Michael Malone returns to old stomping grounds to face George Karl, Sacramento Kings

While rumors were flying around both teams heading into the NBA’s trade deadline, both the Denver Nuggets and Sacramento Kings enter their first matchup of the season with rosters that are mostly intact. The Nuggets won three of their last four games going into the All-Star break, including two of their last three on the road, with the only blemish a heartbreaking, last-second loss to the Nets in Brooklyn. The Kings on the other hand, have lost eight of their last 10 games, with just a home win against the Bucks and a win over the lowly 76ers in Philadelphia surrounding two four-game losing streaks since January 25th.

Deadline Dud

The Nuggets made one of the few deadline deals this season, sending Randy Foye to Oklahoma City and getting DJ Augustin, Steve Novak (likely to be bought out soon), two second-round draft picks and cash considerations in return. Swapping Foye for Augustin fills a need at backup point guard — and resident mentor for Emmanuel Mudiay for the Nuggets — while Jameer Nelson recovers from his still-lingering wrist injury. And the two second-round draft picks, which are both likely to be for the 2016 draft, are exactly what the Nuggets needed based on recent history.

The Kings, as is their current nature, went against conventional wisdom by standing pat and keeping DeMarcus Cousins, Ben McLemore — and perhaps most surprisingly of all, head coach George Karl — around heading into the second half of the season. The only subtraction over the break for Sacramento was the puzzling firing of assistant coach Vance Walberg. Hopefully Walberg had enough advance notice to allow him to join his near-namesakes at the opening of Wahlburgers Orlando on Thursday night.

Return of the Karl

Normally, a coach going against a team that fired him following a season for which he was named NBA Coach of the Year would be cause for headlines and significant second-guessing for the franchise that did the firing. However, that storyline is being significantly overshadowed by the perceived incompetence of the Sacramento Kings organization coming out of the All-Star break.

There were always reasonable arguments that it was time for the Nuggets to move on from coach Karl despite his recent accomplishments and the decade of winning for which he was largely responsible in Denver, so it’s not surprising that another story has supplanted that one. The main surprise is the way the Kings organization has gone about this rebuild under owner Vivek Ranadive, making the least likely and least sensical decision at nearly every turn. For a professional organization to fire a second-level assistant seemingly to send a message to their head coach, rather than just firing the head coach, makes no sense on any level. Rather than feeling somewhat liberated by our former coach’s current struggles, I can only feel sorry for a legendary NBA coach, who did so much for the Nuggets franchise, being roped into the current circus that is the Kings’ organization. Hopefully by the time the Kings come back to Denver next week, coach Karl will get some of the respect he is truly due.

On the flip side, Michael Malone faces his former team for the first time since he was fired by Ranadive and Company back on Dec. 15, 2014. Malone went 39-67 during his tenure with the Kings. His team went 28-54 in year one and 11-13 at the time of his dismissal. The Nuggets, whose starters have an average age of 22.6, will likely eclipse Malone’s year one win total — needing just seven more wins in 28 games to do so. Malone may be downplaying his return to Sacramento, but he’s sure to get a loud ovation at Sleep Train Arena tonight.

Injury Watch

Nuggets: Jameer Nelson (wrist) and Darrell Arthur (quad) are questionable.

Kings: Ben McLemore is likely to play after having missed the Kings last three games with a wrist injury, while Marco Belinelli‘s status is unclear after he missed Thursday’s practice with a dental related issue.

Nuggets of Interest

• Will we get a glimpse of brand new Nugget DJ Augustin? It’s unclear at the moment whether he will be available on Friday night or not. Malone said at practice on Thursday that Will Barton ran point guard in case the team is shorthanded.
• Can the Nuggets handle Boogie? A motivated DeMarcus Cousins is a handful for even the most accomplished of front court players, so it will certainly be a test for Denver’s young bigs.
• Will Malone settle on a rotation? With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror and just a few nagging injuries on the report, we should start to see Malone settle in on a rotation down the stretch. It will be interesting to see how involved the steady veteran players are with so many young players contributing throughout the first half of the season.
• Will Malone breathe a heavy sigh of relief after seeing the hot mess that has become of his former organization after he was unceremoniously fired after 24 games last season? The answer has to be yes, right?