Malone expects “growing pains” in preparations for nuggets playoffs between late arrivals and injuries

Would the Denver Nuggets have been better if Colorado was a province in Canada rather than an American state?

Consider the Toronto Raptors, whose seemingly disadvantageous circumstances that led to the return of the 2019-2020 NBA season may ultimately prove useful. Due to an agreement to close the border between Canada and the United States on the coronavirus in which Canada requested a 14-day self-quarantine for the participants, the Raptors skipped a return to Toronto and instead headed directly to Naples on June 22, in Florida, a three-hour drive from the NBA bubble located at Disney World in Orlando – while the other 21 participating teams leave to return to their respective national markets.

Starting Phase 1 of the NBA’s return to Florida rather than Toronto initially seemed to be a heavy burden on the Raptors, as it would prolong the time their players would spend away from their families and homes. But since they would stay in a hotel that the team occupied exclusively and, as head coach Nick Nurse explained to Naples News, “go to the gym and practically return to the hotel and limit or have no other activities” the extra part of the restart trip of the Raptors may have safeguarded the health of the players and staff. Having started two weeks earlier than other teams on more stringent coronavirus security protocols, the team arrived in Orlando on July 9th with the entire roster intact.

In contrast, the Denver Nuggets started off frustratingly in the bubble. In particular, this started with the Nikola Jokic All-Star center which tested positive for COVID-19 in its home country in Serbia, and therefore was unable to reach the Disney World campus until July 14, a week. after the arrival of the first contingent of Nuggets.

But that turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg, as it was quickly deduced – despite the organization of the Nuggets being closely related to the status of one of their players, including if they had even joined the Orlando team – that a a large part of their list had yet to enter the bubble.

In fact, the Nuggets had so few players available in Orlando due to a combination of COVID-19 positive diagnoses and other injuries that, according to Mike Singer of the Denver Post, it wasn’t until Thursday July 30 that they were able to to assemble enough players in practice to perform five out of five.

With four regular Denver players unavailable for their first scrimmage game on July 22, coach Michael Malone has fielded the now infamous starting lineup which was one of the tallest in NBA history, with three six-foot players eleven or taller – Nikola Jokic leading guard, Mason Plumlee in the center and novice Bol Bol in his Nuggets debut at the “little” forward – along with the “shorter” six-foot-and-eight-foot Jerami Grant and Paul Millsap six and a half feet and no real guard.

While the training was a delightful novelty for the fans, who particularly enjoyed the impressive exposure of Bol’s seven foot and two skill in blocking shots, shooting in three points and handling the ball, it was much less fun. for Malone, who would soon reveal he was already on top.

During a Zoom teleconference following the second game of Denver against the pelicans of New Orleans, I asked Malone how important the seeding games were in determining the rotation of the playoff bench, but what was clearly more urgent in his mind was to put back the whole team.

“I’m just worried about getting a healthy team,” Malone replied. “We have had eight players for our last two scripts. So obviously you want to develop some continuity, some chemistry, a rotation, but my number one goal right now is to be healthy, to bring the kids back into training and get them playing out there. ” .

Malone admitted that on that day he could not understand much how far the Nuggets were as a team from the exercises and the scrum until then. “I have no idea,” he said, “because we have not been a collective group, we have not yet been a complete team.”

“It’s really difficult to judge and analyze where we are when you don’t have four of your five beginner players,” added Malone. “We have been very limited with the amount of bodies we have had.”

In the same media session, Jokic echoed Malone’s sentiment in response to a question about whether the Nuggets could assess where the team was based on the first scrimmage games. “Maybe in terms of conditions, but … we didn’t have nearly four starting players today,” said Jokic. “We are not playing the guys we usually play, so I think we can’t be sure where we are now.”

Information on the health of the players and where they were was not available, but to recapitulate at least partially the saga of the delayed arrival of the Nuggets players:

• Nikola Jokic was able to join the Nuggets for his first rehearsals in Orlando on July 15th after arriving several days earlier.
• Gary Harris and Torrey Craig arrived in Orlando on July 19 and canceled the quarantine on July 22.
• Michael Porter Jr. arrived in Orlando on July 22nd and quarantined on July 24th.
• Keita Bates-Diop arrived in Orlando on July 24th and canceled the quarantine on July 26th.
• Monte Morris arrived in Orlando on July 25th and canceled the quarantine on July 27th.
• PJ Dozier cleared the quarantine on July 30th.
• Jamal Murray (hamstring), Gary Harris (hip) and Will Barton III (knee) have all had bouts with injuries, and other players may also have been, with Malone saying that his team is “pretty slammed”. Harris eliminated all three scrimmage games and Barton only played in the first half of one.
• Vlatko Cancar is the only player left who has not yet joined the team.

Despite Malone’s obvious frustration with the Nuggets’ challenges in assembling their team, his tone has become more optimistic in the past two days as they have approached the availability of all players.

When asked how he was following the aforementioned practice in which Denver was finally able to perform actions five to five, Malone replied bluntly with his rainbow skyline mask, “Fucking awesome!”

And while he continued to recognize Denver’s difficulties, saying that “we have full hands. It’s a difficult situation in terms of bodies and who we have, “he stressed that the Nuggets” are trying to make the best of it. “

Shortly before Malone had spoken, Monte Morris, who had just completed his first tests with the team after passing the quarantine, presented himself with a very positive outlook and did not seem overly worried when I asked him if the delay in putting together the whole team would be a setback.

“No, I mean, I feel like the core of the guys who were already here … they were already in shape,” said Morris. “The guys who were left behind at the time, including myself, … we were ready, staying ready. So how close we are as a close-knit group, our team unit, which will take us as far as possible. ”

“I don’t think it was a setback because we are not a group of guys who don’t like to work and we have all worked,” added Morris. “So when we came back today and played, it was like never missing a beat.”

Both Malone and Denver players seem far less concerned about the team’s post-season sowing situation than using the two weeks of sowing games to keep the team healthy and on the same page in time for the playoffs.

Focusing on August 17, the date of the first playoff games in the bubble, Malone said today on a call from Zoom that he is the main group of Denver spin players, including their initial five-man lineup that played the largest number. of minutes together team is in the league, “will return quickly enough from all the minutes they have had together”.

“But,” he added, “it’s sure to be a little bit growing with that.”

Despite all the challenges the Nuggets faced in the Orlando bubble, Malone has confidence in his team’s ability to regain the cohesion they established earlier this season, saying they “have ample opportunity to bring them back to play at that level” , and that the players “are getting more and more excited as we get healthier, pick up the kids and get ready to start playing those meaningful games.”

And with the first of the Nugget’s eight seeding games scheduled for August 1 against Miami Heat, they’ll soon have the opportunity to see how quickly they can reestablish their chemistry and playoff-level basketball.