Denver Nuggets: Where do they stand in award races?

Coach of the Year Candidate: Mike Malone

Like it or not Nuggets fans, Mike Malone is the coach of the Denver Nuggets. And whether or not you would like to admit it, he is doing a fantastic job.

Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets currently have the 4th best record in the league(31-14, .689) and have been one of the best teams in the league on both sides of the floor.

While their mark of 111.3 points per game is only the 18th best mark in the league, their ORtg of 114.9 is the second best in the NBA.

They have also posted the 6th best scoring defense in the league, and their DRtg of 109.6 is 12th best in the NBA.

If that wasn’t enough to be a coach of the year candidate, Malone has also managed to improve the team significantly from last year, especially on the defensive side of the floor.

Funnily enough, this year’s Nuggets are scoring 1.3 more points per game than in 2017-18(110.0 points per game), but last year’s Nuggets ranked 6th in the league in scoring. However, they allowed the 22nd most points per game in the NBA and had the 25th worst DRtg.

They also allowed the highest FG% and 3P% in the entire league. This year, Denver is allowing the 14th and 4th lowest FG% and 3P% respectively.

Should the Nuggets continue to dominate the West the way they have been and end up grabbing a top-3 seed at the end of the year, you can be assured that Mike Malone will at least finish in the top-3 for Coach of the Year ballots.

Malone currently has the 2nd best odds to nab the award according to Draft Kings.