Category: Denver Nuggets Blog

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Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a big fan of Nuggets center Nikola Jokic

It’s always fun to hear how NBA players and coaches talk about guys on other teams. Here’s the Denver Post reporting Gregg Popovich’s words about Nuggets start center Nikola Jokic:

Legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is more ornery than complimentary and more evasive than honest.

That’s why, even after Nikola Jokic’s 25-point, 11-assist clinic against the Spurs on Aug. 6, his postgame testimonial came as such a shock.

“He’s like a reincarnation of Larry Bird,” said Popovich, who two years ago scoffed at the suggestion Jokic was revolutionary.

“When I think of revolutions, I think of people like Che Guevara, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin,” he said in December 2018. “I don’t really think of Jokic as revolutionary, so I think you’re a bit hyperbolic there. But he is one heck of a player.”

The Nuggets in the first round will face a short-handed Jazz team that will be without forward Bojan Bogdanovic for the duration of the the playoffs due to injury, and point guard Mike Conley for at least a game or so, as the team waits for him to return from Ohio following the birth of his son.

Nuggets will be missing multiple starters Saturday in game vs Heat

On Saturday, the Nuggets will face the Heat at 1 p.m. ET, with the game televised nationally on ESPN. Here’s the Denver Post reporting:

Denver will be down starters Gary Harris (right hip muscle strain) and Will Barton (knee soreness), while point guard Jamal Murray (left hamstring tightness) is questionable for the opener. Nuggets reserve Vlatko Cancar was also listed on Friday’s injury report with a left foot fracture.

After arriving late to Orlando, Harris missed all three of the team’s scrimmages.

Leading Scorers

Heat (PPG)
Jimmy Butler 20.2
Bam Adebayo 16.2
Goran Dragic 16.1
Kendrick Nunn 15.6
Duncan Robinson 13.3

Nuggets (PPG)
Nikola Jokic 20.2
Jamal Murray 18.8
Will Barton 15.1
Paul Millsap 12.0
Jerami Grant 11.6

After bout with coronavirus, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic settles in at NBA Disney Campus

Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic has finally made it to the NBA season restart campus at Disney World in Florida. Here’s the Denver Post reporting:

No one could’ve blamed Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic had he been dispirited in the wake of his weeks-long ordeal following a positive coronavirus test.

Precious practice time with teammates was lost, and for weeks, team officials had to answer for his whereabouts.

Instead, speaking for the first time since his weekend arrival in the NBA’s bubble and since the season shut down in March, Jokic was jovial. He didn’t miss a beat while parrying questions and lobbing jokes at the familiar voices coming through Tuesday’s Zoom call.

“It was not difficult at all, I was home,” Jokic said when asked to describe his last three weeks. “I was quarantined for 14-15 days. We had a little private house. I was with my girlfriend, so it was actually a kind of vacation for us. I work out every day, I enjoy every day. It was actually not that bad.”

The 43-22 Nuggets have the third best record in the Western conference heading into the NBA restart, and Jokic is their centerpiece, both literally and figuratively.

In Nuggets news, team names Calvin Booth as General Manager

The Denver Nuggets have named Calvin Booth the team’s new General Manager, President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly announced today.

“Calvin is one of the brightest basketball minds in our league,” said Connelly. “We are very fortunate to have him as part of our organization and are extremely excited for his new role.”

Booth, 44, is in his third season with the Nuggets after being hired as Assistant General Manager in the summer of 2017. Since arriving in Denver, Booth has played an integral part in the scouting and drafting of Monte Morris, Michael Porter Jr., Bol Bol and Vlatko Cancar. The Nuggets saw improved records in each of Booth’s first two seasons, including a trip to the Western Conference Semi-Finals last season.

Prior to arriving in Denver, Booth spent four seasons (2013 – 2017) in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ front office, initially as a scout before rising through the ranks to Director of Player Personnel. Booth also served as a scout for the New Orleans Pelicans during the 2012-13 season before transitioning to Minnesota.

Before beginning his front office career, Booth played for seven different teams over a 10-year career in the NBA. He appeared in 366 games (83 starts), averaging 3.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.00 blocks per game. The Reynoldsburg, OH native was drafted by the Washington Wizards in the second round (35th overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft after playing four years at Penn State University where he was named Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year in 1998.

Nuggets sign Tyler Cook to a replacement two-way contract

The Denver Nuggets have signed forward Tyler Cook to a replacement two-way contract today.

Cook, listed at 6-foot-8, 255 pounds, most recently appeared in 11 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, totaling 19 points and 10 rebounds in 35 minutes of action. He also played in 29 games (10 starts) for the Oklahoma City Blue of the NBA G League, holding averages of 12.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting 58.2% from the field in 21.3 minutes per game.

Cook originally signed a two-way contract with the Nuggets on Aug. 13, 2019 after spending training camp in Denver. Cook went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft out of the University of Iowa where he played three seasons, averaging 14.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 93 total games (92 starts).

Cook will wear #25 for the Nuggets.

Nuggets convert contract of P.J. Dozier into standard deal

The Denver Nuggets have converted the two-way contract of guard P.J. Dozier to a multi-year NBA contract, President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly announced today.

Dozier, 6-6, 205, signed a two-way contract with the Nuggets on Oct. 18, 2019 and has appeared in 21 games this season, averaging 4.1 points, 1.4 assists and 1.4 rebounds in 11.1 minutes. Dozier posted a career-high 15 points in 21 minutes at Houston on Jan. 22, 2020.

