"I just want to shut everybody up,": Kenneth Faried calls out media, past coaches after Nuggets' win

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DENVER — Kenneth Faried had some things to get off his chest after the Denver Nuggets’ 120-104 win over the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night.

“A lot of people in this league and a lot of the media has been disrespecting me, saying ‘Kenneth’s defense.’ Even past coaches say ‘Oh, your defense is suspect,'” Faried said following Denver’s win. “And that’s what I predicate myself on. That’s how I got into this league. So I find that as disrespect and I just want to shut everybody up, not by saying it but by doing it.”

Faried, who has struggled defensively throughout his career, was a difference maker on that end of the floor against the Suns. The 26-year-old’s defense was anything but suspect Wednesday night.

Besides the 20 points on 8-12 shooting, Faried pulled down a season-high 15 rebounds in just 26 minutes, recorded four steals and finished with a 90.2 Defensive Rating.

“I’m just out here playing hard and getting after it,” Faried said. “Just trying to do what I can to really get the win.”

Faried, who started 64 out of the 67 games he played for Denver last season and had only come off the bench for 14 games across four seasons prior to last year, started this season in a reserve role which he initially struggled to adapt to.

Through the Nuggets’ first eight games, Faried averaged just 7.4 points and 9.0 rebounds in 23.9 minutes off the bench.

However, Faried looks like a different player when in the starting lineup, a role he’s now occupied in Denver’s past three games. He’s averaging 15.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals, 2.3 blocks and shooting 54.8 percent from the field in 24.7 minutes over those three starts.

“That’s my spot. That’s my spot. I don’t like people taking my spot,” Faried said of losing his starting spot at the onset of this season. “I didn’t take kindly to that. Coach knew that. My teammates knew that. I was outspoken about it. I was really upset. But I wanted it and I worked for it. That’s what I wanted to get back. When I came out of that starting spot, it kind of gave me a wakeup call like ‘Hey, you need to get back to who you are.'”

Faried won’t have to give up his starting spot anytime soon. The main reason that Michael Malone decided to switch up his starting lineup was because of how poorly Denver was playing to begin games.

The Nuggets had outscored their opponent in just two of the six first quarters they played with Faried coming off the bench but have won the opening period in two of their last three games by a collective four-point margin, all of which Faried has started.

“A lot of people count you out in this league, saying you’re washed up and all that stuff,” Faried said. “I’ve always been the underdog my whole career so this is great for us.”