LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Under the NBA bubble’s clear glass, the Nuggets’ flaws have been exposed. While shabby defense and untimely injuries might cost Denver this playoff series against Utah, a bigger and potentially fatal flaw could eventually cost coach Michael Malone his job.
The trust between Malone and his players is broken.
The eyes don’t lie, and Malone’s exasperation as he stood with arms folded on the sideline as Denver got blown out by 37 points in Game 3 was unmistakably recognizable to any parent that can’t get the kids to do their homework despite threatening to take the Xbox away.
“I think we give in too easy,” said Malone, questioning the resolve of players facing a win-or-start-packing scenario in Game 4.
There is much to like about this young team and the good isn’t lost on Malone. Nikola Jokic can treat the court like an artist’s canvas. Jamal Murray’s fire is stoked with a healthy rage. Jerami Grant bounces energetically from baseline to baseline, while Michael Porter Jr. has no fear of pulling the trigger on his jumper.
But what’s struck me about the NBA bubble is it’s a petri dish that allows both the big synergies and little malignancies in a team to grow.
The problem with these Nuggets, which must be addressed in the months ahead, before there’s one more word of loose talk of about championship contention, is so apparent Malone cannot hide it: “Our group has to be a lot more mentally tough.”
These Nuggets are soft. The roster needs tough love. Denver must find a player with the stubborn orneriness Montrezl Harrell brings to the Los Angeles Clippers and also find a guard whose shooting touch and health are more reliable than what Gary Harris can offer.
These Nuggets are as soft as a balloon, beautiful when all puffed up and floating along to victory. But they can be deflated, with confidence burst, either by a hard stomp from Utah center Rudy Gobert or a little prick from teammate Joe Ingles.
While the front-office brain trust of Tim Connelly and Josh Kroenke has tried mightily to create a family atmosphere at Pepsi Center, the bonds in the locker room have proven flimsy under duress. This team’s shaky commitment to winning and each other has been hidden in plain sight for a month, when the Nuggets failed the COVID challenge and half their roster showed up late to Orlando.
If there’s a glue guy in the locker room, it’s Will Barton. Now that he’s left the bubble to rehab a chronic knee injury, Malone seems uncertain whom to trust other than Jokic or Murray when the going gets tough.
The coach clearly doesn’t trust Porter’s effort on defense and can see the legs of Paul Millsap are shot when Ingles blows by the veteran forward on the dribble. In the absence of Harris, the efforts of Torrey Craig have come up woefully short.
After being blown out by the Jazz in for the second straight game, Jokic said: “We had a lot of running around with no reason. We didn’t know what we were doing.”
And isn’t that the definition of a poorly coached team, whose players have stopped listening?
Although Malone’s calling card is defense, in nearly every defensive stat the matters, the Nuggets rank at or near the bottom among 16 playoff teams.
“I’m not coaching well enough,” said Malone, taking full responsibility.
While social media screams for a scapegoat, you won’t hear me demand for Malone to be fired, even if the Nuggets get run out of the playoffs by Utah in five games, because one lousy series would not supersede five seasons of good work the coach has done in Denver.
In years past, however, I’ve watched Nuggets coaches with as different personalities as Mike D’Antoni and George Karl lose trust in key players from Nick Van Exel to Carmelo Anthony. And that seldom ends well.
In pro sports, where money encourages one man’s business to get in way of the whole group’s benefit, a basketball team that loses that loving feeling is gone, gone, gone.
The disconnect between this coach and this Denver team is not irreparable. The series against Utah remains salvageable.
But if trust is a two-way street, Malone and the Nuggets have begun to veer off in different directions. That absolutely must change, or more than the 2020 playoffs won’t end well.
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Kiszla: Fire Michael Malone? No. But broken trust between coach and Nuggets must be repaired. - The Denver Post
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