The many rigors of an NBA season, including playing two games in three nights, and the tireless back-to-backs that players suffer through, turns practice time during the season into a premium.
Then, late in the season, when legs are tired and rookies are up against that imaginary wall, coaches will often eliminate practices and shootarounds for stretches all together, again decreasing the amount of time spent on the practice floor.
Meaning it’s the summer, when players get with coaches and trainers, and really take their game to new levels.
“Players are made in the offseason,” coach Michael Malone said as he wrapped up the season to reporters. “All of our players have to come back improved.”
With so many young players who are still tapping into their potentials, this summer is huge in terms of development for most of the Nuggets roster. Both Nikola Jokic and Emmanuel Mudiay will have a lot on their shoulders this coming season, and a productive summer can go a long way to those two second-year players getting off to healthy starts next year.
“Im gonna take care of my body, just to get stronger,” Jokic said. “I’m going to work on my mid-range jumpshot, I’m gonna work on my post moves, I’m gonna work on my defense. I need to improve on my defense just as coach says, defense is our best offense.”
It’s an important summer for the 21-year-old big man. Jokic needs to improve on his strength so he can bang with five-men for an entire season, and his agility and quickness so he can effectively close out on the perimeter and guard in space.
Malone, like the rest of the coaching staff and front office is expecting a lot out of Mudiay next season as well, especially with how strong he closed out his rookie campaign.
“You look at his shooting since the All-Star break, I think he shot 36% from three, but he has to continue to work on his shot,” Malone said. “His decision making off pick-and-rolls, his finishing at the rim with both hands. And then defensively, everyone of our players has to come back with a much greater sense of urgency on the defensive end of the floor.”
Considering the strides Mudiay made over the course of last season, there’s no reason to think he won’t be able to take similar steps this the summer. He re-tooled his shot with the help of Mike Miller and assistant coach Dee Brown, who worked with the rookie to take out a lot of the extra movement in his legs, and took steps to try and eliminate the hitch in his jumper. That hitch still pops up occasionally in pressure situations when Mudiay’s muscle memory takes over, but the spike in his percentages post All-Star break are no accident.
Mudiay also has to clean up a handle that was sloppy at times and work on finishing around the rim. The rookie had en effective field goal percentage of just 42 percent, per NBA.com, on shots inside 10 feet.
Vegas baby, Vegas
Last year we were introduced to Mudiay during Summer League and saw glimpses of promise from Jokic, Harris and others. This year, expect most of Denver’s younger players to be back in Vegas.
“Good chance that Emmanuel, Gary, JaKarr, Axel, young guys participate in summer league,” Malone said.
Mudiay, Jokic, Gary Harris, JaKarr Sampson, Axel Toupane and Jusuf Nurkic could all be at Summer League, including a couple draft picks and some undrafted free agents to fill out the roster.
Also, keep an eye on 2015 second round pick Nikola Radicevic, who plays for Sevilla in Spain’s ACB league as a candidate for the Nuggets Summer League roster. The 6-foot-5 point guard, who has shades of Goran Dragic in his game, missed the entirety of last season after undergoing right hip surgery, but is reportedly nearly back to full health. Radicevic is in communications with Nuggets personnel who think highly of the point guard.
“People of Denver [are] in contact with me since the summer,” Radicevic told Spain’s EFE. “I care and I’m happy because it is a very good franchise, with a great organization, but now I’m focused on continuing here another season, and talk about the future.”
It’s hard to tell through a translator what exactly Radicevic means when he says he’s focused on continuing in Spain for another year, but he might not be a candidate to come over to the NBA right now. At least not at the beginning of the 2016-17 season.
