As he enters his third year with the Denver Nuggets, head coach Mike Malone will face a unique challenge. The emergence of exciting young players like Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, combined with the team’s first big free agency signing, Paul Millsap, means that expectations will be high, even in the ultra talented Western Conference.
Last year, Malone had the luxury of trying to figure out how to best utilize the Nuggets’ variety of promising young players. Without much in the way of expectations as far as a playoff run, Malone had the opportunity to play a wide variety of rotations. As Nuggets fans will remember, this experimentation had its ups and downs.
A dual center lineup of Jokic and Nurkic proved disastrous, as the two had a Net Rating of -15.6 points per game (per NBA.com). It quickly became clear that the pair couldn’t share the floor. The Nurkic saga only got more interesting from there, as he eventually pouted his way to Portland. While losing Nurkic, a talented young center that will likely have a solid career in the NBA, was less than ideal, the important thing here was that Malone found his star in Jokic.
The emergence of Jokic put Malone in a tough situation. All of a sudden, the Nuggets were in spitting distance of the playoffs as the Joker dazzled with no look passes, coast to coast drives, and a ridiculous Player Efficiency Rating of 26.4, good enough for 8th best in the NBA (per Hollinger’s PER ratings on ESPN). Even with the juggernaut that was the Warriors waiting to pounce on the 8th seed, the Nuggets wanted back in the playoffs, badly.
This shift in mentality came at the cost of minutes for young guys like Murray, Juancho, and Beasley. Malone put his trust in Nelson, Chandler, Gallo, and Barton to carry the team to the playoffs. However, a grueling end of the year schedule proved too much to overcome, and Portland got the honor of getting swept by the Warriors in round one.
This brings us back to Malone, and his challenge in year three. The signing of Millsap makes it clear that the management wants to go up, not down. If the Nuggets hope to compete in a stacked Western Conference, they will need to give the young guys an opportunity to step up. Malone will have to balance veteran leadership with player development, both on and off the court. In order to become a playoff contender, the Nuggets need the homegrown guys to step it up.
Malone found his star in Jokic. He got an All Star free agent in Paul Millsap. Now, he needs to let the young guns loose, and bring playoff basketball back to the Mile High City.
