the Nuggets will stay for the duration of their time at Disney World Tuesday night, Malone — along with Denver’s players and staffers — was immediately administered a coronavirus test.

Malone said he then attended an orientation meeting with NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum before retreating to his room to begin his two-day quarantine. Books, virtual meetings, and phone calls with his players and family helped Malone pass the time during the league-mandated quarantine and keep him busy during the downtime that he’ll have over the next several weeks.

Paul Millsap said he brought “everything he could possibly bring” into the bubble, including his Xbox, books, and a massage bed. Although the food delivered to players’ rooms during the 36-48 hour mandatory quarantine caused a stir on social media, Millsap wasn’t affected by it. He’s on a diet and packed food of his own.

“I’m on like a sardine diet and crackers, so I’m good,” Millsap said before adding that his quarantine was especially tricky since his hotel room doesn’t have a window. “I’m good. I don’t really look at the food or whatever they have.”

The Nuggets don’t have to worry about being sequestered to their rooms any longer. They were released from quarantine Thursday afternoon and are now free to roam the NBA’s Disney World campus. Denver held its first practice in around four months Friday morning, and Malone got a firsthand look at some of his players for the first time since the league suspended the season on March 11.

“We’re waiting for some of our players to get down here,” Malone said. “But with the players that we have, we are treating it as an opportunity to get back in the gym, to reconnect on the court, to get some conditioning in, to get some competitive drills in and revisiting offensive and defensive fundamentals and foundational parts of our team.”

Other than Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets haven’t confirmed who is and isn’t currently at Disney World. But Malone did say Friday that Jokic is looking forward to joining the team and will “hopefully be here soon in the next couple of days.”

Millsap, Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Jerami Grant, Mason Plumlee, Noah Vonleh, Troy Daniels, Bol Bol and Tyler Cook were among the players who took part in the Nuggets’ first practice according to photos that the team released Friday.

Since the Nuggets don’t have their full roster isn’t inside the bubble yet, Malone isn’t running his first few practices like a traditional training camp. Cook, who Denver signed to a two-way contract before the NBA restart, compared the Nuggets’ first practice to a “mid-season practice,” which focused on conditioning, shooting, and competitive drills after players were limited to 1-on-0 drills for most of the hiatus, plus the team’s offensive and defensive fundamentals.

“I think that kind of environment will allow us to, first of all, knock the rust off quite a bit because guys haven’t played in a while, but also get used to being back around each other,” Cook said. “For guys like myself who haven’t been around, it’s good to get back integrated with the team. I’ve been trying to learn the plays again and just get reacclimated to the environment.”

Malone said Friday that a key challenge over the next several weeks leading up to the Nuggets’ first seeding game is balancing conditioning and injury prevention, considering that the risk of injury for players is much higher after the hiatus.

“I think the conditioning is in a pretty good place,” Malone said. “Are we in game shape today? Probably not. I can’t imagine most of the NBA teams down here are.”

Denver is planning to practice Saturday and Sunday as well. The Nuggets’ first scrimmage is July 22, their first seeding game is Aug. 8 and the first round of the playoffs, which Denver has already clinched a berth in, begin Aug. 17. Slowly but surely, the normalcy of an NBA schedule and routine should return, even though it’s the middle of July at Disney World.

“It’s definitely been weird,” Millsap said. “We’re not used to playing with each other around this time of year. It’s summertime. We’re used to doing other things around this time. But once we got back on the court, everything went back to normal.”