"It takes time": Michael Malone is starting to trust his bench

Michael Malone knows deep down that he has to trust his second unit. It’s really his only option throughout a helter-skelter regular season that’s being played on the heels of the shortest offseason in NBA history.

But trust in the NBA is a two-way street.

“I have to trust our bench a little bit more,” Malone said prior to the Nuggets’ 114-89 win over the New York Knicks Sunday. “Yes, they have to prove to be trustworthy, but I don’t want to by the end of January have dead legs from our starters and our best players.”

Denver had been trending that way over its first few games of the season. The Nuggets’ second unit was a disaster, JaMychal Green was hurt, and Denver’s bench couldn’t hold a lead no matter the length. As a result, Nikola Jokic averaged 38.2 minutes per game during the first week of the regular season. The Nuggets only had a 1-3 record to show for it.

If you bought stock in Denver’s second unit when it was trading for mere pennies, you’d be sitting pretty right now. The Nuggets’ bench has found their groove over the last few games, and better yet, Denver has pulled off back-to-back blowout wins. Jokic and Murray didn’t have to play in the last two fourth quarters and neither logged over 30 minutes in either of the Nuggets’ latest two victories.

It’s happened at the perfect time in the Nuggets’ schedule too. Denver is in the middle of a grueling stretch where it’s playing three games in four nights and eight games over 14 days.

“It’s been fun to watch them find their footing,” Malone said of his second unit.

“I don’t want to have to play Jamal and Nikola, Gary, Will, Paul 35 to 38 to 40 minutes a night. That’s not going to be good for us long term.”

So what’s changed?

First off, getting Green back in the lineup after an injured calf kept him in street clothes for the first four games of the season has been huge. He’s averaging 11.8 points on pristine shooting numbers (53.2 FG%, 51.9 3P%) and 6.3 rebounds per game. Green has been the ultimate stabilizer for Denver’s second unit on both ends of the court and is an expert at molding his game around whatever combination or lineup he’s playing with.

If Green’s on the floor with Denver’s starters, he can slide into the shadows as a fourth or fifth option, and carefully space the floor or crash the glass while Jokic and Murray handle most of the scoring load. If he’s playing with the bench, Green can shift into being more of a lead option. So far he’s thrived in the pick-and-pop playing with Denver’s three-point guard look. Sunday against the Knicks, Green chipped in 10 points (4-5 FG’s, 2-2 3FG’s), and eight rebounds in 23 minutes of work.

Since Green has returned, the Nuggets’ entire second unit is in the positives. Over the last six games, Monte Morris, who’s quietly putting together a career year, is a +47, Facu Campazzo is a +40, Green is a +26, Isaiah Hartenstein is a +24 and PJ Dozier is a +9. The Nuggets are allowing a stout 104 points per 100 possessions with Green on the court this season. That number balloons to 113.8 when Green’s on the bench.

Secondly, Denver’s bench has simply found some comfortability and chemistry with one another. This is a group that never played together prior to this season, and it showed early on. Morris and Green are the only players on Denver’s second unit who were mainstays in an NBA rotation last season. Campazzo was in Europe. Hartenstein was logging heavy minutes but in the G League. Dozier was buried on Denver’s bench for a lot of the year.

“Creating on-court chemistry does not happen right away,” Malone said. “It takes time. It takes experience. It takes minutes on the floor.”

The Morris-Campazzo-Dozier-Green-Hartenstein lineup has showed enough over the last two games that I’d expect to see more of it in the interim, or at least until Michael Porter Jr. returns. You also get the feeling that Malone wants to play a traditional five-man bench lineup instead of staggering Jokic or Murray with the second unit. It’s a strategy he deployed over the first half of last season and is another way to keep Jokic and Murray’s minutes down.

Denver maintains that its second unit can be effective, but with how good the Nuggets’ starters should be, the bench just needs to be average. Multiple ball handlers and the randomness that ensues from different point guards bringing the ball up the floor to trigger possessions has the ability to throw defenses off from time to time. That unit also has plus-defenders in Green and Dozier. The Nuggets are the NBA’s sixth-best defense over their last four games.

“We are kind of flying around,” Jokic said.

Of course, opponents matter. Denver’s defense has posted flawless defensive numbers over its current two-game winning streak and allowed 103 points against the seven-man 76ers and a season-low 89 to the Knicks. Then again, those offenses looked so inept at times that they might not score much against St. Buzzy’s either. Denver is still in search of a signature victory.

The Nuggets’ upcoming opponent, the Brooklyn Nets, would provide just that. Kevin Durant recently missed three games due to health and safety protocols but was back in the lineup Sunday and tallied a smooth 36 points on 11-21 shooting. He’ll add gallons of jet fuel to the Nets’ ninth-ranked offense, which will provide one of the toughest tests of the season for a Nuggets defense that’s trending in the right direction.

Denver’s bench will be tested again too. Even after losing starting two-guard Spencer Dinwiddie to injury, the Nets are still deep.

If the Nuggets’ second unit wants to sustain their current success, they simply have to stick to their current script: bring energy and outscore the other team’s bench. That’s the exact rally cry that Morris and Green, the two leaders of Denver’s bench mob, deliver to the rest of their cohorts in a sideline huddle before every game.

“We’re starting to get our chemistry right,” Morris said.