Wind Chimes: The championship-or-bust Nuggets are trying to find themselves

Welcome to Wind Chimes, a notebook of reporting, observations and analysis from me about what I’ve seen, heard and talked to people around the team about over the last week.

My read on Nikola Jokic’s wrist and Jamal Murray’s ramp up

It’s become the most critical storyline of the Nuggets’ preseason: The back-to-back MVP’s sore right wrist. All we really know is that it bothered Jokic during the preseason opener vs. OKC. Jokic attempted just one shot attempt in 15 minutes and you could tell his wrist was bothering him throughout the game. But upon reviewing the film from that first half, you couldn’t find where exactly Jokic may have picked up the injury.

The good news (I think) is Michael Malone said an MRI on Jokic’s right wrist revealed “nothing sinister.” He didn’t play in Chicago on Friday and it’s doubtful he takes the floor Monday night vs. Phoenix. Jokic participated in all of Nuggets practice on Sunday except for the live portion. I’d take that as a good sign that he’s at least participating in drills. But this from Malone last week while in Chicago before the Bulls game, at least implied that he was in some real discomfort: He’s getting more movement, more function with that wrist.”

Nikola Jokic has had a wrap around his right wrist/hand on the bench throughout the 2nd half. He's fine, I'm told. Nothing to worry about. pic.twitter.com/lx4piqbJQz

— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) October 4, 2022

The worry here is that this wrist injury is still lingering from last season. Jokic hurt his wrist early last year during a November matchup with the 76ers. He ended up missing four games. Jokic also popped up on the Nuggets’ injury report with a sprained right wrist during the 2020 playoffs. He didn’t miss any games and played well through the injury — Jokic scored 32 points in Game 3 vs. the Clippers battling a wrist sprain. I think the hope is that rest relieves the discomfort that he’s currently experiencing.

It looked like Jamal Murray tweaked his hamstring on Friday and he’s also not going to play tonight vs. Phoenix. He’s on the injury report officially with “left hamstring soreness.” This was an interesting comment from Malone at practice on Sunday.

“There is a long-term concern in how we approach the day-to-day and being smart, being prudent in how we look at his today, tomorrow, a week, a month, three months from now. So very much a big-picture perspective. Are we a better team with Jamal or Nikola? Of course we are. But we also want to make sure we’re getting those guys through the season and not putting them under any undue stresses that can happen. I talked to our training staff. Guys recovering from ACL injuries, you have to be really careful about soft tissue injuries on the other leg (Murray’s injury was to the same leg as his ACL). When Jamal kind of pulled up in Chicago, scary moment. Luckily he’s OK. Let’s give that time to heal. If he plays another preseason game, great. If he doesn’t play another preseason game, great. It’s all about what’s best for Jamal big-picture-wise.”

My takeaway on that quote is that this minor injury was a bit of a wake-up call for Denver. The Nuggets aren’t just monitoring Murray’s game minutes, but also his practice reps, training sessions, etc. Murray didn’t participate in much of Sunday’s practice. He’s also not going to play tonight.

My read on Jokic and Murray: I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re both held out of the rest of the preseason. That hasn’t been decided and I don’t know if it’s something the Nuggets have thought about, but it’s just my read.

The latest roster moves

The Nuggets have waived Adonis Arms, who was on Exhibit-10 deal and spent training camp with Denver. He’ll eventually head to Grand Rapids and suit up for the Nuggets’ G League team there. An Exhibit-10 deal secures a player’s G League right and gives them a $50K bump in their G League salary next year. Denver’s adding another player to fill that now-vacant spots too.

Chason Randle is signing an Exhibit-10 deal with the Nuggets, a source told DNVR. That move should be official by today. Randle, 29, is a 6-2 point guard who’s bounced around between five different NBA teams over the last four seasons. He averaged 20.4 minutes across 41 games for the Magic during the 2020-21 season and spent the last year playing for the New Zealand Breakers. Randle worked out in Denver at the Nuggets practice facility for most of the summer.

Defensive questions

This offseason, the Nuggets made improving their defense the organization’s top priority. That led to Denver trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and signing Bruce Brown in free agency. Calvin Booth also added Christian Braun and Peyton Watson through the draft. Braun could be an above-average defensive weapon this season, and Watson could be one in seasons to come.

This should be the best defense of the Jokic era. That’s what the Nuggets were hoping for when trading offense for defense this summer. Caldwell-Pope, Brown, Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon give Denver four very good defenders out of their top-8 rotation players. Jamal Murray, I think, is an underrated defender when at 100% too.

But the lofty top-5 defense goal that the Nuggets have been touting this preseason feels like a pipe dream with how Denver’s defense has fared in two preseason games. Michael Malone seems confused by how his team is playing, and maybe, more importantly, competing, on that level of the floor. The Nuggets are running generally the same defensive scheme as he did last season.

This was Malone’s message following Friday’s loss in Chicago where the Nuggets allowed the Bulls to shoot 60.2% from the floor and 53.6% from 3.

“I said, fellas. Here’s the problem. We play harder in practice than we do in the games. We get into the games, and Chicago is running the ball down our throats and we’re jogging back. We’re back-peddling back.”

This was just from the late second quarter vs. the Bulls. All of these were off of made baskets within a two-minute span. Just bad defense.

I’m getting the feeling that Malone thought this group would be way ahead of where they currently are defensively with the regular season opener just nine days away. It’s not how Denver’s coach envisioned the championship-or-bust Nuggets starting out.

More Chimes

Bruce Brown’s fit: I’m questioning Brown’s fit on the second unit. It’s already looking like the Nuggets’ bench will be a wonky group, and Brown’s game is much better suited to slide in alongside premier offensive focal points than as a creator. It’s how he carved out a really nice niche for himself in Brooklyn alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. I love Brown and Denver signing him to the mid-level was one of the steals of free agency. Getting him minutes with the starters would be wise.

Staff additions: Expect an announcement soon regarding additions to the Nuggets’ basketball staff. Calvin Booth increased the size of Denver’s staff this offseason and added front-office staffers, shooting coaches, and beefed up the Nuggets’ scouting department. Those contracts should be finalized shortly. Darrell Arthur, who’s back with the Nuggets as a player development coach/pro scout, has been a constant at Nuggets practices.

Training Camp MVP: I took a training camp MVP straw pool of the eight media members who were present in San Diego throughout the entire week of Nuggets training camp.

Here were the results.

Bones Hyland: 4 votes

Zeke Nnaji: 3 votes

DeAndre Jordan: 1 vote

My vote was for Nnaji. From everything I heard, he had a great camp and probably exceeded expectations more than anyone. Hyland did dominate during the quarter of the training camp scrimmage that was open to the media.