Kenneth Faried says he's "not a bench player" even with the acquisition of Paul Millsap

Kenneth Faried said at Denver Nuggets media day Monday that he’s not a bench player and still sees himself as a starter even with the Nuggets acquisition of Paul Millsap this summer.

“I’m not a bench player. I’ve been saying that for the longest. I’m a starter,” Faried said. “I love to hear the crowd ‘starting at power forward, No. 35, Kenneth Faried’ and I’m going to fight for my starting position. I’m not just going to lay down and let somebody take it. If they give it to him I can’t control it.”

Head coach Michael Malone said earlier Monday that four of his five starters are locked in; Gary Harris at shooting guard, Wilson Chandler at small forward, Millsap at power forward and Nikola Jokic at center. There’s an open competition, according to Malone, for the team’s starting point guard spot between Jameer Nelson, Jamal Murray, and Emmanuel Mudiay.

Faried is set to be one of Denver’s first players off the bench behind Millsap.

“I’ve seen so much stuff happen in this league. There are 29 other teams. If this team doesn’t want or respect me enough to play me the minutes or whatever that I’m going to play or that I deserve to play, then I understand that,” Faried said. “There’s 29 others. Maybe I go somewhere else and do what I need to do there. At the same time, I’m here in Denver and I’m going to play Manimal basketball no matter what every time I step on the court.”

“I’m ready for whatever the team needs me to be ready for,” Faried added. “For me, it’s not ‘are you going to be the leader? Are you the leader of this team?’ I don’t know who the hell the leader of this team is, to be honest. We’re just going to see what happens. See how it plays out. We’ve got guys like Jameer Nelson who has been on this team for the last four years now.”

Last season, the 27-year-old, who’s been a starter for most of his six-year tenure in Denver, started 34 of the 61 games he appeared in. He averaged 9.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and paired with Jokic to form a dominant offensive duo on the interior.

Faried says he understands how the league works and that Millsap is a great acquisition for the organization, but he’s still coming into training camp (which begins Tuesday on the campus of the University of Colorado-Boulder) with the same ‘Manimal’ frame of mind as he has in year’s past.

“It’s just a matter of me being on the court or whatever happens,” Faried said. “Me being on the court, being an assistant helping coach the people that’s on the court. Whatever I need to do I know how to get there to help my team.”

“I needed to reinvent myself and that’s what I did this summer. Just doing different things like hey what can I do to get better. I worked out with Melo Westbrook and all them. I’m kind of mad everybody caught be doing it because I don’t like to tell anybody what I’m doing,” Faried said in reference to the workout videos posted frequently by player development guru Chris Brickley. “To me, it’s like ‘hey how has Kenneth been?’ ‘Oh, he hasn’t been doing nothing this summer.’ I like when y’all don’t think I’m doing shit, just to be honest.”

Faried, who’s been mentioned in trade rumors over the past couple of years, said earlier this month that he now enjoys them because it proves that other teams and people around the league respect his game. With Denver deep at power forward, that chatter could continue this season.