Over the years, Michael Malone has shown that he likes to stick to his rotations and keep things steady and mostly, ordinary. But this season, he has had no choice but to adjust and adapt more than ever.
The rotations were already a huge question mark coming into the season after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Justin Holiday, and Reggie Jackson departed in free agency. A lot of minutes and opportunities were available and there were no clear replacements.
Luckily, Christian Braun has stepped up and filled the void in the starting lineup left by KCP impeccably so far. But Braun’s move left another big hole on the bench. Rookie DaRon Holmes’ achilles injury helped that hole grow and it has taken only a few games to see that new signing Dario Saric is unplayable.
Then, throw in early season injuries to Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon and Malone’s hands have been completely tied. He has been experimenting with different substitution patterns, different lineups, and different rotations, and has been giving minutes to players who were not expected to play at all.
This likely is not what Malone envisioned or hoped for, but for the most part, it is working out. The Nuggets beat the Heat on Friday night to improve to 6-3 on the young season. They’ve won four straight games and a big part of their winning ways has been the play of the young players and how they are being deployed by Coach Malone.
Michael Porter Jr. starts 4th quarter at center for Nuggets
In one of his boldest maneuvers of the season, Malone started the fourth quarter with an insanely small lineup that featured Micahel Porter Jr. at center. The Heat were playing a small lineup at the time and Devner was able to overwhelm them with athleticism, having MPJ out there with Watson, Strawther, Murray, and Westbrook.
They were able to hold the Nuggets lead until Jokic and the other starters returned and closed out a relatively easy win in the 2023 NBA Finals rematch, 135-122. Perhaps this only happened due to Gordon’s injury, but it’s great to see all the experimentation and much of it paying off.
The Nuggets have survived this ‘slow’ start with a solid record and they’ve learned things about the team that will help them going forward. Adding different wrinkles and creating variability within the team’s lineups would be massive.
The more ways the Nuggets can attack teams, the better. Being able to have a number of tools in the tool-belt only strengthens a team and this can make all the difference in a playoff series. It may not be this specific move, putting MPJ at center, but trying new things can lead to discoveries that turn a good team into a great one.