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The Nuggets are the youngest team in the league and are currently leading the tougher conference by ½ a game. We are doing this while missing 4-5 players every night since game 2 with 1 starter out for 22 games and another out for 3 ½ games.


Our defense is currently 5th even after that miserable display last night, while I think Millsap getting in Malone’s ear helped, he did listen and this team has taken a huge step on defense. It has improved considerably over last year and since I and many others blamed him for the terrible defense he should get credit for the good defense as well.


Our bench was bottom 2 at this point a year ago and finished bottom 5, this year we have a top 3 bench. The only veteran we have coming off the bench in Plumlee, and he has been playing out of his mind, but what really impresses me is how many of the young guys are very productive, even In off nights they are bringing energy and trying hard which is all you can ask of young players.


I was one of the ones that were calling for Malone to be fired, and I still believe coach Bud would have been the perfect hire, but Malone deserves a ton of credit for helping this team become what we are watching these days. I will admit that I was wrong, and Malone is proving that he has improved and is now a good coach.

Totally agree with Rebel. I'm still not convinced that Malone is a great coach, but he seems to be learning and I like what I've seen this year. The improvement from last year to this year is greater than everything that has happened before IMO. What is most amazing is that this is predominantly the same team as last year and with Barton's injury (plus three new players not able to play), it is very impressive.

Were we wrong? I'll wait until we play in the Finals. Karl was basically fired because he didn't win in the playoffs. But I'll give Malone credit for an enormous difference.

He improved as coach this season, no doubt about that, numbers don't lie. But also, it exposed how bad was Malone last season. With almost the same roster Denver has one of 2017-18 league-worst defenses, with Barton as a 6th man, Plumlee and Lyles has one of the league less productive 2nd unit (and he doesn't want to use Faried, Juancho, Beasley or Morris), and the team which started this season on the road with an 8-4 record, last season was 7-19 at one point in February, which means his team mindset on the road trips before all-star break was "we are tourists from Colorado". Talking about mindsets, Denver was among worst teams last season to start and finish games (1st and 4th quarters around #20) and only during the middle of the games (2nd and 3rd quarters) you can see how high ceiling is for this team.

Can’t argue against anyone who wants to give Malone considerable credit this year for the job he’s done and where this team stands...but it’s also only December, he can really prove me wrong if he can lead this team into the playoffs and past the first round.

At least it's nice to see Malone progressing as a coach, if nothing else.

At the risk of sounding like a fan of Malone , is it just me or is Malone a little more relaxed on the sidelines? Has he loosened up on some of his previous positions like "9 man rotation"?

NuggetsWY wrote:At the risk of sounding like a fan of Malone , is it just me or is Malone a little more relaxed on the sidelines? Has he loosened up on some of his previous positions like "9 man rotation"?

If the Nuggets maintain this pace, Malone is COY. He has a good chance to make some history so I don't know how much longer he will look relaxed.

Im not the biggest Malone fan out there but il give credit where credit is due and Malone has done a good job this season. Keep it up coach!

I started this thread, and overall I do think Malone has done a good job this year, but there is 2 things that are pissing me off and I am convinced that Malone is not a great long term fit. Watching when he play calls and lineups he uses makes me question if he understands today’s NBA.

Malone loves to call post ups, and iso plays for Millsap, Plumlee, Barton, and others. Those are by far the lowest percentage plays with this team. This team needs spacing, they need to have open lanes to cut and move and they need ball movement. Iso and Post ups kill spacing and ball movement. It also severely limits the effectiveness of guys who get their rhythm from off the ball movement. Beasley and Juancho both struggle on the court with Barton. For that matter Harris has not looked good these last couple of games with Barton starting off having the ball all the time.

He talks up Craig and overplays him. The thing about Craig is that he is very good against slashing PGs, guys that at least start off going to the rim. Westbrook, Lilliard, and that type he is great on. Guys like Harden, Curry, or any guard that shoots from outside primarily he is bad against. He is also bad against size. Juancho is great at help and perimeter defense but has 2 or 3 blow bys a game on guys faking outside shots and getting a free drive. Harris is good at man to man, Beasley is as well, Millsap is good at both, and Plumlee is a good help defender but iffy man to man. If you look at the NBA 10 years ago with the iso plays and rim protection being important his lineups make sense, in todays NBA with perimeter shooting being so important that defense no longer works.

The fact is offense should be concentrated on off ball movement, that is the type of players we have. One guy either driver or passing with quick decisions. Constant iso plays to Barton or Millsap is playing into the defenses hands.

2 things I have noticed with our defensive decline. Craig is not Harris, Harris is our best perimeter defender he is the guy who slows down all the guards and needs to be used that way. The other is that since Juancho got hurt our help defense at the rim has been terrible. Juancho made a lot of plays coming off the corner and stopping the pick and roll, his length would also bother shooters when he would fly at them. Craig does not have the length or the instincts to play that well. Millsap and Plumlee are okay at PF, but neither is a great help defender either, so having that extra help defender helped this team tremendously.

Both are fatal flaws, not keeping up to date on what teams are doing and defending it, and not doing what your team does best on offense is just dumb.

Credit we've given but blame is deserved. I've said it before and I'll repeat it; Malone does not like young players. Malone has favorites. If you are a favorite, he'll play you no matter what. If you aren't a favorite, every little mistake costs you PT.

Beyond that, Malone tries to force players to play his system. Clearly our best offense is throw the ball to Jokic and everyone move, but Malone continually has Barton initiating and often resulting in ISO. Barton clearly loves to dribble behind his back and pass behind his back and he clearly is not very good at behind his back.

