Five things we learned from the Denver Nuggets preseason

 

1. Emmanuel Mudiay’s best skill right now is his vision

I’ll admit I didn’t know much about Mudiay before the Nuggets drafted him No. 7 overall this summer. He was a pure point guard that was physically gifted, that’s all I knew. What I would learn throughout the next four months was that he has the vision, passing ability and spatial awareness to immediately put him among the positions’ best passers. At just 19-years old, his vision is already in tune with a veteran who has been around the league for a decade. Mudiay understands angles like few rookies do, he’s already become an expert at driving under the rim, keeping his dribble alive and feeding the corner three, and he already anticipates his teammates’ cuts and movements like a wily veteran.

He’s come into the league as an astute pocket passer; effortlessly feeding the roll man off of high screens or skipping a pass to the corner if he finds himself stranded with a dead dribble in the paint. Mudiay has the potential to one day join Stephen Curry and LeBron James in the pantheon of the league’s best best ball movers – and he may be approaching that level sooner rather than later. His shot is still a major work in progress and as Matt Moore of CBSSportsline.com has noted on numerous occasions, as Mudiay hits the rookie wall, his 3-point and shooting percentages could fall off a cliff. His in between game still needs maintenance and his handle has been a bit shaky at times, but Mudiay’s given me no reason to believe he won’t improve in those areas. The first trimester of Mudiay has been exciting and the power and speed combination he plays with has been impressive, but it’s his vision and awareness, particularly on the offensive end, that are his best skill as of now.

 

2. Nikola Jokic may have the second highest potential on the Nuggets roster.

I’ll acknowledge that Danilo Gallinari, because of the injuries that have hindered his rise over the last couple years, still has room to grow and Kenneth Faried could reach a higher altitude with head coach Michael Malone’s defensive tutelage, but the 20-year-old Jokic is a level above those two and right behind Mudiay in terms of overall ceiling. We saw during the Las Vegas Summer League that Jokic’s has the vision of a point forward when coach Micah Nori put the Serbian at the elbow and allowed him to be a playmaker.

Then we saw during preseason that Jokic can be a bullet train diving towards the rim, allowing his gravity to suck defenders towards him, opening up perimeter daylight for Denver’s shooters.

Jokic also has unbelievably quick hands, which allow his to come up with crafty steals when defending the post and an uncanny nose for the ball, especially on the offensive glass where he’s vacuumed in the fourth highest percentage of offensive rebounds when he’s on the court out of rookies who play at least 20 minutes per game, per NBA.com. He also had the second highest Player Efficiency Rating at 26.6 of all qualified NBA rookies, according to RealGM. When Jokic came over from Europe this summer he was looked at as a project; someone who wouldn’t get a ton of minutes behind Denver’s crowded front court. However, after watching this preseason unfold, we saw him average 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds on 73.3 percent shooting. Malone will have no choice but to find the rookie minutes once the regular season gets underway.

 

3. The post-EuroBasket Danilo Gallinari hype is real

Gallinari is set to begin his most important NBA season, with him and Malone seemingly on the same page on how to make his impact felt. Malone has been adamant about featuring Gallinari in small ball lineups like he excelled in while playing for the Italian team in EuroBasket this summer, and Malone has made true to that that promise. The Rooster got to the line a ridiculous 7.25 times per game, (what would be a career high) at EuroBasket 2015, showing he’s completely trusting his body post-ACL injury and moving on to bigger and better things. Gallinari started at power forward against Golden State in the preseason and recored a +21 in nearly 29 minutes against the Warriors starters. Against Chicago, he locked up guard/forward Jimmy Butler defensively on multiple possessions in a row. He’s been a stone-cold killer in isolation situations, many of which develop from the Nuggets pet set this preseason, sometimes featuring a Gallinari wing post up. (More on this later this season.)

He’s also gotten into the paint easily against both smaller and bigger defenders leveraging his shoulders to bully himself into the lane. This is Gallinari’s year to rise to the top as Denver’s best player and he’s certainly laid that foundation this summer and preseason to get there.

