While the Nuggets themselves are coming off a schizophrenic and inconsistent week, to put it kindly, after home losses to Sacramento and San Antonio, the Blue Arrow has quietly been tying a bow around his most productive November ever.
Friday night’s 37-point performance against the Spurs at Ball Arena pushed No. 27’s scoring average over his first 12 games of the month to 23.2 per contest — easily his best clip for the month of November since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jamal Murray: budding All-Star — A-minus.
From Nov. 1-Nov. 28, Murray was connecting on 48% of his attempts from the floor and 40.4% from beyond the arc. As of Saturday morning, his November averages were 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 3.0 treys per tilt.
If that sounds like a healthy jump from a year ago at this time, that’s because it is. Murray in November 2024 averaged 17.8 points, 6.7 dimes and 2.2 3-point makes over 10 games. In November 2023, Maple Curry averaged 12.5 points, 6.3 assists and 1.5 treys over just four appearances.
Given that Murray is a historically slow-(ish) starter, Team Grading The Week (GTW) wanted to pause form stuffing our respective faces with turkey sandwiches and tip some collective caps in the Blue Arrow’s direction.
For another, here’s hoping that yet another tweak in the NBA’s All-Star game format opens up a window for Murray to finally make the cut at age 28.
Instead of conference-vs.-conference matchups, the main competition on ASG weekend will be a Team USA vs. Team World tourney. Only instead of two teams, there will be three teams comprised of eight players, with no positional restrictions, who will face off in a round-robin format.
With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32.6 points, 6.6 assist per game as of this past Friday) almost a lock to take up at least one Team World backcourt spot, Murray is going to have to keep this pace up to join his fellow Canadian at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., come mid-February. But with each passing week, Murray gets that much closer to crossing the threshold from almost to All-Star.
Tad Boyle’s still got it — A.
New DU men’s hoops coach Tim Bergstraser sure got the GTW crew’s attention earlier this month by beating CSU Rams and Ali Farokhmanesh in FoCo. Steve Smiley’s UNC Bears men’s basketball team improved to 6-1 this past Wednesday with a victory at Air Force. Thanksgiving weekend means we’re going to finally get some meaty inter-conference matchups on the hoops front, and no local men’s team has stepped up over the past few days the way GTW’s old pal Tad Boyle has with CU.
Between Nov. 21-28, the Buffs (7-0) knocked off UC Davis at home by 16, then went to Palm Desert, Calif., for a holiday tourney — taking out a good San Francisco team by 10 and following that up with an 81-68 victory over Washington on Friday thanks to Bangot Dak’s 15 points and 11 boards.
That shadow over the court was Aaron Gordon’s. Suddenly, the Nuggets felt his absence as painfully as their opponents usually feel his presence.
He would have been perfect for a crunch-time possession late Saturday night and the unenviable task of guarding DeMar DeRozan with a game on the line.
David Adelman instead asked for one stop from Spencer Jones, the eager 24-year-old wing who has prospered as a defensive specialist on a two-way contract.
He had started the game in place of the injured Gordon as well, but this was a step up in stakes. The Nuggets trailed 123-120 after a successful two-for-one bucket with 29 seconds to go, allowing them to play out a defensive possession instead of fouling. They had no margin for error, but they had a chance.
Jones does have one glaring flaw in his defensive game: He’s foul-prone. And against a savvy veteran scorer like DeRozan, discipline with hand placement is especially vital. Jones didn’t pass the assignment this time. He reached into the cookie jar, and DeRozan immediately drew the contact while burying an improbable midrange jumper. Ballgame.
Gordon and the Nuggets are seeking second opinions on the severity of his right hamstring strain before determining how much time he’ll miss, Adelman said Saturday, 24 hours after Gordon slipped on a drive to the basket in Houston and then gingerly walked off the court. The injury could result in another prolonged absence for a Nuggets starter, with Christian Braun already on the shelf for the next five weeks.
“We’re trying to make sure we get the correct answer to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Adelman said. “… Obviously, that was concerning last night with Aaron.”
And Jones was a major variable in the defensive equation of replacing Gordon during Denver’s back-to-back this weekend. He was impressive in Houston, matching up on a full range of players from Reed Sheppard to Alperen Sengun.
On Saturday, he was a minus-18.
