Emmanuel Mudiay, Denver Nuggets face Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Los Angeles Clippers

 

The Denver Nuggets will be in action for the first time in the preseason tonight in Los Angeles to face the Clippers. We’ll be able to get our first look at Emmanuel Mudiay with his full cast of teammates – not just the youngsters he shared the court with at the 2015 Summer League in Las Vegas. The best news of all? The game can be found on television tonight.

Preseason Game 1
Nuggets	vs	Clippers
8:30 p.m. MT	on	NBA TV

 

 

Head coach Michael Malone has been very quotable thus far in his Nuggets tenure. He has made a point of praising his players’ efforts in training camp, which is a change of pace from Brian Shaw – who questioned his team’s efforts on an almost daily basis. As Kenneth Faried pointed out at media day, and as Malone has said, he will have his team’s back. With camp wrapping up in Colorado Springs on Oct. 1st, Malone summed up the three days of practices by applauding his squad.

“I’ve been very impressed with how hard they’ve worked,” said Malone. “Five practices, two days of two-a-days and the fifth is always the toughest. They’re banged up mentally and physically, but I loved how hard they came out and fought through that. I think we as a staff have to set the tone everyday and bring the juice, if you will, but these guys have responded.

“Has everything been perfect, has it been sloppy at times? Yes, but I love the work ethic and if we continue to get better every day and get the reps, everything will get cleaner and cleaner,” Malone continued. “A big shoutout to all the players for how hard they’ve worked.”

Malone’s words are a far cry from the way the Shaw era ended and the above should be music to the team’s ears. Malone, Jameer Nelson and even newcomer Mike Miller have all commented on how quickly the first game has come. In tonight’s contest, we should expect some sloppiness after just a few days of practices.

The Clippers: 

The Clips have eight new players that will make an impact on this year’s team. Maybe that number pushes to nine if former Nuggets No. 5 overall pick Nikoloz Tskitishvili makes the roster. Yes, Skita is back in the NBA, for now. In addition to Skita, the Clips added: Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce, Pablo Prigioni, Wes Johnson, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Chuck Hayes and Cole Aldrich.

That’s a lot of change for a team that went 56-26 last season. But the Clippers flamed out in the Semifinal round of the 2015 playoffs to the Houston Rockets (4-3) after being up 3-1. It was a pretty epic collapse and the hope is that the addition of the veteran Pierce and the talented, but polarizing Smith and Stephenson will be enough to push them over the top. We shall see.

Nuggets Starters and Rotation: 

“Right now, I’m not sure who we’re going to start,” said Malone on Oct. 1st. “We’ll figure that probably after shoot-around. I’ll give different lineups a different chance to play together and give guys different looks. Don’t read into anything the first probably three to four preseason games. We’re just trying to explore and use those games to see who we have, who plays well together and what is best for our team.”

Let’s take a guess. Perhaps we’ll see Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried and Joffrey Lauvergne. As Malone indicated, he’ll play with different combinations throughout the night, so we’ll get to see a lot of guys play and we’ll get a look at a lot of different pairings.

The Nuggets will have to figure out their 15 man regular season roster by Oct. 28th, meaning they will have to trim four players from their current 19-man training camp roster. The battle could come down to Erick Green or Nick Johnson. Malone spoke highly of Green’s first play in the team’s first scrimmage and his work throughout the month of September. He addressed Johnson after practice on Oct. 1st.

“Nick Johnson is a hell of a defender and an athlete.” said Malone.

Johnson’s strong suit is on the defensive end, but he knows how to run a team on offense from his guard days at Arizona. Green is more known for his offense, but has been working to improve his defense. We’ll see how the two play tonight in Los Angeles.

The Offense: 

Over the summer, Malone added German National Team head coach Chris Fleming to his staff. While Fleming might be more of the offensive mind compared to assistant coach Ed Pinckney, there really isn’t an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator like you see in the NFL. It will be interesting to hear Fleming and Pinckney’s insights into the system they are trying to build with the Nuggets. Malone went over a bit of what the team wants to do on offense, in general terms.