Malone now seems to like Thomas running the offense while he has Morris playing SG.

Morris has 5.86 assists per turnover (1st on the Nuggets).
Barton has 2.08 assists per turnover (8th on the Nuggets).
Thomas has .94 assists per turnover (17th on the Nuggets) - that's more turnovers than assists.

But Malone prefers to have Barton & Thomas play the point.

Maybe with these days off someone will show Malone and the coaching staff the game tapes of how we were winning earlier in the year and what has happened these last 2 weeks. I see no reason that Malone would be playing Barton and Thomas at the point, in fact I see no reason that either should be playing at all right now. Contracts be damned, I want the young team that was working together, happy, and winning.

https://milehighsports.com/malones-utilization-of-an-intense-film-session-is-what-denver-needs-to-get-back-on-track/

Glad I read this, looks like Malone has quite clear what they are doing wrong

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Manolito wrote:https://milehighsports.com/malones-utilization-of-an-intense-film-session-is-what-denver-needs-to-get-back-on-track/

Glad I read this, looks like Malone has quite clear what they are doing wrong

Sent from my Aquaris M5 using RealGM mobile app

skimming the article but he's just taking the usual route... lack of effort / laziness. Feels rather ironic

The GSW game was brutal to watch because they were smothering us on defense and got what seemed like a steal on every possession, and you won't win many games if Klay Thompson feels like hitting 9 of 11 3pters. But there's an elephant in the room that he refuses to address. I wouldn't be playing my heart out either if my coach were this oblivious.

Manolito wrote:https://milehighsports.com/malones-utilization-of-an-intense-film-session-is-what-denver-needs-to-get-back-on-track/

Glad I read this, looks like Malone has quite clear what they are doing wrong

The article says many of the same things our regulars have been saying on this board. The difference is that Malone is laying the blame on the players as being not motivated and not playing the right way. I'll ask, What is the coach's job? Isn't it to motivate the players and to call the right plays and make sure they are playing the right way? When Malone couldn't motivate/control Nurkic, he had him shipped out. Sure looks like it's time to ship out a few more players, but isn't that what we've been saying on here?

NuggetsWY wrote:

Manolito wrote:https://milehighsports.com/malones-utilization-of-an-intense-film-session-is-what-denver-needs-to-get-back-on-track/

Glad I read this, looks like Malone has quite clear what they are doing wrong

The article says many of the same things our regulars have been saying on this board. The difference is that Malone is laying the blame on the players as being not motivated and not playing the right way. I'll ask, What is the coach's job? Isn't it to motivate the players and to call the right plays and make sure they are playing the right way? When Malone couldn't motivate/control Nurkic, he had him shipped out. Sure looks like it's time to ship out a few more players, but isn't that what we've been saying on here?

Yes it is on the coach, and yes I think this is a step in the right direction, but any of us who are watching know who the 2 worst offenders are. The real issue is that for all his talk Barton and Thomas are the 2 guys who continually have the ball in their hands the minute they hit the court and do not pass, yet they have not had their minutes cut nor have they been yanked from games. So the next question is if there are going to be consequences for those 2 if they continue to act that way, and at this point I doubt it. Which means it is not only the players at fault, but also Malone (which tells me that Malone's biggest issue that he has had in Denver is still a huge issue).

U hova wrote:

Manolito wrote:https://milehighsports.com/malones-utilization-of-an-intense-film-session-is-what-denver-needs-to-get-back-on-track/

Glad I read this, looks like Malone has quite clear what they are doing wrong

Sent from my Aquaris M5 using RealGM mobile app

skimming the article but he's just taking the usual route... lack of effort / laziness. Feels rather ironic

The GSW game was brutal to watch because they were smothering us on defense and got what seemed like a steal on every possession, and you won't win many games if Klay Thompson feels like hitting 9 of 11 3pters. But there's an elephant in the room that he refuses to address. I wouldn't be playing my heart out either if my coach were this oblivious.

I agree, imagine being Jokic and Murray, carrying this team through all the injuries, working so well together, and then Barton comes back and neither of you see the ball for 6-8 possessions in a row, yet you are blamed in the media and film room as 2 of the starters that are being selfish and playing the wrong way. Imagine being Beasley and Morris, you played your assess off and proved that you are arguable the top backup bench guards in the league, now you can play a whole rotation and never even see the ball. Hard to do everything these young guys have been doing, then have a couple of veterans that the coach loves for some unknown reason be allowed to play how they want killing the entire system, and you are getting yelled at for not giving enough effort. This crap is on Malone as much as anybody at this point, we will see if it changes going forward.

I am dar away from being Malone's Fan, but I am happy to see that he has identified the reasons why the team has been struggling recently.

If he is not able to find a solution for these reasons and he keeps holding his bad habits, is a different story.

I could see him as the Nuggets version of Marc Jackson

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Maybe Malone is learning, no minutes for Thomas last night, and Barton got yanked in the 2nd half when he started trying to go iso. It also seems that Malone got Murray and the young guys refocused as well, so the days off have been a good thing.

Class act for Malone to allow Thomas some playing time last night - class act!

That's how a coach becomes a "Player's Coach" and that's what free agents like - well, that and they like winning.

There's been some talk about Malone being coach of the year. I'm not a big fan of Malone, but I believe he just might be the most qualified candidate. Consider that some did not even expect the Nuggets to make the playoffs and he has them at #2 with a long-shot to be #1 in the West.