Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone is already in midseason form. After the Nuggets' 118-114 preseason loss to the Phoenix Suns Sunday night, Malone didn't mince words when talking about his team's effort.
"Played that starting unit the whole third quarter to try to push their envelope a little bit," Malone said. "That was probably a little bit hard on some of those guys. In practice I think we can get up and down more. I think so often as coaches and modern-day NBA, the league has gotten so soft. Everybody's afraid to condition and run. Well, we have to."
Malone had Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Russell Westbrook play all 12 minutes of the third quarter. Jamal Murray didn't play at all in the second half as he's been dealing with a knee issue, so Malone had Christian Braun and Julian Swather split time as the fifth starter. While it was just a preseason game, Malone is trying to instill in his players the importance of conditioning now for when the games really start to matter in April and May, especially with the way last season ended.
Last season we saw the Nuggets run out of gas in the second round of the NBA playoffs against a Minnesota Timberwolves team that bested them in a seven-game series. The Timberwolves went up 2-0 in that series before the Nuggets came back to even things up and took a 3-2 series lead. Minnesota forced a Game 7, and in the second half of that game the Wolves looked like the better conditioned team down the stretch as Anthony Edwards was still operating on a full tank of gas.
The Nuggets' title defense ended earlier than many people expected, but Denver enters this season as one of a few championships contenders. They lost another core piece from their 2023 title run in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the Magic, but return enough of their rotation to still be considered amongst the best in the league, especially with Jokic, the three-time MVP, at the center of it all. But if bad habits are already starting to kick in during preseason, then that could spill into the regular season and playoffs.
Malone, though is trying to nip that in the bud, and Porter Jr. is taking it to heart as the regular season nears.
"The better conditioned you are, the most opportunities will find you because you're just always moving," Porter Jr. said. "That's a big goal for me this year."
With Malone publicly calling out his players, we could see a more conditioned Denver team this season, which should be a scary thought for other teams in the Western Conference.