“I’m concerned about anybody guarding DeRozan,” Adelman said when asked whether he was concerned about the foul potential of the Jones matchup. “He’ll learn from that. He got his hand in there. That’s what DeMar does. He’s always been an artist with that. He’s one of the best scorers in the modern era. A lot of it is because of that, and of course, it comes at a really key time. So Spence will learn from it. I have nothing but full confidence in him.”
Baptism by fire is the only way sometimes, in Adelman’s view. After spending weeks lauding his team’s depth, the injury bug is forcing him to use it even more.
“We’re going through this process with a couple of guys out, really three guys out,” he said, referring also to Julian Strawther’s recent back pain that has kept him inactive the last four games. “So we want to see what each guy can do. We played Jalen (Pickett) a little bit. We started him (against Indiana). Zeke started in New Orleans. We wanted to give Hunter a little bit of run.
“As we go through this time, if guys are out — and some are, as you know — we’ll try different lineups to see what we can do. … I can’t play an eight-and-a-half man rotation every night. So I’ll get creative with it as best I can.”
Denver’s three healthy starters showed out on the second night of the back-to-back. Nikola Jokic amassed 44 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Jamal Murray continued to be a steady source of offense, with 23 points and nine assists to just one turnover. Cam Johnson continued to do all the little things that prompted Adelman to defend him when he was slumping — and also went for his first 20-point game as a Nugget.
But with Peyton Watson and Jones slotted in as starters, the bench got outscored 48-20. In a home loss to the Bulls last Monday, the margin was an even uglier 66-9. That happened with Gordon in the lineup.
“I think 12-4, it’s not the real picture. I think we are not that good,” Jokic said Saturday, laying it on perhaps a little too thick. “I think we need to be much better if we want to do something big. Yes, we’ve played better. We look better. But I think we need to consistently, every night, every possession.”
“Those guys are really important to what we do. They’re very talented players, CB and AG,” Johnson added. “Very gritty guys. Contribute a lot to the game. But it’s part of the league, you know? It’s part of the game. Eighty-two games is a long season. Sometimes, things happen. I think we have the depth that we can (trust the) next man up and rally and find ways to maximize the guys available on the floor.”
If Gordon sits out an extended period that corresponds with Braun’s recovery, getting stops will be Denver’s biggest bugaboo. The team’s defensive rating when those two players share the floor is an elite 109.5 in 241 minutes. It’s 118.9 when they’re both off the floor. The Kings turned the ball over only six times on Saturday. Russell Westbrook scored 15 fourth-quarter points to fuel their win, which snapped an eight-game skid.
Not having Braun meant one more matchup adjustment that wasn’t available to Adelman as Westbrook heated up.
Then there was DeRozan, getting the best of Jones, who has done an admirable job this season but could continue to face heightened challenges if Gordon is out for a while.
“They’re both, of course, really good defensive players for us,” Jokic said. “And I think we miss CB in all the split action. … He’s setting flares or rip screens for the guys, and always finding the right spot to be and getting us easy points, getting us to the rim. AG, especially when we play against smaller lineups, he’s a really good low-post player. … He’s just putting a lot of pressure on the defense, and offense.”
HOUSTON — Nikola Jokic is determined to make this his season of zen.
No more animated arguments with the officials. No more pleading for calls. No more of those exasperated full-body reactions to the whistle, those classic images of a 285-pound man tightly wound up, his arms and neck shrinking into his torso, his palms facing the ceiling in bewilderment, his eyes bugging out.
Nope, no more of that. Jokic is chill with the referees now. He’s a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.
“That’s my new thing this year,” he says. “I’m not gonna get stressed or yell at the refs or whatever. I’m just gonna try to comport my energy to the basketball place.”
Jokic has waged a few wars against NBA officiating crews. He has 46 career technical fouls and nine ejections. He has made it clear in the past that he believes smaller players are allowed to get away with grabbing and shoving him an inordinate amount. He once received a rare one-tech ejection in Chicago for uttering a profanity that is considered fairly mundane in the context of professional sports — an incident so unusual that the opposing fans jeered the refs for depriving them of a superstar performance.
But the three-time MVP claims to be turning over a new leaf now.
“I feel so much better out there,” he said this week. “I don’t even think about them. It’s great.”
