There’s no need to read too much into Sunday night’s 111-98 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka all played at least 26 minutes and combined for 58 points.
Meanwhile, first-year head coach Michael Malone elected not to play Kenneth Faried, and rested Jusuf Nurkic and Randy Foye because of injuries (Foye with a hamstring injury and Nurkic with a knee injury). All three figure to be in starting roles come opening night.
The same can be said about the Nuggets’ 106-81 thrashing of the Phoenix Suns on Friday. While Faried, Wilson Chandler, Jameer Nelson and Will Barton were on the court, players like Danilo Gallinari, Foye, Nurkic, and the much-hyped rookie Emmanuel Mudiay were absent. Instead, lineups like the one below against Phoenix have been showcased.
Y’all, Michael Malone has deployed an Erick Green-Nick Johnson-Will Barton-Mike Miller-Nikola Jokic lineup.
LET’S.
GET.
WEIRD.— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) October 17, 2015
Accordingly, it’s been difficult to fully evaluate the Nuggets preseason thus far.
Malone appears to have been favoring evaluation over production this preseason, as roster cuts loom. The Nuggets currently have 18 players on the roster, which is three too many. Opening night rosters must be submitted by Oct. 26, but cuts will likely come 48 hours earlier.
Nick Johnson and Erick Green are two players battling for a roster spot, and both saw extended minutes against Phoenix and Oklahoma City. Neither was particularly impressive against the Suns, with Green going 2-for-5 from the floor for seven points and Johnson going just 1-for-7 for three points. Against the Thunder, Green was decidedly better going 6-for12 and 16 points, including 3-for-3 from long distance. Johnson had an identical stat line, 1-for-7 for three points. Johnson did with the +/- battle with a +8 to Green’s +2.
And while shoring up final roster spots are very necessary for a coach still figuring what talent he has available, Malone’s process could be interpreted as something else entirely. It’s not unimaginable that Malone is already confident in his top players, and is preferring to give backups more court time while the pressure is still low.
The nucleus of the 57-win team from 2012-13 is still somewhat intact with Faried, Chandler and Gallinari. And veterans Nelson and Mike Miller have more than enough NBA minutes under their belt that Malone must feel confident that heavy preseason reps would be unnecessary or even risky. His club already suffered a scare when Green was injured in the preseason opener, so holding out key players down the stretch of the preseason may be purely precautionary.
Still, for a team that is predicted to win just 26.5 games and finish at the bottom of the league with Portland (26.5) and Philadelphia (21.5), Malone is showing a surprising amount of confidence in his bunch by not putting his (projected) starters on the floor together even once through six preseason games.
Denver’s final preseason game is this Thursday against the Utah Jazz. With the season opener in sight, and assuming all starters are healthy, it seems likely that fans will get to see all starters on the court in Salt Lake City this week. Then again, we expected to see that on Friday against the Suns in the team’s only preseason game at Pepsi Center.
Malone can point to any number of reasons for not putting his starters on the floor as unit thus far throughout the preseason. So long as it translates to wins in the regular season, no one will be pointing a finger of blame.
Calvin Jouard is an intern at Mile High Sports and a student at the University of Denver