If Mudiay is history, how about this trade?

[U hova]

Nurkic didn't go from center to backup... he went from center to cheerleader; we were using Faried as our backup center for crying out loud. There's chirps about Malone meeting face to face with DA to talk about reducing his role and that Malone specifically avoided confronting Nurkic in a similar manner. And we never put him in position to succeed, with the other players running their own style of offense minimizing nurkic to just a low post dump... he'd get like maybe 3 touches down there and if he missed once or had a TO nobody would look at him again.

Even now, when you compare Mudiay's situation to Nurkic's, you should see that the players and offense Mudiay is allowed to run makes use of his strengths. Hardly fair at all to compare it to what we did with Nurkic.

[SoCalNuggsFan]

Nurkic didn't go from center to backup... he went from center to cheerleader; we were using Faried as our backup center for crying out loud. There's chirps about Malone meeting face to face with DA to talk about reducing his role and that Malone specifically avoided confronting Nurkic in a similar manner. And we never put him in position to succeed, with the other players running their own style of offense minimizing nurkic to just a low post dump... he'd get like maybe 3 touches down there and if he missed once or had a TO nobody would look at him again.

Even now, when you compare Mudiay's situation to Nurkic's, you should see that the players and offense Mudiay is allowed to run makes use of his strengths. Hardly fair at all to compare it to what we did with Nurkic.

So did Mudiay. The situations are almost exactly parallel. They were both supposed to be the future and got beat out of their starting spot by a new guy who's better with more potential. Mudiay responded with professionalism, Nurkic responded with immaturity.

And why would we run the offense that best suits Nurkic when we've been the best offense in the league running the offense that doesn't suit him?

[U hova]

So did Mudiay.

And why would we run the offense that best suits Nurkic when we've been the best offense in the league running the offense that doesn't suit him?

Because the guy who makes our offense work doesn't play for 48 minutes a game? Are you not seeing something about what happened. We barely used Nurkic as a screen setter when we called his number.

[SoCalNuggsFan]

So did Mudiay.

And why would we run the offense that best suits Nurkic when we've been the best offense in the league running the offense that doesn't suit him?

Because the guy who makes our offense work doesn't play for 48 minutes a game? Are you not seeing something about what happened. We barely used Nurkic as a screen setter when we called his number.

I saw that after he lost his starting spot, every time he stepped on the floor he looked awful. He was mentally checked out. You wanna run you offense through that guy?

[MidMountain]

Still makes me wonder; how a man from Europe stays in Denver for most of the summer and works out and loses weight, a man that motivated all of a sudden becomes unmotivated? I think we only know the Nuggets' view and Nurkic has kept his view to himself - that sounds like an honorable man.

Wounded pride?

Nurkic's play and body language after his benching was anything but honorable.

[NuggetsWY]

Still makes me wonder; how a man from Europe stays in Denver for most of the summer and works out and loses weight, a man that motivated all of a sudden becomes unmotivated? I think we only know the Nuggets' view and Nurkic has kept his view to himself - that sounds like an honorable man.

Wounded pride?

Nurkic's play and body language after his benching was anything but honorable.

and he wasn't happy with last year's benching and showed it but he decided to come back and give it serious effort - since Malone has had problems with other players, I'll say he should have dealt with Nurkic a little better --- you have problems with one player, maybe it's that player - you have problems with 3,4,5 or more players - it's time to stop blaming the players

[MidMountain]

Malone was brought in to change the team's culture. It makes sense that he has clashed with players from the old regimes.

[skywalker33]

Still makes me wonder; how a man from Europe stays in Denver for most of the summer and works out and loses weight, a man that motivated all of a sudden becomes unmotivated? I think we only know the Nuggets' view and Nurkic has kept his view to himself - that sounds like an honorable man.

Wounded pride?

Nurkic's play and body language after his benching was anything but honorable.

and he wasn't happy with last year's benching and showed it but he decided to come back and give it serious effort - since Malone has had problems with other players, I'll say he should have dealt with Nurkic a little better --- you have problems with one player, maybe it's that player - you have problems with 3,4,5 or more players - it's time to stop blaming the players

Last year's benching was due to the injury he sustained at the end of his rookie year. I agree Malone botched the handling of it but Nurkic was being paid to be a professional, not act like a child. I agree with MidMountain, he threw in thetowel because things weren't going his way. He didn't want to try to regain his position, he just sulked.

