The official Denver Nuggets thread.

[beastlyskronk]

I have to say it. Even if making the finals is all that happens I think it’s high time I eat crow on Malone. Sure at times there’s things I don’t like. I’ve criticized him as much as anyone on here. But this team looks good and he became the first coach in franchise history to make a finals. The day we hired him I said he’s not the guy to do this.

May seem a bit odd to say but I don’t think you’re wrong on Malone. I don’t think he’s done a good job at developing young players and even though we have Jokic and Murray blossoming, I think you can make the argument that they would develop themselves regardless of the coach as 1 is proving to be a generational talent and the other shows that in the playoffs too. And I don’t know if it’s just that I’m forgetting the good plays or not, but it seems like anytime we come out of a timeout the play ends up being a turnover or an awful shot attempt. So as far as coaching goes from a pure coaching standpoint, I don’t think he’s great at all. Although the offense itself as a whole is quite beautiful to watch. And as far as development goes, Harris regressed, Monte Morris never really got better, Bol Bol was stuck in neutral, Hyland stayed in neutral, Hampton flashed a few times but got buried on the bench due to inconsistencies, Braun is more or less what he was in college (but he’s contributing albeit his minutes are starting to wane), Nnaji is stuck in neutral, the list goes on and on and it scares me going forward with Watson as Watson has a ton of talent yet is still incredibly raw.

However I will say, he has the pulse of this team in his pocket. He knows how to motivate these guys to play hard. He’s patient (infuriatingly so at times; see Campazzo) with his players and rotation when guys are struggling. He’s also not afraid to ride the hot hand down the stretch as he’s done with Green over Gordon a few games ago and MPJ/Brown all season long. I think he’s a great leader and a great voice for this team. The players on this team have bought in top to bottom. He also deserves credit for seeing exactly what he had in Jokic and moving on from Nurkic to get Jokic more minutes.

Im not sure how much he’s involved in some of these trades we do, but if he’s responsible for trading Beasley, Vanderbilt, Hyland, Bol Bol and I’m sure I’m forgetting more but if he ok’d trading those guys for essentially nothing and late draft picks, then he needs to be left out of those discussions. If he’s not giving the ok for those trades then I’m glad Connelly is gone and I hope Booth doesn’t continue to follow that trend although with the rumors of the Timberwolves giving us a lot more for Hyland and us turning it down because it seemed unfair, it doesn’t seem like Booth is going to be much better at getting equal or better trade value. I do like that Malone is getting on the phone with potential free agent additions though. He also consistently puts together a top tier coaching staff even if they’re all sons of former nba coaches.

[DenverBlood]

May seem a bit odd to say but I don’t think you’re wrong on Malone. I don’t think he’s done a good job at developing young players and even though we have Jokic and Murray blossoming, I think you can make the argument that they would develop themselves regardless of the coach as 1 is proving to be a generational talent and the other shows that in the playoffs too. And I don’t know if it’s just that I’m forgetting the good plays or not, but it seems like anytime we come out of a timeout the play ends up being a turnover or an awful shot attempt. So as far as coaching goes from a pure coaching standpoint, I don’t think he’s great at all. Although the offense itself as a whole is quite beautiful to watch. And as far as development goes, Harris regressed, Monte Morris never really got better, Bol Bol was stuck in neutral, Hyland stayed in neutral, Hampton flashed a few times but got buried on the bench due to inconsistencies, Braun is more or less what he was in college (but he’s contributing albeit his minutes are starting to wane), Nnaji is stuck in neutral, the list goes on and on and it scares me going forward with Watson as Watson has a ton of talent yet is still incredibly raw.

However I will say, he has the pulse of this team in his pocket. He knows how to motivate these guys to play hard. He’s patient (infuriatingly so at times; see Campazzo) with his players and rotation when guys are struggling. He’s also not afraid to ride the hot hand down the stretch as he’s done with Green over Gordon a few games ago and MPJ/Brown all season long. I think he’s a great leader and a great voice for this team. The players on this team have bought in top to bottom. He also deserves credit for seeing exactly what he had in Jokic and moving on from Nurkic to get Jokic more minutes.

Im not sure how much he’s involved in some of these trades we do, but if he’s responsible for trading Beasley, Vanderbilt, Hyland, Bol Bol and I’m sure I’m forgetting more but if he ok’d trading those guys for essentially nothing and late draft picks, then he needs to be left out of those discussions. If he’s not giving the ok for those trades then I’m glad Connelly is gone and I hope Booth doesn’t continue to follow that trend although with the rumors of the Timberwolves giving us a lot more for Hyland and us turning it down because it seemed unfair, it doesn’t seem like Booth is going to be much better at getting equal or better trade value. I do like that Malone is getting on the phone with potential free agent additions though. He also consistently puts together a top tier coaching staff even if they’re all sons of former nba coaches.

I guess my main point is he’s not messing it up. And there’s been times in the past I felt like he did like forcing time for some of the players you referenced. Green is probably the only one he still forces minutes where I don’t get why.

But I’m not really sure it’s fair to criticize due to having generational talents on the roster. People use to claim the same about Spoelstra that he just wasn’t getting in the way of Lebron, Wade and Bosch. But now look at him 1 game away from the finals again with some good talent but not the same level.

People have made that argument about Phil before. Of would he really be at the top of the coaching tree if he hadn’t had MJ, Kobe and Shaq.

What has Pop done now that the spurs no longer have elite talent? His scheme used to be considered elite. But it doesn’t work when he doesn’t have the top tier talent to run it.