An exception to the rule: Jokic is not forbidden from gesturing to Nuggets coach David Adelman when he thinks a challenge is warranted. If a tangible and productive result can be achieved by refuting a call, then it’s not a waste of energy, in Jokic’s view.
He even signaled for a challenge one second into Denver’s game in New Orleans this week, after the opening jump ball was batted directly out of bounds by the Pelicans but was initially ruled to be last touched by Jokic.
Other than that, he’s trying to shut up and play the game.
Unfortunately for his new coach, that could mean heightened responsibility as a surrogate agitator.
“Yeah, he’s in a better mood, and I’m in a worse mood, and it cost me whatever it cost me the other night,” Adelman joked, referring to a technical foul he picked up Monday when the Nuggets hosted Chicago.
“I actually think it really is interesting how you approach that. … I do think certain guys, the way they react to the officials can help them, the way they interact. … In other ways, it hurts you. So if that’s the approach he’s taking, I trust him that he feels like it puts him in a better mental state. If it helps how he plays, how he feels daily, it’s a good thing.”
One more exception to the rule: Jokic made sure to get in a full season’s worth of opinions on officiating back at Nuggets training camp, when he held court for at least 15 minutes with a trio of NBA referees brought in by the team to officiate a scrimmage.
“I think that was a perfect moment for me to talk with them,” he explained. “I don’t need to yell at them, or we don’t need to yell back and forth. So just when the season started, I think it’s really helping me to focus on the game.”
Interestingly, Jokic has already been hit with two flagrant fouls early this season, and he fouled out of a game for the first time in more than a year on Wednesday. But the stat that matters is that he hasn’t picked up a technical foul.
If he makes it all year without one, it would be the first time since 2016-17.
“I think I was in most situations, I talked to them really respectfully,” he said. “But I think there is just no point to waste energy on something. If he already called something, he’s not gonna change it. He never changes it. So I think (that has) never happened, except when you challenge it. … Just try to control what you can control.”
NEW ORLEANS — Life was detected in the most cavernous building in the NBA for a few minutes on Wednesday, as the Pelicans flew to an early 13-point lead over their lethargic visitors.
Life was briefly detected again toward the end of the proceedings, when the Pelicans sliced a 19-point deficit to six after Nikola Jokic fouled out. There might have even been noise from the uninhabited upper deck.
But the Nuggets escaped Smoothie King Center in the end with a 125-118 win, buoyed by a mostly solid night of defense and Peyton Watson’s career-high 32 points.
In his second game starting for Christian Braun, Watson finished with a 13-for-19 double-double. Jokic added 28 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists on another night with two starters missing.
And Denver (11-3) finished the game with a frontcourt of Zeke Nnaji and Jonas Valanciunas after Jokic’s disqualification. Valanciunas knocked down a pair of clutch 15-footers to fend off a late comeback from the Pelicans (2-13).
From the start, this was a game layered with more intrigue than the records indicated. Zion Williamson, the Pelicans’ explosive but aloof star forward, was cleared to play after missing the last eight games. Denver’s Aaron Gordon was a last-minute scratch from the lineup for hamstring injury management, which sidelined him for one other game earlier this season.
These developments were related. Gordon has been described by Nuggets coach David Adelman as one of “only a few human beings walking around that can deal with Zion Williamson.” Adelman mirrored their minutes when the Pelicans visited Denver three weeks ago, determined to force Williamson to play against that matchup.
Without Gordon, Nnaji was enlisted as the starting power forward. He had been out of the rotation entirely to start the season.
The idea had a sound precedent, though. Gordon was out when the Nuggets hosted New Orleans in February, and former coach Michael Malone also started Nnaji for the occasion. Williamson scored an inefficient 14 points on 13 shots that day, as Trey Murphy III had to shoulder more of the Pelicans’ offensive burden. As a team, they went 4 for 11 on shots defended by Nnaji.
This time, even with two rim protectors on the floor in Nnaji and Watson, the Pelicans scored 18 points in the paint (and 23 total) in the first eight minutes. It didn’t help that Jokic committed four turnovers before he made a shot, surrendering easy transition opportunities to a struggling team that has played faster since firing coach Willie Green last week.
Out of an early Adelman timeout, the Nuggets gave up two consecutive fast breaks that ended with New Orleans missing the initial layup only to score on a second chance.