[The Rebel]

Wounded pride?

Nurkic's play and body language after his benching was anything but honorable.

and he wasn't happy with last year's benching and showed it but he decided to come back and give it serious effort - since Malone has had problems with other players, I'll say he should have dealt with Nurkic a little better --- you have problems with one player, maybe it's that player - you have problems with 3,4,5 or more players - it's time to stop blaming the players

Last year's benching was due to the injury he sustained at the end of his rookie year. I agree Malone botched the handling of it but Nurkic was being paid to be a professional, not act like a child. I agree with MidMountain, he threw in thetowel because things weren't going his way. He didn't want to try to regain his position, he just sulked.

To be fair to Nurkic it is kind of hard to work on and try to regain your position if you do not know why you lost it. The most damning thing to me with Malone is that it was widely reported that he sat down Arthur and had a conversation when he was out of the rotation, he reportedly also talked to Faried and Nelson, Malone said himself that he spoke to Gallo and Chandler anytime rumors or reports came out that they were unhappy, but it has been reported multiple times in Europe and Portland than Malone never even talked to Nurkic about why he was being yanked from the starting lineup and taken out of the rotation totally. I know the problems go back to last season, but if he is on the team than he should get the respect that you give every other player and tell them what they are doing wrong and what they need to improve to get back in the lineup.

IF we are being honest, the Nuggets defense was 12th overall with Nurkic starting at Center, the issues were on offense with Nurkic and Mudiay being terrible fits together, and not having a PG that could properly run a pick and roll, as well as the turnovers in the low post due to Nurkic being double teamed and not passing out quick enough.

I must say at 21-22 years old I was always among the top 2 or 3 employees at the company I worked for, I was highly productive and despite making mistakes I was damn good at my job and my bosses will all tell you that. I also had a huge ego and those same managers will tell you that as well. If I would have walked into work and found out I was demoted not even just one step down but 2 big step downs and my manager did not have the respect to talk to me himself and tell me what I had done wrong, than I doubt I would have handled it as well as Nurkic did. Truth be told these are 21/22 year old kids and are told and expected to be professionals, but they are humans. I lost a ton of respect for Malone when the reports came out that he did not even talk to Nurkic about what was going on, as a guy who has managed hundreds of employees in my life, that is the 1st thing you learn as a manager is that communication is the most important part of the job. Malone is a coach that did not take a few minutes to coach a player on what he wants and expects, sorry that is unacceptable.

That being said I place equal blame on Nurkic and Malone, but by far the most blame on the front office. Malone and Arturus traveled to Bosnia to spend 2 weeks with Nurkic last summer, because Malone and Nurkic had so many problems when he came back from injury last year. To me it became obvious that Malone and Nurkic did not like each other with the way things started this year, and the minute it became apparent that Malone had no intention of making things work with Nurkic and Jokic than Nurkic should have been traded immediately.

Now to get this back on track, from all appearances there does not seem to be the communication and personality conflicts between Malone and Mudiay. Mudiay seems to get what Malone wants, and is playing much differently in the few minutes he gets since he has been back from injury. At the same time Malone is putting Mudiay in a better position to succeed by not putting him on the court with guys who constantly need the ball in their hands and cannot spread the floor. Overall I think it is different personalities and Malone maybe learning from his mistakes with Nurkic.

[NuggetsWY]

Now to get this back on track, from all appearances there does not seem to be the communication and personality conflicts between Malone and Mudiay. Mudiay seems to get what Malone wants, and is playing much differently in the few minutes he gets since he has been back from injury. At the same time Malone is putting Mudiay in a better position to succeed by not putting him on the court with guys who constantly need the ball in their hands and cannot spread the floor. Overall I think it is different personalities and Malone maybe learning from his mistakes with Nurkic.

I'm a big fan of selecting players of high-quality personal integrity. Not saying Nurkic wasn't (I'm known as a supporter of his anyway). But I believe Mudiay is of even higher-quality character-wise. It is why I oppose players like Griffin & Cousins and so forth. I'm not a believer in "nice guys finish last". But I am a believer in good sportsmanship. I detest announcers (usually former players) that point down players that help an opponent up. I was a football player more than basketball (if you saw my build, you'd know why LOL) and I could smash a guy flat, help him up and repeat on the next play. After the game, I'd congratulate him (win or lose) and do the same thing next time I played him. There's nothing wrong with being a good sport (win or lose), but that's just my opinion.