Practice Diary: Nuggets set upon more consistent defense during rare rest days

With three off days in between games, the Denver Nuggets are taking full advantage of a brief respite.

The Nuggets held no shootaround ahead of Saturday night’s game against the Utah Jazz. They held no practice on Sunday following a win that went down to the wire. On Monday, the Nuggets held a light practice day with the intention of facilitating recovery and preventing further injury.

“We’ve got so many guys banged up,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone led with during Monday’s post practice media session. “We did no live stuff, stayed away from contact, watched some film from the last game some cleanups for where we have to get better at.”

The Nuggets are a veteran team, more so this year than any other year during the Michael Malone era. This is Malone’s eighth season, and the way he’s treated this roster is a far cry from previous groups that were often full of youthful energy and resilience. This Nuggets roster needs load management and rest as often as it needs to be reminded to defend. That occurred in practice today.

“I think eight years ago, when we had a three-day break, I probably would have wanted to practice three hours a day, and then we get to Wednesday night and we’d be tired and I’d be like: why are we so tired?”

The Nuggets are dealing with several nicks, bruises, and some tired players following an intense stretch of road games: Jamal Murray’s surgically repaired knee, Jeff Green’s knee he hurt earlier this season, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s wrist, and DeAndre Jordan’s thumb that he injured on Saturday night going for an offensive rebound. In addition, players like Nikola Jokić, Aaron Gordon, and Bruce Brown have played a ton of minutes in a row. So, a light practice full of film and recovery was certainly appealing.

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A procrastinating defense

Malone and the Nuggets are well aware of their defensive issues.

“I told our guys today, I said listen, right now our defense is ranked 26th. In clutch games, we are the number one defense. The last two fourth quarters, our defense has been great. So, you’re showing me that you can do it, but now the challenge is to do it a lot more often, a lot more consistently. If we’re able to do that, I think we can go on a run where we protect our home court and win at a high level.”

As Malone mentioned, the Nuggets have been horrible defensively for most of the game and excellent when it counts. Opposing teams find ways to score consistently, generating easy shot opportunities while also developing enough shooting rhythm to convert the hard ones when they have to do so. The Nuggets certainly haven’t made things easier for themselves though, allowing games to come down to the wire and force an intense defensive effort at the end in order to eke out a victory.

Are the Nuggets procrastinating on purpose?

“I’m not sure if it’s procrastinating,” Malone shared. “I’m not sure if it’s ‘Hey we can turn it on in the fourth quarter, we can outscore teams because our offense is elite,’ but it’s just not good enough whatever the reasons are. We have to come out in that first quarter and guard like we have in the fourth quarter as of late.”

That desire to be better on defense earlier in the game is a sentiment that shared by the players too.

“We need to pay a little bit more attention to detail throughout the game on the defensive end,” said Aaron Gordon to media during practice. “A little bit more urgency throughout the game.”

Gordon shared another quote about how Denver can often play to the level of their competition, and it doubles as a great thought about Denver’s needed mentality on defense as well:

“It’s about us. When it comes down to it, it’s not really about the other team and the competition. It’s about the standard that we hold ourselves to and the principles we hold ourselves to.”

The Nuggets have been able to survive primarily on offense with segments of timely defense while out on the road, though against a relatively weak schedule. That will have to change in the coming months.

Michael Porter Jr. update

For the first time in a long while, Michael Porter Jr. was back on the court with his teammates.

“Today was the first day that Michael participated in parts of practice,” Malone declared, “so he’s definitely feeling better.”

Porter has been getting treatment for a slightly ambiguous injury to his left heel, missing the last nine games with what was initially deemed a contusion and has since evolved into a strain. Whatever the case, it appears to have been bothering him for awhile.

Malone continued: “We’re not going to rush a guy back. Obviously, Michael’s a starter. He’s a big piece of what we’re doing, but when you have the injury that he has to his heel, it makes it very hard to move on the floor.”

There were no live drills today, but if there were, it’s unlikely that Porter would have participated. He’s still showing some discomfort in his movement and reaction time, making it difficult to play at this stage.

“I don’t think he’ll be ready for Wednesday night,” Malone stated, “but just having him in practice, having him in the drills, seeing him our here shooting the ball, it’s just great to have him back.”

“Hopefully, as we progress through the week, we can kind of expose him to some more drills and some more contact to try and get him back on that court.”

The Nuggets need Porter back on the floor sometime soon. His recovery time has taken a bit longer than anticipated, but it doesn’t change Denver’s need for that floor spacing and size on the perimeter. Denver’s survived without him in the last nine games, going 6-3. That will change if Porter continues to be out an extended stretch.

More than anything though, the Nuggets still have to reincorporate the young forward into the offense and defense. The team is clearly not where they need to be to seriously challenge for a championship, and if Porter’s going to be a big part of that chase, the Nuggets need to use the time allotted to them to figure out how he can best help the team.