"It's not easy for him,": Michael Malone explains Emmanuel Mudiay's demotion

DENVER — Since he was drafted No. 7 overall in the summer of 2015, Emmanuel Mudiay started 107 of his first 112 NBA games at point guard for the Nuggets over the last two seasons.

Now, healthy enough to play after a back injury sidelined him for much of February, Mudiay is the Nuggets’ third-string point guard. Jameer Nelson, who’s assumed his place in the starting lineup, since Mudiay went down and rookie Jamal Murray, who’s shown the Nuggets’ flashes of their future at point guard, take up all of Denver’s available minutes at the one.

It’s a decision Michael Malone grappled with, calling it one of toughest calls he’s had to make in his coaching career.

“That’s probably been one of the toughest decision I’ve had to make in terms of what guards I’m going to go with,” Malone said. “Emmanuel was starting for us for a year-and-a-half so for him to go from starting to kind of being out of the rotation is a lot to handle for a young man. My message to him was that this is not set in stone. We all know that with 24 games to go, a lot of things can change. Continue to work. Continue to stay ready. It’s just a decision I made as a head coach to go with Jameer and Jamal right now, and that can change in the near future.”

It’s a move from Malone that’s hard to argue with. Nelson has proven, even at 35-years-old, that he’s capable of steering Denver’s ship this season and Murray can inject an unparalleled amount of energy into the game whenever he steps on the floor. Mudiay’s struggled this season and has clearly been the Nuggets’ third-best point guard.

“The reality is this,” Malone explained. “With 25 games to go, you can’t play everybody and so those are the decisions that are made. We went with Jameer Nelson as our starter and Jamal Murray as our backup and I’ll probably go with that for the next couple of games and see where that takes us. That doesn’t mean that Emmanuel is completely done with and not part of the team anymore. By no means is that the case. I can only pick four guys to play in the backcourt and right now I’m going to go with Jameer, Jamal, Gary, and Will Barton as those four backcourt guys.”

Would the situation at point guard be different if this was a typical year in the Western Conference and the eighth seed came in at around 42 or 45 wins? Possibly. But the Nuggets are hell-bent on making the playoffs this season and rightly view Nelson and Murray as their two best options at point guard.

“It’s not easy for him,” Malone said. “And I didn’t expect it to be easy for Emmanuel.”

Mudiay logged five minutes of garbage time action in the fourth quarter against Brooklyn Friday. The 20-year-old scored two points to go with one assist, one block, and one steal.