Malone on the Hot Seat? Takeaways From Nuggets vs. Heat

Mudiay started off well, creating a couple of good looks for himself in the first half, but as the game rolled on, his composure unraveled.

For Mudiay, falling apart generally comes at the hands of a couple of repeat culprits which emerged once again against Miami on Wednesday. First off, his turnovers. While he has generally improved his assist-to-turnover ratio as the season has progressed, Emmanuel Mudiay has not shed his unfortunate tendency completely.

Nuggets fans should be quite familiar with what a Mudiay turnover looks like. Most often, they come at the hands of an overzealous charge to the basket turned hasty mid-air bailout pass that gets intercepted. An aggressive Mudiay is a good Mudiay, but the young guard needs to keep his composure without bending to rash bursts of overconfidence. This means taking less three pointers, and driving through the paint instead of a fully fueled one-way charge to/past the basket.

These stolen passes usually come from a panicked Mudiay that has chucked the ball out to the perimeter as the young guard floats out-of-bounds. Mudiay has shown that he is capable of dribbling into and out of the paint to find the best shot, as he did early in Wednesday’s game, and now he simply needs to maintain this composure. In the end, Mudy did fill up the box score, logging 8 rebounds, 7 assists, and one blocked shot to go with a mere 7 points. His 4 turnovers and 3-11 shooting on the night can be largely credited to his failure to stay composed.