 

4. Erick Green is flat out a better player than Nick Johnson

Okay, this argument for Denver’s 15th man isn’t really relevant in the grander scheme of topics this season, but it has been a hot take conversation around the team as of late. I’ll admit, I had an image in my head of Johnson that was more in tune with his time in college at Arizona than in Houston, but it’s apparent Green is flat out better. Unfortunately, the decision on who to keep on the roster may not come down to skill, but money. Johnson and his guaranteed contract came over from Houston in the Ty Lawson trade, while Green is guaranteed a paltry $100k this season before Jan. 10th, when his contract of a whopping $845,059 becomes fully guaranteed.

Unless Denver pulls off a an unlikely trade to unload someone in their crowded front court, the decision comes down to keeping Green and having $1.3 million in dead money on the books, or losing Green for $100k and keeping Johnson as the Nuggets third point guard. Either way you slice it, Green is a better basketball player than Johnson and I hope the Nuggets decide to keep the guy they have grown comfortable with over the past two years.

 

5. Joffrey Lauvergne, Gary Harris and Michael Malone are caught in a love triangle

I for one, have not been that high on Lauvergne since he came over from BC Khimki (Russia) towards the end of last season. I viewed him as an end of the bench big man, who could give you the occasional burst of energy on a one-game-per-week basis. He had a good, but not great summer for France in EuroBasket, but a big preseason has certainly changed how he’s viewed in Denver and across the league. He averaged 13.3 points, 8.8 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game this preseason and registered two double-doubles in six games. Malone has taken notice.

“I love how hard he plays,” Malone said. “He’s athletic, he has toughness, he has skill. He steps out [against Dallas] and knocks down two threes. In L.A. [against the Clippers], he and Nikola Jokic were out there together, played very well together. He’s just a guy that is going to demand minutes by how hard and how well he’s been playing. We need him to keep on working and getting better and get in great shape. And if he’s able to do that, he’ll get a great opportunity this year.”

From the looks of it, Lauvergne is slotted in to start Denver’s regular season opener Oct. 28th in Houston alongside Kenneth Faried. That starting spot will only likely last until Jusuf Nurkic is healthy, and Lauvergne will be re-located back to the bench, in a role that’s probably best suited for him.

It’s been a quiet preseason for him and maybe that’s because Harris is a quiet guy, but the second-year shooting guard has slowly but surely locked himself into the starting two-guard spot with a solid preseason. A developing story that Malone didn’t want to let go by the wayside as he had high hopes for Harris heading into the preseason.

“The thing about Gary is, I think he’s got great toughness. Watched him at Michigan State, a very capable one-one-one defender and team defender,” said Malone back on Sept. 28th. “And it’s going to come down to: Gary has got to make shots. It’s a make or miss league. You have to be able to make shots as a shooting guard in the NBA and I think he’ll be a much better shooter this year based on the fact that his minutes were so sporadic last year.”

And how did things go once the preseason games began?

“Gary Harris has surpassed my expectations.” Malone said unprompted after a preseason shoot around.

Harris has shot the ball well, when compared to his disastrous 2014-15 campaign. He hit 3-pointers at a 40 percent clip this preseason and averaged a healthy 11.5 points in 28 minutes per game. Extrapolate those numbers out over 36 minutes, and 14.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 steals are numbers that you can put a bow on and deliver to Tim Connelly’s desk.

Harris has also drove the ball with a purpose and as always, he’s defended well.

The admiration Malone has shown for both Lauvergne and Harris this preseason has been noticeable. He’s behind his young guys, both pumping them up to the media and directly to the players, giving the second-year duo the confidence they need be in the starting five to tip-off the season.

**

There are a ton of story lines to cover this season, but those are the top five that jumped out to me. Thoughts? Leave a comment below or tell me what you think on Twitter (@NBAWind).