What to watch for in the Nuggets' preseason opener against the Warriors

The Denver Nuggets tip off their five-game preseason slate against the Golden State Warriors Saturday night (6:30 MST) at Oracle Arena in Oakland. The 2017-18 season is here and Denver’s expectations are as high as they have been since 2013-14 when the Nuggets won 57 games.

Here’s what to watch for in Denver’s preseason opener:

Point guard competition

The most surprising storyline of training camp is that Emmanuel Mudiay has worked himself back into the conversation for Denver’s starting point guard. With Jameer Nelson sidelined and Jamal Murray unable to separate himself from Mudiay thus far at training camp, Michael Malone didn’t know who he’d start at the point when he was asked Friday.

Murray did have his best practice of training camp on Friday but it does not appear that this is necessarily his job to lose. The situation feels much more like an open competition rather than one guy is ahead of the other. Mudiay has taken the time this offseason to improve on each and every skill the Nuggets asked him to.

“All the areas we that we gave him to work on, tightening up his handle, doing a better job finishing in traffic at the rim, becoming a more consistent jump shooter, being in better shape, all those areas he’s come back and improved upon,” Malone said.

Regardless of who starts, both Mudiay and Murray will get ample time to showcase their development and prove their worth. So far, Mudiay and Murray have split time with the starting unit at practice and expect them to split time again Saturday against the Warriors as well. It seems that whoever performs better will have a leg up in the battle for the starting point guard position.

Defense, defense, defense

How does Denver’s new, more aggressive, defensive scheme work out in its first live action run? The difficult aspect of integrating a new defensive philosophy is that the Nuggets will have to deploy it for their first time against what is arguably the most talented team of all time in the Golden State Warriors.

This is more of a disclaimer than something to watch for. If Denver’s new defensive scheme falls apart against the defending NBA champions that would not make the new system a failure. Simply put, Malone is looking for effort and execution tonight against Golden State.

“Last year after we got Mason (Plumlee) we were pretty aggressive with Mason in pick-and-rolls,” Malone said. “The one guy who probably has the biggest adjustment is gonna be Nikola (Jokic). We kept him down the floor. The whole goal of that was to eliminate the three-point shot which we obviously didn’t do. So our whole mindset going in is to be more aggressive.”

Nikola Jokic is going to be the guy to watch defensively. Wilson Chandler, Gary Harris, and Paul Millsap are plus defenders but how will Jokic respond to having to defend up the floor more than he is used to? If Jokic was able to become more explosive and mobile over the summer it will show on the defensive end of the ball tonight.

Faried or Lyles?

Another surprising wrinkle from Denver’s training camp is that there is a battle for the backup minutes at power forward. Trey Lyles finds himself in the mix for the role that most assumed Kenneth Faried would occupy. After Lyles started showcasing his offensive ability at camp, he created an interesting debate within the Nuggets organization: do you play the more talented player or the player who better fits what you are trying to accomplish? To Malone, it seems that his answer would be the latter.

The crux of the reason that Lyles has found himself in the hunt for backup power forward minutes is that he fits alongside both Plumlee and the bench unit significantly better than Faried does.

“I’ll be honest, watching Trey and Mason and how they complement each other so well; it’s a great problem to have and we’re going to continue to watch and see how it unfolds,” Malone said.

Having three non-shooters on the floor at any point is a death sentence in the new space and pace generation of the NBA. Lyles’ offensive prowess would alter the identity of the Nuggets’ second unit and would further weaponize a bench that has a multitude of questions surrounding it.

Offensive synergy between Jokic, Millsap

The emergence of Jokic coupled with the signing of a four-time All-Star in Millsap should be a pairing that, on paper, is one of the premier playmaking frontcourts in the league.

But there are many other variables that Jokic and Millsap will need to overcome. For two elite talents, both of whom were the first option on their respective teams last season, to fully mesh and integrate themselves into the offense takes time. There has been a learning curve for both.

“Just spacing,” Millsap said about what the two need to work on. “And it’s mostly me, just picking my spots and learning plays. Twelve years in and it’s always tough coming into a new program and a new system and learning plays. Once I learn the plays, it will run like clockwork.”

On Friday, Malone was adamant that it was the best practice for the frontcourt pairing of Millsap and Jokic. There is still room for improvement but the fact that Millsap and Jokic are already getting on the same page so early is a great sign.

“Today was their best day. They’ve had moments in the first five practices where they look very good but they also have moments where you can tell it’s a new pairing,” Malone said. “They’re getting used to each other. Today though, I thought they had some great exchanges playing off of each other, playing with each other and hopefully off of today you can only build off that.”

The sky is the limit for the frontcourt duo. The flashes are appearing at training camp but how will that translate to live-action repetitions against the defending NBA champions? That is the big question going into the first preseason game of the year.