“They had a coaching change,” Adelman said pregame. “New energy. … So this is a totally different challenge.”
Jokic finally kick-started the Nuggets with five straight points after they fell behind 23-10. He was on his way to a triple-double by the end of the third quarter — those are the norm when he faces New Orleans — but the upstart Pels showed him multiple defenders and made him work all night. On offense, he finished with nine turnovers. On defense, rookie Derik Queen wasn’t afraid to attack him off the dribble.
Drafted 13th overall after a controversial trade in June, Queen is the latest new-gen prospect whose play style is clearly in Jokic’s lineage. He was responsible for Colorado State’s heartbreaking NCAA Tournament loss at the buzzer last March. Now, a franchise desperate for future answers wants to develop him into a hub of half-court offense. He paced the Pels on Wednesday with 30 points, nine boards and four assists.
The Nuggets will face another Jokic disciple on Friday, when they visit Houston for an NBA Cup showdown. Turkish big man Alperen Sengun has helped establish the Rockets as the highest-rated offense in the league early this season. All five teams in Denver’s NBA Cup group are 1-1 with two games left to play, making this a critical swing game.
As for Williamson against the short-handed Nuggets? Nnaji and company settled in against him for a performance that would make Gordon proud. New Orleans won his minutes, but he was held to 14 points on 13 shots.
“It’s an everybody job,” Adelman said. “It’s one guy gets matched up with him, but when he attacks the basket, he’s an historical paint-point player. Everybody has to key in on him. And you can’t let him go get second opportunities. If you guarded him well once and he misses the shot, he’s so good at going back and getting it again. … Sometimes you have to wrap the guy up because he’s so explosive. But it’s a team challenge with that guy. Very, very unique talent.”
Altitude might be regaining its status as a safe haven for the Nuggets.
Obliging Miami’s invitation to play fast-paced, somewhat chaotic basketball, Denver held off the Heat for a 122-112 win Wednesday and improved to 4-0 this season at Ball Arena. They were a lackluster 26-15 at home last year.
Nikola Jokic had a triple-double by the end of a bizarre and experimental third quarter, en route to 33 points, 15 rebounds and 16 assists. He and his teammates benefitted from the departure of Heat star Bam Adebayo, who suffered a foot injury early in the game. With Kel’el Ware and Keshad Johnson splitting minutes at center, Denver out-rebounded Miami 68-44 for a 22-8 advantage in second-chance points and 62-42 edge in the paint.
That and the tempo at which Miami plays helped the Nuggets (5-2) pile on 68 first-half points despite shooting only 43% from the floor and 6 for 23 outside the arc. They also added 12 points in the first minute and 46 seconds of the third quarter, briefly flirting with a 150-point pace.
But every time the Nuggets threatened to blow the game open, they started to get messy. Miami shaved a 17-point deficit back to 10 with seven minutes to go, causing David Adelman to call timeout and retrieve his security blanket from the bench. On a sloppier night for the Jamal Murray-led second unit, Jokic steadied the ship. Denver won his minutes by 18 and lost those without him by eight.
Murray struggled to make his shots for the second consecutive game, going 4 of 15. But he accepted a pick-me-up from Aaron Gordon, who scored 24 points and was on the emphatic receiving end of a few Jokic dimes. Tim Hardaway Jr. also added 18 points on a 4-for-9 night from 3-point range, continuing his hot start to the season.
The 33-year-old guard, who signed a veteran minimum contract with the Nuggets, is shooting 44.7% from three after seven games. He’s playing more minutes than anybody else off Denver’s bench.
The Nuggets have now won nine consecutive regular-season home games against Miami. Other than Game 2 of the NBA Finals in 2023, their last home loss to the Heat was Nov. 30, 2016.
Miami did, however, hand the Nuggets their first deficit at Ball Arena this season when Norman Powell buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key against their zone on the first possession of the game. He went for a team-leading 23 points, but the Heat did most of their leading in the first quarter. Denver trailed by more than seven and never trailed after halftime.
The injury to Adebayo played a major role in that. Ware couldn’t hold his own on the glass, and when he wasn’t on the floor, Jokic was in full attack mode. He bullied Johnson and Jaime Jaquez for back-to-back buckets in the post during the second quarter, prompting Heat coach Erik Spoelstra to get Ware back on the floor shortly after. Without Adebayo, he had no available solutions.
