Notes and observations from Day 1 of Nuggets training camp at the University of California, San Diego.
Malone’s four pillars
Michael Malone typically opens every season with a speech at the Nuggets’ team dinner the night before Denver’s first training camp practice. This year, that speech came a day later, on Tuesday, the day of training camp practice No. 1. Apparently, restaurant where the Nuggets held their first team dinner on Monday was too loud.
Still, Malone’s season-opening speech, like it always does, laid the foundation for the upcoming year. It set the tone and the expectations for a season that the Nuggets hope ends in a championship. In his speech, Malone reinforced the positives from the last four years and then established the four pillars that he thinks will lead to a successful upcoming season.
- Homecourt record — Denver only won 23 home games last season, a laughably low number.
- Winning the division — No one on the Nuggets, per Malone, knows what division Denver is in and only some players knew what teams are in the Northwest Division.
- Have a better record vs. playoff teams, especially in the West.
- Be better in clutch games — Denver was 23-17 in clutch games last season, the eighth-best mark in the league, Malone wants them to be No. 1.
Furthermore, we have an official tagline for this year: “Don’t talk about it, be about it.”
This was Malone after practice today:
“I said, ‘If I went around the room right now and I said to everybody, ‘What’s your goal this year?” Every one of you are going to say, ‘Win a championship.’ And I said, ‘Bullshit! We said the same thing last year. Guys were late, guys weren’t focused all the time. Don’t talk about it, be about it.'”
Pointed, direct, concise. I’ve got to think that message was delivered.
What’s ahead for Michael Porter Jr.
Denver has big plans defensively this season and the Nuggets’ goal is to be a top-5 defense in the league. To get there, they’ll need their starting small forward to level up defensively.
The good news for Porter is that he already knows Denver’s defense. The Nuggets aren’t making any grand changes to their defensive scheme this season. It’s pretty much the same defense Denver has been running with the same terminology the Nuggets have been using in years past.
That should help Porter out…a lot.
But Malone does want to mix in more zone this season and “junk up the game” with sporadic full-court presses and things of that nature. The Nuggets definitely want to get more diverse and creative on that end.
Some of the same talking points around Porter’s defense here at training camp are the same ones we discussed two years ago: He can’t be a target for the defense and the Nuggets can’t be trying to hide him on that end of the floor. It’s a failing strategy that Denver can’t go into the playoffs with. So, Porter needs to get back on that path to improvement — that it’s easy to forget he was on to close the 2020-21 season — early on this year.
“I want Michael Porter to be a guy that’s going to close big games for us,” Malone said. “That’s going to be on him and me helping him get there.”
Offensively, Malone noted Tuesday that Porter forced some questionable shots during practice and that Denver as a team needs to remember its identity. The Nuggets were third in assists per game and led the NBA in passes per game last season. A theme early this camp is to pass up good shots for great ones. That’s who Denver is and needs to be on offense.
Malone also stressed that Porter needs to focus on getting to the corners on offensemwhere he’s automatic from 3 and not stop running when he gets to the wing. Moving without the ball and not gravitating towards it when it’s not in his hands are focus areas for Porter this training camp as well.
Again, these are the same areas of improvement (both offensively and defensively) that we’ve talked and written about with Porter throughout his entire NBA career. That’s where he’s at after missing pretty much all of last season.
Learning about the rotation
It’s still extremely, extremely early, but here’s how the Nuggets’ rotation sorted out during Denver’s first practice.
Starters: Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Nikola JOkic
Bench: Bones Hyland, Bruce Brown, Davon Reed, Jeff Green, DeAndre Jordan
Reserves: Ish Smith, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Zeke Nnaji, Vlatko Cancar
No real surprises in my opinion. If you read Wind Chimes this summer, you’d know that I had Jordan penciled in at backup center for now. I think Denver is going to give the veteran a chance to be that guy. It feels like Malone has real plans for him. But this rotation isn’t set in stone. The Nuggets will mix and match their lineups throughout the week. I think backup center, and even potentially backup small forward are up for grabs. It’s notable that Denver’s starting practices this way though.
More notes on the rotation:
- Watch for Jamal Murray and Bones Hyland to play a lot together this season. It sounds like Murray will open the seasons staggering with the bench. I bet he plays a lot off the ball if he’s sharing the floor with Hyland.
- Michael Malone loves Bruce Brown, and I’d bet on him closing a lot of games for Denver. He’ll be the go-to guy off the bench if Malone feels Porter’s defense isn’t good enough to be on the floor at the end of games.
- I heard some encouraging chatter about Jack White today. His shooting seems like it’s for real. If it is, people within the Nuggets’ front office believe he can be an NBA player.
