The Nuggets are getting healthier before the playoffs

The Nuggets are getting healthier. Two players, who had been previously sidelined due to injury, are on track to play Sunday vs. the Lakers in Denver’s regular-season finale. Ahead of the playoffs, the Nuggets’ rotation is now more solidified.

Unfortunately, those two players are not Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., who both did not practice Saturday. It’s Vlatko Cancar, who has been sidelined since early January with a right foot fracture, and Zeke Nnaji, who hasn’t played since March 9 due to bilateral knee soreness. Both went through parts of practice and are trending towards being available to play tomorrow. With Denver likely resting key players on Sunday, Cancar and Nnaji are in line for minutes.

“If certain players don’t play tomorrow night, it’s an opportunity for other guys that may not have played as much lately, to go out there and play,” Michael Malone said after practice today. “Who knows, it would be great to give Vlatko and Zeke a couple minutes tomorrow night. You can’t replicate game action in practice. We’ll see what we decide tomorrow and then contact guys and get them ready mentally especially and go from there.”

But there was some notable background activity going on during Malone’s post-practice comments. With cameras rolling and media present, Murray was running and jumping and dunking. He also went 1-on-1 with Bones Hyland. He looked…great? But that’s just an observation from a 10-minute snapshot.

I promise he converted some dunks too.

After Cancar finished talking with the media, Murray sat down in the interview chair for a moment, asked reporters in attendance, ‘You guys want me or not?’ then quickly got up and went back onto the court. As the media left the gym, Murray sat on a medicine ball and chatted with Michael Malone for 10-plus minutes…about…well, use your imagination.

That was the scene at Ball Arena today, and I could see it being the scene at every Nuggets practice from here on out. Murray is cleared physically. The ball is 100% in his court in terms of if he’ll play again this year. If Murray went to Malone or Tim Connelly today and said, ‘I’m ready to go,’ he’d be in the lineup tomorrow. If he said that same thing before Game 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 of the Nuggets’ first-round series, then I think he’d be inserted into the lineup immediately. I’ve heard that Murray has played live basketball behind closed doors, like 3-on-3, and has looked very good.

But that day-to-day uncertainty that the Nuggets are living with Murray right now is also why the team hasn’t been issuing in-depth updates on his status. His status game-to-game is simply decided game-to-game. It’s been like that for a while too. He could come back whenever. He could also not come back at all. No one knows how this will end, although it’s not hard to decipher that the further along we go without him playing definitely decreases the chances that he does return this season. It just doesn’t seem likely that Murray would come back ice-cold to play in Game 1 of the playoffs against the Mavs or Warriors, nor would that seem like a smart decision.

I’m anticipating the Nuggets giving some of their key regulars the night off Sunday against the Lakers. I could see Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Will Barton, Monte Morris, Jeff Green, JaMychal Green and DeMarcus Cousins all sitting. That would leave eight players: Bones Hyland, Austin Rivers, Davon Reed, Facu Campazzo, Bryn Forbes, Markus Howard, Vlatko Cancar and Zeke Nnaji. I’d even say give Hyland and Rivers the game off too considering they’re both going to be counted on for playoff minutes, but you’ve got to have a minimum of eight players available.

In theory, it would be the perfect game for Murray to return for (I’m pretty much writing off Porter coming back at this point.) It’s a meaningless regular-season game vs. JV Lakers who will be without LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook. But with Murray not practicing today, inserting him into the lineup tomorrow seems unlikely, but I don’t think it would rule him out for the season.

The Nuggets are locked into a top-6 seed. They’ll either play the Mavs or the Warriors in the first round. However, who Denver will have available for that first-round series will likely remain a point of speculation for the next week.