Peyton Watson registered a career-high 10 rebounds in the win. Christian Braun didn’t score efficiently but made his share of dirty-work plays, amassing 11 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
The Nuggets will host Golden State on Friday in their second NBA Cup group stage game after losing to Portland last week.
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The Philadelphia 76ers have built their reputation on more than just star power; they thrive on defensive intensity, tactical discipline, and adaptability.
As the NBA evolves into an offense-driven league defined by pace, spacing, and three-point volume, the Sixers continue to assert themselves as one of the few teams capable of neutralizing high-octane attacks.
Their ability to defend elite offenses like those of Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, and even the upstart Houston Rockets tells a compelling story about where this team stands, and what it will take to make a deep postseason run.
Let’s take a deep dive into the elite opponents the 76ers could face and what that reveals about Philadelphia.
When the Philadelphia 76ers face the Cleveland Cavaliers, the matchup becomes a showcase of defensive intelligence versus calculated offense.
Cleveland thrives on tempo control and physical half-court sets driven by Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell. Yet, Philadelphia’s defense, anchored by Joel Embiid’s rim protection and reinforced by versatile wings, forces Cleveland’s guards into uncomfortable midrange attempts.
The Sixers excel in closing driving lanes and switching seamlessly between pick-and-roll coverages, limiting Cleveland’s second-chance opportunities. Tyrese Maxey’s quick rotations and Kelly Oubre Jr.’s length have become essential in stifling perimeter scorers, forcing the Cavs to rely more heavily on interior playmaking.
According to recent trends on FanDuel, the Sixers often hold the Cavaliers below their season scoring average, underscoring their ability to dictate tempo and defensive flow.
This matchup reflects what defines Philadelphia’s defensive identity: physical containment, communication, and a refusal to let opponents dictate pace.
Dallas Mavericks: Neutralizing An Elite Offense
Few teams present a greater tactical challenge than the Dallas Mavericks. Kyrie Irving’s shot creation creates a near-impossible puzzle for most defenses, but not for the Philadelphia 76ers. Philly’s defensive strategy against Dallas focuses on calculated containment rather than overcommitment.
By deploying length on the perimeter and funneling drives into Embiid’s area, the Sixers force Dallas to take tough step-backs rather than create open looks for shooters.
Philadelphia’s help defense is among the most disciplined in the league; rotations are crisp, and double-teams are timed to disrupt rhythm rather than simply pressure.
Against Dallas’s spread offense, the Sixers rely heavily on switching versatility. The 76ers’ defensive IQ and Tobias Harris’s mobility allow them to handle mismatches without compromising structure.
The result is a system custom-built to frustrate Dallas’s preferred pace and expose the Mavericks’ overreliance on isolation play, a testament to how fundamentally sound the Sixers’ defense remains.
Denver Nuggets: A True Test of Defensive Structure
Defending the reigning champions, the Denver Nuggets, is the ultimate measuring stick for any contender. Nikola Jokić is an offensive system unto himself, capable of dissecting defenses with surgical precision.
Yet, the Philadelphia 76ers have found ways to challenge his dominance through layered defensive schemes.
When Embiid anchors the paint, the Sixers can afford to stay home on shooters, forcing Jokić into contested hook shots rather than wide-open kick-outs. Philadelphia alternates between drop coverage and soft doubles, ensuring Jokić sees multiple looks without exposing weak-side vulnerabilities.
Perimeter containment is equally vital: Maxey will disrupt Jamal Murray’s timing, while Oubre’s wingspan deters entry passes. Against Denver’s movement-heavy offense, the Sixers rely on communication and positional awareness, hallmarks of a mature defensive identity.
The result isn’t always perfection, but Philadelphia’s ability to slow the Nuggets’ efficiency demonstrates how preparation and versatility can stand up to elite offensive orchestration.
Houston Rockets: Young Energy vs. Veteran Discipline
While the Houston Rockets are still developing into a playoff-caliber team, their youthful energy and uptempo offense provide a valuable test for the Philadelphia 76ers’ defensive endurance.
Houston’s attack thrives on pace, quick decision-making, and aggressive penetration, the kind of approach that punishes sluggish defensive rotations.
