Playing alongside the Nikola Jokic, Jusuf Nurkic frontcourt is a work in progress for Nuggets' Emmanuel Mudiay

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DENVER — While the Nuggets preseason hype has centered around the emergence of Jusuf Nurkic and the chemistry he’s shown playing alongside Nikola Jokic in the new-look Denver frontcourt, second-year point guard Emmanuel Mudiay has received criticism for how he’s played through three games.

Some of that flak is deserved. Mudiay is shooting just 29.4 percent (10-34) from the field and has converted on just one of his 11 3-point attempts. The 20-year-old is shooting 9-18 on field goals within the restricted area, according to NBA.com, but just 1-16 from elsewhere on the court.

Part of Mudiay’s struggles can be chalked up to the preseason. The Nuggets are just three games into their eight-game exhibition slate and there’s not nearly enough data or evidence to start panicking that Mudiay is reverting to his pre-2015 All-Star break ways. For a quick refresher, Mudiay upped his field goal percentage from 34 to 39 percent and his 3-point percentage from 27 to 36 percent after the All-Star break last season.

But a plausible reason for his struggles so far might be because Denver is experimenting and giving heavy minutes to lineups this preseason that Mudiay didn’t play with often during his rookie year.

“We know each other pretty well, but the groups that are in right now, we haven’t played together a lot, so I think thats what the different adjustment is,” Mudiay said at practice last week. “Nurk wasn’t healthy at the beginning of last season, Gallo at the end the year wasn’t healthy over the last 2.5 months. With them two being back in there we never had a lineup like that [last season] so I think me, Gary, and Nikola we’re trying to get used to that.”

Nurkic and Jokic only shared the court together for 92 minutes last season, a total which the two will likely surpass over the next couple of games, and playing with them together has been an adjustment for Mudiay. The lanes to penetrate are still there because Jokic can provide spacing and Nurkic is smart enough to get out of the lane when necessary, but the look of the Nuggets offense is different – and that matters to a point guard.

“I’ll figure it out I’m pretty sure, but that goes with more reps playing together,” Mudiay said of playing with Jokic and Nurkic together. “It takes a little bit of the driving lanes kind of away here and there, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

Through three games, Mudiay has struggled, but it’s still early in the preseason. The Nuggets travel to Lincoln, Nebraska Tuesday for a game Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves before returning home for to prep for their preseason showdown agains the Warriors Friday – a game which could give a little insight to the rest of the league on how to limit Golden State if Denver’s twin-towers look is effective.

If the Nuggets are set on playing Jokic and Nurkic heavy minutes together, which seems like the case through three preseason games and based on what the front office said over the summer, Mudiay will have to adapt. The preseason is the perfect time to iron out those kinks.

“Get all the bad stuff out first, shooting shot selection, all that,” Mudiay said. “During the season we should be ready.”