“We want to be a team that plays with a point-five mentality,” said Malone. “Don’t hold it. Don’t dribble it. If you have a shot, take it. If not, drive to close it or swing it and make a play for your teammate. I know it gets used way too often, but the whole, ‘trust the pass’ good to great mentality where you’re playing for somebody. Teams that don’t share the ball are usually divided. We want to be a team that is unselfish and has a, ‘make a play for my teammate’ mentality.”

When I asked, Malone was quick to point out the difference between a run-and-gun teams and running with purpose. (You can hear that sound inside the podcast we did this week.) Malone has stressed that he wants to run off missed shots, which should entice his team to play good defense so they can get out in transition. He has also been stressing defensive rebounds. Malone also explained that, yes, you do have to work at being a transition team. The team practiced at an even higher elevation in Colorado Springs of 6,035 feet versus Denver’s range of 5,130-5,690 feet, which Malone liked because in order to run, you have to have a team capable of running all night. Malone also stressed getting outlet passes up the floor and getting the team’s momentum going downhill after defensive boards.

Malone also discussed playing with pace and efficiency. Pace is a funny stat. Shaw used to point out pace to show that his team was playing fast, but pace only indicates how many offensive possessions your team is able to amass. Malone stresses pace with efficiency. You want quick shots, but you have to take good shots and that is a big part of what the Nuggets got away from the past couple seasons. It’ll be important to see how Malone is able draw up plays that allow for efficient shots and how much leeway he’ll allow his team to freelance on offense, too.

Words like “timing” and “spacing” have also been good to hear from Malone. He was able to run some creative sets in Sacramento and the Golden State Warriors also ran a lot of creative plays while Malone was on the staff, too. So, we should be getting some nice sets in Denver as the team will focus on half-court offense – especially after made shots by the opposition.

The Defense: 

Pay attention to how the Nuggets defend pick-and-rolls. Are certain players or positions blitzing the on-ball man? Will the Nuggets defender getting screened be fighting over the pick or will the Nuggets switch a lot on defense? Communication is also vital on defense and we can focus on how the team rotates once plays start to attack the interior and as the ball swings around the court. Watch for leak-outs or if the Nuggets guards are helping on the defensive glass.

Team Health: 

All the Nuggets are good to go tonight, according to the coach. As the preseason wears on, Malone said he will look to rest Gallinari and Lauvergne due to their extensive play over the summer in EuroBasket. Malone also said he may look to rest Jameer Nelson and Randy Foye, the elder statesmen on the team – probably Miller too – as the preseason drags on.

Malone on Mike Miller:

“A great signing by Tim [Connelly] and the front office.”

As we’ve said here on BSNDenver.com, the signing of Miller, 35, is more about what he can do for his teammates off the floor that what he’ll provide for the team on the floor and coach mirrored those thoughts.

“You’re getting a guy that’s a two-time world champion, a former Rookie of the Year [2001], he’s been around greatness and knows what it takes,” said Malone. “I think any time you can add a guy like that, to go along with a Jameer Nelson, Randy Foye, to be great veterans for all our young guys. That’s not even talking about him as a player. Now obviously on the court, you have a guy that is a deadly shooter, makes big shots in big games and we’re just really, really excited to have him.”

Player Monitoring Vests:

One thing I noticed at training camp is the players wearing little vests underneath their uniforms. They look like this:

“It just tracks their workload,” Malone said. “The thing I take out of it, most importantly, is if a guy is exceeding his workload, we want to curtail it because we don’t want him getting to the point where he gets hurt. The reports that they give me every day is our guys are all exceeding the workloads, which doesn’t surprise me. I’m old school, I don’t need a computer to tell me that. I know when a guy is working or not, but the fact that it can be backed up, more power to it.”

It’s nice to see this innovation make it’s way to the Nuggets.

Billups Visits Nuggets Training Camp:

“When I was in Cleveland for five years and Chauncey was in Detroit, we used to have great battles and I have a lot of respect for him as a player,” Malone said. “But also, look at his career, people don’t understand it doesn’t happen overnight for most rookies. How long did it take Chauncey Billups to become the Chauncey Billups that we all know now? I think that’s what people forget. It’s a process. Young guys coming into the NBA, they have to learn the league, they have to learn the personnel. I think him being able to talk to Emmanuel and give him some pointers… You can’t put a dollar sign on that.”

Learning from the best. #Nuggets pic.twitter.com/LnUOIfXhq9

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) October 1, 2015