Philadelphia inevitably responds with discipline. The Sixers excel in limiting transition points, forcing Houston’s young guards to operate in half-court scenarios where mistakes are magnified. Embiid’s rim presence discourages reckless drives, while defenders use physicality to deny second-chance buckets.
In these matchups, Philadelphia’s experience becomes its greatest weapon. The Sixers slow down Houston’s rhythm, impose half-court sets, and capitalize on defensive rebounding.
Their ability to neutralize high-energy teams showcases how defensive maturity can outlast youthful exuberance, a defining characteristic for a team aiming to contend deep into the postseason.
Bettor Takeaway
For bettors, understanding the Philadelphia 76ers’ defensive blueprint offers a clear advantage. While many wagerers focus on offensive trends, defense often dictates the spread and total outcomes.
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When the Sixers face top-tier offenses, their ability to hold teams below average scoring outputs can make under wagers particularly appealing.
The Sixers’ consistency in forcing inefficient shots and slowing the pace translates directly into betting value. Games against Cleveland and Denver, for instance, tend to be lower-scoring affairs, while matchups with Dallas and Houston often depend on how well Philadelphia controls the first quarter.
Savvy bettors on platforms like FanDuel recognize that the Sixers’ defense doesn’t just win games, it reshapes odds.
Moreover, Philadelphia’s combination of Embiid’s rim protection and elite team defense often leads to in-game betting opportunities, such as live unders or player prop unders for opposing stars.
Understanding these defensive patterns is key for bettors looking to capitalize on value that others overlook.
The Blueprint for Sustained Success
The Philadelphia 76ers’ identity rests on defense, intelligence, adaptability, and relentlessness.
Against elite offensive teams, from Cleveland’s methodical approach to Denver’s fluid precision, the Sixers continue to prove that defense can still win in a league dominated by offense.
Their ability to impose pace, protect the paint, and frustrate superstars isn’t just a byproduct of talent; it’s a philosophy.
When the postseason looms, the Sixers’ path to contention will hinge not only on scoring power but on maintaining their defensive DNA. In an NBA landscape where points come easy, Philadelphia reminds the league that containment, communication, and discipline still separate the great from the merely good.
For fans and bettors alike, the message is clear: the Sixers’ defensive evolution isn’t just about stopping opponents, it’s about redefining what it takes to win in modern basketball.
Jared Dudley’s second career had already started before his first one was over. He just needed time to realize it.
Winning a championship with LeBron James helped him get there. By then, Dudley had been bouncing around the NBA for more than a dozen years. The LeBron- and Anthony Davis-led Lakers were his seventh team. “When you can sit in a room and watch film with LeBron, AD and (Rajon) Rondo and call them out,” he says, “it’s something that very few coaches have the guts to be able to do, the credibility.”
Dudley felt perfectly comfortable doing that. Enough to begin to recognize a knack for leadership that could serve him beyond his playing years, which were numbered anyway. “It’s like I’d been coaching my last four or five years in the NBA,” he realized.
In 2021, he was planning to prolong his time on the Lakers’ roster as a veteran bench presence — he and James had developed a close friendship — but a new opportunity beckoned. Former Lakers assistant Jason Kidd took over as head coach of the Mavericks, and he had a staff opening ready for Dudley.
The beloved longtime role player took the leap directly into coaching. Four years later, he’s ascending the ranks. Nuggets coach David Adelman kicked off his regime this summer by hiring Dudley to oversee Denver’s defense, which ranked 21st in the league last season.
“Word of mouth,” Adelman said. “A lot of people told me great things about him, and in this league, sometimes it’s not who you know; it’s what you hear from other people you respect and trust.”
A coaching lifer, Adelman wanted to make sure he built a staff that included former players to introduce a healthy range of perspectives. In the 40-year-old Dudley, he landed someone who brought not just schematic creativity, which has already been on display early this season, but a candid demeanor and clear understanding of NBA locker room dynamics.
“Just because you were a player doesn’t mean you can relate,” Dudley told The Denver Post in an interview this week. “It takes all those different experiences on my journey as a player to be able to know how to talk to them, when to talk to them, when to come at Jamal (Murray), when to come at (Nikola) Jokic, when to call other players out.
“… That’s what I’m trying to do (for) a team that struggled on defense but has a historically good offense. Make this team above-average defensively to give us a chance to win a championship.”
