The house had to be stripped down to the studs when Michael Malone got here. When examining the NBA’s best-executed rebuild since the Warriors rose to power, remember how ugly things once looked. Whatever solid structure stood during the George Karl years had been water damaged, lit on fire and tilted sideways by a tornado when Malone took over in June 2015.
The Nuggets won 30 games in 2014-15. Attendance was sagging. Their best player sometimes showed up to practice smelling of alcohol. Four years ago, the team broke a huddle by cheering “1-2-3…six weeks!” as if they were already counting down the days to vacation with a month and a half left in their season.
Now? More than 18,000 fans pack Pepsi Center when the Nuggets play to watch the best show in town. Their best player, an All-Star and MVP candidate, is the most unselfish superstar in basketball. And the Nuggets — the first-place team in the Western Conference — are 8-1 on the second night of back-to-backs, a reflection of their detail-oriented, make-no-excuses head coach.
No one would have blamed Malone’s club for not getting it done in Minnesota. The game tipped off less than 24 hours after the Nuggets blasted the Rockets on national TV. Jamal Murray and Gary Harris were both unavailable. Still, Denver, which has rolled out its preferred starting lineup only twice this season, found a way. Nikola Jokic’s 90-foot bomb to Malik Beasley ended up being the difference.
“I’ll be honest. When Nikola throws that pass, I was saying, ‘What the hell are you doing? Great pass.’” Malone said. “It was one of those. That one was up in the air like a Ray Guy punt for four seconds.”
That Malone has built a contender around Jokic is one example of his flexibility. Jokic is often described as an artist. “You kind of have to step back and let (him) do things, paint the canvas the way (he) wants to paint it,” Nuggets assistant general manager Calvin Booth told BSN Denver earlier this season. Malone has expertly walked the line between allowing Jokic to paint the canvas the way he sees fit while challenging him to get in better shape and become a better defender and leader.
“For me, to be honest, there cannot be fatigue,” Jokic said Jan. 13 after pouring in 40 points in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The Nuggets were in the midst of an 11-games-in-19-days stretch. “It’s just half of the season. I think I did a really good job this summer, and a lot of the guys did a job this summer. I think fatigue cannot be an excuse. We cannot even mention fatigue.”
The Nuggets didn’t do so Saturday, when they returned to Target Center, the site of April’s Game 82 disappointment. The pain of missing out on the playoffs by the narrowest of margins two years in a row has hardened the Nuggets and forced them to become more focused.
“Failure can be a great teacher,” Malone said. “It can be a gift if you’re willing to learn from it. And I think we’ve learned from it. Two years in a row missing the playoffs by one game. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I think we took to heart this summer that we have to do something different.”
What needed sharpening? Malone knew his team needed to become better defensively, cut down on turnovers and figure out ways to win outside of Denver. The Nuggets have improved in all of those areas. They’re 11th in defensive efficiency after being in the bottom eight four seasons in a row. They’re ninth in turnover percentage — a significant uptick from their 24th-place finish last season. And they’re 14-11 on the road, already one win shy of the 15 they collected away from Pepsi Center last season.
The Nuggets find ways to win games they shouldn’t. Malik Beasley, Torrey Craig and Monte Morris combined for 75 points in Friday’s win over Houston.
“One guy did not play last year,” Malone said. “Two guys were G League players, and they come out here and have this performance. Couldn’t be happier for those guys.”
Castoffs and second-round picks like Morris, Jokic, Craig and Will Barton populate Denver’s roster. Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and general manager Arturas Karnisovas have done an excellent job identifying diamonds in the rough, and Malone has in turn shaped and polished them into winning pieces. Morris, the 51st pick in 2017, belongs in the Sixth Man of the Year discussion. He’s a floor general who’s developed into a dead-eye 3-point shooter. He had 17 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and no turnovers making a spot start for Murray against the Timberwolves.
“Monte’s a grown-ass man,” Malone said. “Flint, Michigan, should be very proud.”
That admiration goes both ways. After the dramatic win in Minnesota, Morris and his teammates gave their head coach a Gatorade shower as a way to celebrate Malone clinching one of the two head coaching spots at All-Star Weekend. The Nuggets have come so far in four years under Malone, who took a moment to savor it on one of the best nights of his professional life before pointing out how far there still is to go.
“Every great team, every great player that has ever played in this league has gone through a journey,” a sopping-wet Malone said. “We’re in the middle of this journey. We’re not there yet, but we’re definitely headed in the right direction. I’m just really happy to be a part of that.”