In 18 games (16 starts), for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA G League this season, Dozier held averages of 21.4 points, 7.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 44% from the field in 36.9 minutes. He scored 20 or more points in 12 games, including posting a triple-double with 27 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists vs. Capital City Go-Go on Dec. 29th.

Dozier spent last season on a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics, where he appeared in six games for the Celtics and averaged 3.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 6.8 minutes. He played in 46 games (all starts) for the Maine Red Claws of the G League where he posted 21.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 32.0 minutes per game. In 2017-18, he signed a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder where he saw action in two games for the Thunder and 43 games for the Oklahoma City Blue of the G League. Dozier originally went undrafted in the 2017 NBA Draft after spending two years at the University of South Carolina.

Updated Nuggets game schedule starts August 1st vs. the Heat

The National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association announced today that they have finalized a comprehensive plan for a July 30 restart to the 2019-20 season, which includes stringent health and safety protocols, a single-site campus at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the goal of taking collective action to combat systemic racism and promote social justice.

The NBA also released its complete game schedule and national television schedules for TNT, ESPN, ABC and NBA TV for the “seeding games,” which will be played July 30 – Aug. 14 to tip off the resumption of the 2019-20 season. The 22 teams participating in the season restart will play eight seeding games each at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

Each team will be designated as the home team in four seeding games and the visiting team in four seeding games. The tip-off time for each team’s last seeding game, scheduled to be played on Aug. 13 or 14, will be determined at a later date in order to provide the most compelling matchups to a national audience. As part of the restart, the NBA and its broadcast and technology partners are collaborating to enhance game telecasts and bring fans an immersive, interactive viewing experience.

The 88 seeding games, which were selected from the remaining 259 regular-season matchups, will count toward the final 2019-20 regular-season standings and regular-season statistics. In the first step of the selection process for the seeding games, the matchups were chosen chronologically, starting from March 11, except in these instances:

• A matchup featured a non-participating team

• A matchup resulted in either team in the matchup exceeding eight total games

• A matchup prevented any participating team from having eight feasible matchups

The second step in the selection process was matchup balancing. There were eight instances in which selecting matchups chronologically prevented a matchup that was scheduled to be played two more times in the remainder of the regular season from being included among the seeding games. In those cases, one instance of that matchup was added as a seeding game, and instances of repeat matchups as seeding games were removed where possible.

The seeding games will conclude on Aug. 14. If a play-in is required to determine the eighth playoff seed in either conference, it will take place on Aug. 15-16. The first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs will begin on Aug. 17.

Altitude Sports & Entertainment will televise all eight Nuggets seeding games in high-definition and will also broadcast all games on Altitude Radio 92.5 FM/950 AM, the Nuggets Radio Network. For comprehensive and behind the scenes coverage, tune in to Nuggets 360 on Altitude TV and follow along at nuggets.com and @nuggets on Twitter. No games will be exclusive to national broadcasts during the seeding play.

Nuggets players begin mandatory coronavirus testing

Most teams around the league — specifically the 22 that have been invited by the NBA to resume the 2019-20 season at Disney in Florida — will be going through something similar to what is described below by the Denver Post:

Tuesday marks the most formal operations the NBA has seen since the coronavirus abruptly forced a stoppage in play more than 100 days ago.

All Nuggets players and staffers will undergo mandatory coronavirus testing beginning Tuesday, which includes a high-sensitivity PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and a high-sensitivity serology/antibody test. Players, team staffers and even Nuggets officials who aren’t planning on traveling to Orlando to resume the season must undergo the testing.

PCR testing (nasal swabs) will be conducted every other day for the duration of the season, in addition to daily health monitoring such as temperature checks. The antibody test will be repeated in the event of a positive test.

It’s crunch time. We’re now in a crucial period. It’s certainly quite possible that over the next few days, some players likely will test positive for coronavirus. If it’s managed correctly, such results won’t hinder the league’s attempt to resume play in late July as planned.

Nuggets staff partake in Juneteenth march

This year, Juneteenth is finally getting the increased attention that it clearly deserves.

Here’s the Denver Post with an off-court Nuggets report:

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, assistant general manager Calvin Booth and other team staffers took part in a silent Juneteenth march through Denver on Friday.

The holiday commemorates the day — June 19th 1865 — when the last enslaved African Americans in the U.S. learned of their freedom.

For the first time, the NBA is joining the commemoration by treating it as a holiday and granting all league office employees paid time off. Kroenke Sports and Entertainment treated it as a holiday as well, and Malone encouraged members of the organization to participate.

Nuggets practice facility to be made available for players

Progress is being made on the NBA player workout front. On an individual level, that is. Not on a team level just yet. Here’s the Denver Post reporting:

Beginning Friday, the Nuggets’ practice facility will be available to players for voluntary individual workouts, a league source confirmed, but it’s unclear how many players will take advantage. A significant portion of the players aren’t currently in Denver.

If they do choose to take advantage – the first tentative step toward a potential return-to-play – there will be rigorous rules in place at the Pepsi Center practice court. No more than four players will be permitted at the facility at any time, and for any individual workout, only one team staff member can work with the player.

The fate of the currently-suspended NBA season will probably be known in the coming weeks. There’s no deadline for the NBA to make a decision, but conventional wisdom suggests more will be known sometime in May.