Dudley didn’t always have the “guts” to speak up as audaciously as he did late in his playing career. But that’s how it should be, he thinks. Confidence and privilege come with age in a league where status matters. When Dudley was young, observing and adapting meant survival.
“My mom always taught me a good player is one that listens. So I never had a problem,” he said. “Steve Nash told me one time, ‘When I pass you the ball, I’m passing you the ball with an advantage. So if you don’t have an advantage, pass me the ball back.’ When he says that, OK, I remember that. I believe in a hierarchy where there’s different levels, and superstars get different treatment and can say different things. I believe in that.”
Few people in the league today have worked alongside as many superstars as Dudley. He was traded to Phoenix in 2008 as a second-year bench player, teaming up with Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Shaquille O’Neal. He played with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin on the Lob City Clippers, then with a young Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, John Wall in Washington, Devin Booker in Phoenix, LeBron and AD in Los Angeles. He coached Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson and Kyrie Irving in Dallas.
He tried to absorb something from each experience. Nash’s instructions on what to do with the ball as a role player were a north star. Dudley also partially attributes the length of his career (14 years) to lessons learned from Nash about taking care of his body — “all the stuff he did pre and postgame: IVs, acupuncture, working on your core.” O’Neal taught him in those early years how to balance seriousness and light-heartedness.
Jared Dudley (3) and Steve Nash (13) of the Phoenix Suns during Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2010 NBA Playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs at US Airways Center on May 5, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Dudley built a reputation with his IQ despite his awkward body type. He played a bit of power forward at Boston College, was drafted as a small forward, then he transformed himself into a starting two-guard with the Suns. He monitored league trends, such as the emergence of Draymond Green and downsized lineups. In Milwaukee, he asked to play the four after Jabari Parker tore an ACL. “I saw the defenses weren’t evolving fast enough for the small-ball four,” Dudley recalled. “I got ahead of it. … You have to evolve — 90% of the league is role players.”
That’s the ethos he’s trying to bring to the Nuggets, a team with a similarly heady identity. Aaron Gordon, in particular, outfitted his game to complement Jokic in 2021 when he was traded to Denver — a reinvention that echoes how Dudley changed his game to function with an all-time great passer in Phoenix.
When Dudley traveled to Denver for his interview in July, he arrived with a film project, exploring zone options and how the staff could limit Jokic’s defensive workload this season. “Even though it might be word-of-mouth,” he said, “you’ve still gotta impress.” He and Adelman had dinner together for more than four hours, talking scheme for about 35% of it (in Dudley’s estimation) and life for the other 65%. Adelman didn’t need much time to deliberate.
Dudley’s family is staying in Dallas this school year, with plans to join him in Denver before his second season. He’s been keeping up with his daughter’s high school volleyball games via live stream on Tuesday and Thursday nights when the Nuggets don’t play. Most of his time right now is spent working, though. “Next year it’ll be a little bit of a smoother and easier transition,” he said. “This gives me a little bit more time to focus, lock in and do the job that needs to be done.”
His defining principle as a defensive coordinator is directly related to his point of view on NBA superstardom: “Coming up with a defense that protects Jokic.”
In the Nuggets’ old system, the MVP center almost always played an aggressive position higher up the floor. Dudley doesn’t want him burning so much energy defensively. He would rather Denver’s guards and wings have more difficult and taxing responsibilities at that end, so Jokic’s battery can be maximized on offense.
“I can’t teach (him) anything offensively. You’re already this. You’ve got that,” Dudley said. “But defensively, I can teach you. I’ve played with different centers. I’ve played with Boban (Marjanovic), who’s bigger than you and slower than you. … I only want him to think about going back to the rim, Point A to Point B. I don’t want him having him to go guard these guards on the wings, in rotations.”
That means more zone, more man-to-man disguised as zone, more drop coverage against pick-and-rolls, more cross-matching. “There’s nothing that I won’t try,” Dudley said. Still, he is trying to hold Jokic to a certain standard. He’s been sending the big man YouTube clips representing areas of potential improvement, mostly involving Jokic’s communication.
“I need him to be louder on the court,” Dudley said. “Kind of like Kevin Garnett, so it makes bad on-ball defenders a little bit better and more confident. … He’s by far the most humble and respectful superstar that I’ve had, in that when I text him, he texts right back.”
