Michael Malone hates the Nuggets’ defense. And his players don’t care. There is no other conclusion to draw after the Trailblazers torched Denver late Friday night.
The Nuggets were outmuscled and outhustled. This marks the first time this season they have lost both games of a back-to-back. And before rolling out the excuse that Nikola Jokic sat out with injury, it should be noted that Portland played without its top three big men and its leading scorer.
The Nuggets were torched because of a lack of effort. They don’t have a major problem. They have two.
They can’t defend (Or choose not to). And Malone knows it, and no one is listening to him.
Over the past 10 days spanning six games, the Nuggets are 2-4. Malone mercifully had to give Jokic a break, and outside of one shining moment at Golden State, his team has been a mess. During this stretch, Malone has thrown a postgame box score at a trash can, admitted he has implored his players to try harder, questioned their seriousness, and called Friday’s loss “embarrassing, a joke.” He was right. And it tells you everything that is wrong with this team.
Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Ctrl+Alt+Delete. And no reboot. Maybe he can ask Barron Trump for help.
The Nuggets have 11 games remaining starting Sunday at Houston. They own the fourth seed, but would anyone be surprised if they slipped to sixth or seventh? And tell me which team you can say with confidence that Denver will beat in the first round?
There is no bright side anymore. In 2023, the Nuggets were viewed as a moped team that played like a motorcycle gang. They scrapped, dived for loose balls, won on the glass and let Jokic and Jamal Murray take over in the clutch. That seems like a lifetime ago.
Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope gave Malone answers for matchups. Now, he has no options. There is no fixing this.
Even Jokic admitted it last week.
“I think who you are in the regular season, that’s who you are in the playoffs,” Jokic said. “I think you cannot flip a switch. I think that doesn’t really exist.”
The only solution is hope. Hope that you can score 130-plus points four times in a seven-game series. They did that in their signature win at Oklahoma City on March 10.
Then they followed it with uninspired performances against the El Segundo Lakers and Washington Generals.
For a few months, it was easy to dismiss bad nights, especially after the Nuggets stormed into the All-Star break on an eight-game winning streak (against teams with losing records, mind you).
They are 8-8 since, a reflection of who they really are: A former champion that struggles against good clubs and treats defense as an annoying suggestion.
This season will end in disappointment, wasting another year of Jokic’s prime. And that is an indictment of everyone in the organization.
No one wants to hear this, but even the three-time MVP is part of the problem. His sagging defense at the top of the key, while chasing to the rim for rebounds undermines switching and spacing. He is an all-time great. But the tread is wearing off the tire. He logs insane minutes because the team is awful when he is not on the floor.
Hard to ask him to be Bill Russell when he puts up Wilt Chamberlain numbers.
If it were as easy as getting a capable rim protector to help, then there would be optimism next season. The Nuggets’ defensive issues run much deeper. They are fundamentally flawed. They get the matchups they want — like they did on pick-and-rolls Friday — and they still cannot guard anyone one-on-one. Malone counted 18 blow-bys at Portland. It was the latest example of Denver turning the lane into a layup line.
“I didn’t think,” Malone said, “we played with any pride.”
Play-in tournament, here they come. This is the kind of threat that once motivated the Nuggets to prove people wrong. Doubt them. They dunk on you.
Now, the players cannot even agree on what is wrong. Is it communication? They give up three more made 3-pointers per game this season. Is it a lack of urgency? They are the second-worst defensive team in the first quarter. Is it leadership? Is it personnel?
Malone is the greatest coach in Nuggets history. Period. His message remains right. But the players’ response screams they are tuning him out.
About these players. General manager Calvin Booth deserves plenty of blame.
While Avs management listens to the room, understands the championship window with Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on the roster, and makes bold moves, Booth did nothing at the trade deadline. Even a minor transaction would have helped with the psychology, providing a reminder that the front office believes in the group.
Instead, this was the message sent: Booth screwed up by signing Dario Saric and gave up too many picks to shed Reggie Jackson’s contract.
There is one advantage to this humbling month: It is obvious something has to change this offseason. Stop telling us Michael Porter Jr. is a thing. That he is untouchable. He is not. He is a nice player, but given every opportunity to assert himself with Jokic out — like Aaron Gordon has done and must continue to do — he disappears for long stretches.
Aside from Jokic, Murray and Gordon, everyone must be made available. This roster needs a refresh in the worst possible way. And if Booth does not agree, what does that say about Malone’s future?
Something is clearly off. The Nuggets have talent. But on too many nights since Feb. 22, they have looked lifeless.
That’s what happens when — even after daily red-faced reminders by the coach — you don’t play defense.
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