DENVER — Nuggets’ coach Michael Malone had some choice words about Denver’s ongoing point guard and backup power forward competitions that remain on his roster with just 12 days to go until their regular season opener in Utah.
“It’s a dilemma, wrapped in an enigma, inside a labyrinth, if you will,” Malone said as Denver wrapped up practice Saturday and departed Pepsi Center for an afternoon flight to San Antonio where they’ll take on the Spurs on Sunday.
Malone still hasn’t made up his mind on who will start at point guard between Jamal Murray, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Jameer Nelson or who will backup power forward Paul Millsap in Denver’s frontcourt. The Nuggets’ final two preseason games; against the Spurs and versus the Thunder on Tuesday will determine who gets those two spots in Denver’s rotation.
Against the Spurs, the Nuggets plan to play Nelson, who missed Denver’s first two preseason matchups with a sprained toe, heavy minutes and while he’s not 100 percent healthy, the veteran was able to play through the pain versus the Lakers on Wednesday when he scored just two points but dished out six assists in 19 minutes.
“Jameer is the one point guard who hasn’t really had the chance to play so I’m going to try and get him a bunch of minutes tomorrow out of fairness to him,” Malone said. “Then obviously Emmanuel and Jamal, we’ll see what we do with those other guys’ minutes but I want to give Jameer a chance to play tomorrow.”
The 35-year-old who started 40 games for Denver last season and helped guide the Nuggets into contention for the eighth seed in the Western Conference will be counted on for important minutes this year, whether that’s in a starting or reserve role. Malone enjoys knowing what he’s going to get from Nelson on a night-in, night-out basis.
At power forward, the decision comes down to fit.
“When you’re talking about bigs, you have to talk about do they complement each other” Malone explained. “Right now, it’s easy to see Mason (Plumlee) and Trey (Lyles) have great chemistry. Mason and Kenneth (Faried), not that they can’t play together, but maybe the compliment isn’t as efficient. But maybe there are games when we can get Kenneth Faried into the game earlier to play with Nikola (Jokic) because last year Kenneth and Nikola were really good together.”
When Jokic and Faried played together last season they combined to make up Denver’s most efficient frontcourt duo. In the 479 minutes that those two shared the floor, the Nuggets outscored opponents by 119 points and ran up an elite 10.9 Net Rating.
“The bottom line is I won’t be able to play Paul, Nikola, Mason, Kenneth, and Trey. You can’t play five bigs just like you cant play five ones and twos,” Malone said. “So I’ll have to make a decision and give it a go and see how we start the season and if I have to make a change after ten games we can make a change.”
