DENVER — By the point the Denver Nuggets locker room was opened to the media on Thursday evening, Jamal Murray was gone.
There was no probability to ask him about his 4-of-13 capturing evening within the Nuggets’ 102-87 loss to Oklahoma Metropolis, or the assertion from his coach, Michael Malone, that the pairing of Murray and newcomer Russell Westbrook had all types of potential to be productive. By no means thoughts that Westbrook had simply completed a 2-of-10 night from the sector during which he wasted no time residing as much as his repute as a traditionally unhealthy shooter who, nonetheless, simply retains firing away.
His air-balled 3 on the 3:45 mark of the primary quarter — with no defender inside 5 ft, no much less — was as inauspicious a starting to this pairing as one may presumably think about on this evening during which he missed 5 of six makes an attempt from past the arc. By the top, with the Thunder outclassing the Nuggets all through and Denver lacking 31 of 38 3s in all, essentially the most disconcerting second of reality for Denver got here from crucial man within the Ball Area constructing, Nikola Jokić.
“We aren’t an excellent capturing workforce, I feel, besides in all probability (Michael Porter Jr.) and Jamal (Murray),” mentioned Jokiċ, who had a triple-double (16 factors, 13 assists and 12 rebounds) and hit 6 of 12 pictures (1-of-3 from 3). “All of us are sort of streaky. Not streaky, you recognize, however simply common shooters.”
On this Nuggets surroundings the place the longstanding stress between Malone and Nuggets basic supervisor Calvin Sales space is the worst-kept secret within the Affiliation lately, it was fairly a factor for Jokić to determine to say the quiet half out loud like that. That’s an unflattering assertion concerning the workforce’s personnel, which inevitably factors the finger on the entrance workplace throughout a time when Sales space and his workers try their finest to encourage synergy from high to backside as a solution to return these Nuggets to title contender standing.
However make no mistake, the not-so-subtle references to the adjustments which have taken place since Denver’s title in 2023 are a mirrored image of the inner angst that these Nuggets try to navigate. Within the curiosity of equity, it needs to be remembered that the Kroenke household who owns the workforce is making the entire closing monetary selections with this group. And Malone’s curious postgame choice to remind the lots that Denver misplaced Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Orlando in free company, for instance, was nearly as good an indication as any that the Nuggets are struggling to maximise their current whereas reconciling their previous.
“I don’t assume there’s any want for panic,” Malone mentioned. “Going into the season, capturing is a priority of mine. , you lose a man like KCP, who was a 40 p.c 3-point shooter, you recognize what I imply? And I believed Christian Braun was nice tonight. Once more, Christian Braun is just not going to be KCP, so I feel all of us have to grasp that, which I feel we do, and embrace CB for who he’s. I believed he performed actually good protection, competed, ran the ground. …No, there’s no panic.”
Nope, nothing to see right here in any respect. It’s only a powerful begin to a season that resumes towards Westbrook’s previous LA Clippers workforce on Saturday at house. The necessity to win that sport, and quell all this uncomfortableness within the course of, is about as nice because it will get for this time of 12 months.
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In fact Thunder coach Mark Daigneault watched the Olympic semifinal during which Jokić’s Serbian workforce almost surprised Crew USA within the Olympics. Everybody within the basketball group was glued to their televisions for that sport (and a few of us have been fortunate sufficient to witness it in particular person).
However after I requested Daigneault about Jokić’s greatness at shootaround on Thursday morning, whereas noting how the Thunder have an MVP-caliber participant of their very own in Shai-Gilgeous Alexander who definitely held his personal within the Video games, his response about Oklahoma Metropolis’s celebrity stock was fairly telling.
“We would have a couple of,” he mentioned.
Whats up, Chet Holmgren.
The second-year massive man had about as spectacular an opener as anybody may think about, ending with 25 factors (11-of-18 capturing), 14 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks and two steals. Contemplating the context right here, how the 22-year-old needed to sit out his rookie season due to the Lisfranc harm in his proper foot, it’s fairly exceptional {that a} coach of Daigneault’s reputation is so prepared to lift the notion that Holmgren is perhaps as a lot of a franchise centerpiece as Gilgeous-Alexander. However judging by the Thunder’s debut — this one-sided rout during which Gilgeous-Alexander completed with 28 factors, eight assists and 7 rebounds — the excessive reward is warranted.
Holmgren, and the Thunder by proxy, are very a lot for actual.
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It’s so cliche to say the West is wild. However as so lots of my colleagues chronicled lately, parity is the brand new means of the NBA.
Inside that, there’s the undeniable fact that no workforce within the West ought to really feel secure. The Thunder are the heavy front-runners, to make sure, however Daigneault detailed why the notion of overlooking the Nuggets — or anybody else, for that matter — is a idiot’s errand.
“Our job as a workforce is for the entire to be higher than the sum of the elements,” mentioned Daigneault, whose Thunder beat the Nuggets thrice in 4 tries final season. “And that may typically work in bizarre methods. You possibly can look down on paper and say, nicely, they misplaced this man. They didn’t exchange it with x, y or z. However all that issues in a workforce is that the entire is larger than the sum. And there’s been nice examples of groups which have accomplished that nicely.
“I believed we have been a workforce that did that very nicely final 12 months. I believed we have been higher as a result of we have been extra collective than we have been with the person elements. And that’s (the Nuggets’) problem. It’s our problem, and it’s 28 different groups’ problem. However we definitely don’t take them flippantly, as a result of they’ve continuity on the high of the roster. They actually have a system that they know easy methods to play to and can come to play. In addition they are hungry proper now. I feel you will get a way from them, simply from listening to them and watching them from a distance, that there’s a starvation coming off of the championship final season, (and) with how the season went and the way it ended, and a starvation particular to us.”
All true statements by Daigneault, to make sure. However the Thunder, ultimately, have been those who would do the wonderful eating.
(Photograph of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Pictures)