As the Denver Nuggets wrapped up their Wednesday practice, most of their regular rotation players had departed the second-floor practice court at Pepsi Center and gotten on with the rest of their days by the time the media was granted access.
A slew of fringe rotation guys and end-of-the-bench players remained. Trey Lyles, rookie Tyler Lydon, Torrey Craig, who was called up from the G League on Tuesday, and Darrell Arthur were engaged in a game of cut-throat 1-on-1. It’s a drill where two players go mano-a-mano from the post. No fouls (usually). No whistles. Just two guys playing one-on-one to one, where the winner stays.
Running the drill was 17-year veteran Richard Jefferson, who Denver signed on opening night. BSN Denver spoke with Jefferson after practice about the drill and got some of his thoughts on the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic and Denver’s struggles on the road.
BSN Denver: How often do the guys play 1-on-1 after practice?
Richard Jefferson: “It’s something that we’re going to start doing now that we have a more of a consistent group. It’s tough at the start of the season. You want to make sure everybody’s fresh but now, the lineups are set and guys who are out of it can play a little bit more. This is a place where the guys can learn. You look at some of our losses — we struggle with physicality. We struggle with playing on the road. It’s more physical and more physical in another environment. So getting guys to work within space and more physical space typically helps them.”
BSN: How important is it for the younger guys to stay after practice and get extra work in?
RJ: “Everybody says they want to be great. Everybody says they want to play. Everybody says they want to start. Everybody wants a max contract, but not everybody understands what it takes to get to that spot. A lot of it is like ‘well I already did my work.’ No, you did the standard work. You did the work that the coaches say’ — ‘be on the court from 10:30-11, Malik (Beasley)’. But if you just do the standard work, you’re only going to get better at a standard rate.
BSN: How do you get that message across to the younger guys who are out of the rotation?
RJ: “You have to put in two hours of extra shooting, you have to look at a guy and say, ‘hey look, if I’m going to play, I’m going to out-play you because I outworked you not because I did the standard coach says ‘be there from 10:30-11,’ that’s what the extra work does. That’s a thing that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of being on 11 playoff teams and in four NBA finals. Just showing guys the extra work that needs to be put in.”
BSN: What do you think of Nikola Jokic through 20 games?
RJ: “I think he’s a good player. He’s the best player on the floor about one out of every four nights and for us to be the players and the team that we need to be, it needs to be every two out of three nights. That’s what he needs to be for us. And unfortunately, people have to do things that they don’t normally do. I don’t know if scoring comes extremely natural to him but we need him to be more aggressive on the offensive end especially with Paul (Millsap) out. Especially with two young point guards. We need him to be more of an offensive threat and aggressive.”
BSN: There’s been a lot of talk about him stepping up as more of a vocal leader over this recent stretch. Have you seen that at all?
RJ: “No, he’s not a vocal guy. That’s, not his personality. I don’t know if it ever will be. But Tim Duncan wasn’t very vocal. You can lead by example and I think that’s the type of player he is.”
BSN: What was the first thing that went through your mind when Millsap went down?
RJ: “Next man up. We have 19 power forwards on our team. You start Kenneth Faried who’s been on a USA team. He’s been on the verge of being an Olympian and he’s in the prime of his career. Not many teams can take out a four-time All-Star and add a guy like Kenneth Faried who on more than half the teams in this league would probably be starting.”
BSN: What do you make of the Nuggets’ road struggles so far? (Denver is just 3-7 on the road and have the 28th-worst scoring differential on the road)
“I’ve never been on a team that was this much of a difference (home vs road). You just got to be more physical. You have to be more steady and that’s something that will come with time. Every team is good at home. People make a big deal out of it and yes, we need to play better (on the road). But most teams in the league, if you have a .500 record on the road, you’re a very very good team. Great teams have an above .500 record. Playoff teams typically hover around .500. I don’t think there’s an issue, we just need to play better. We’ve only played I think ten. We’ve got 30 more so we can improve.”