Jokic has been game for the fresh ideas, and he seemingly appreciates Dudley’s willingness to hold him accountable.
That takes guts.
“I think when he’s speaking,” Jokic said, “everybody listens. It’s a good addition to our team.”
In the latest edition of the Nuggets Ink podcast, beat writer Bennett Durando and sports editor Matt Schubert reconvene after the first week of the regular season. Among the topics discussed:
Aaron Gordon got the season started with a 50-burger against the Golden State Warriors. The Nuggets forward says he’s not as athletic as he once was, but is he the best he’s been at basketball, as he contended this offseason?
Is Tim Hardaway Jr. going to be the Nuggets’ sixth man all season? How has Jonas Valanciunas fit in with the second unit? Is Julian Strawther going to remain tethered to the bench?
How has new head coach David Adelman fared running the show? His rotations? His adjustments? What’s been different between how he runs things and how Michael Malone did?
Emails and iTunes reviews … would’ve been read had anyone sent them in!
DENVER — It was the return of the good luck hats, jerseys, and bling as Nuggets Nation filled Ball Arena for the home opener game against the Phoenix Suns. After coming off a loss, the Nuggets redeemed themselves at home, beating the Suns 133 to 111.
“We have the best player in the world, so every year is a championship run. At the end of the day, you got Jamal Murray coming back and Jamal Murray is going to give you a solid 20 points a game,” Jose Silva said.
Building on the excitement, fans were eager to see new talent on the hardwood, including Cameron Johnson and Bruce Brown, whom the Nuggets picked up in the offseason.
“I like all the changes that they made,” said Jen McSween. “I like Cam Johnson, him coming, I think it’s going to be really good. Love MPJ, but he had to go, it was time, so I think it’s going to be good.”
Jacob Curtis
“I think trading MPJ, being able to pick up four players for his contract, I think, is going to make a huge difference. I think our biggest weakness last year was no depth on the bench,” Justin Sturgill said.
While fans were confident going into the game against the Suns, they also agreed that this year their team would win the championship.
“I think they have a really good shot. I think that they’ve made the right changes. I don’t think they made the right changes two years ago. I think they made the right changes this offseason to really support Jokic. He needs it. He needs that support,” McSween said.
Jacob Curtis
Before tipoff, Nuggets Nation filled Union Station with excitement as fans prepared for the game and bonded over the start of this new season.
“Well, I think Denver is just a really good fan city. We got Rockies, we got Broncos, we got Nuggets, and everybody always shows up and shows out for our teams, so you gotta love it. If there’s anything going on for the Nuggets, everybody is going to be here, you can count on it.” David Valdez said.
Up next, the Nuggets will play the Minnesota Timberwolves on October 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Nuggets Nation celebrates a win at home against the Phoenix Suns
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Jamal Murray had 23 points, Nikola Jokic notched his second straight triple-double to start the season and the Nuggets beat the Phoenix Suns 133-111 on Saturday night in Denver’s home opener.
Christian Braun scored 20 points and Aaron Gordon had 17 points two nights after posting a career-high 50 for Denver, which had seven players score in double figures and shot 51.2% (43 of 84) from the field.
Jokic finished with 14 points, 15 assists and 14 rebounds. He took just eight shots, making five, and didn’t attempt a field goal until a goaltending call on Phoenix with 2:26 left in the second quarter. His first shot attempt was a free throw with 4:18 left in the first half.
Devin Booker led the Suns with 31 points, Grayson Allen scored 17 and Dillon Brooks had 15. Phoenix shot just 43.2% (38 of 88) from the field.
Thunder 117, Hawks 100
Chet Holmgren overcame back soreness that almost kept him out to produce a double-double and help Oklahoma City remain unbeaten with a win in Atlanta.
Holmgren was listed as questionable on the pregame injury report and spent time rubbing his back during dead-ball situations. But he played through discomfort to score a season-high 31 points and grab 11 rebounds. He was 8-for-12 shooting from the floor (6-for-8 on 3-pointers).
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 17 of his 30 points in the third quarter. Atlanta’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the team with 17 points. Trae Young scored 15 points and had 10 assists, his league-best 22nd straight game with at least 15 points and five assists.
Bulls 110, Magic 98
Josh Giddey scored a team-high 21 points, five reserves combined for 58 more and Chicago held off host Orlando to win back-to-back games to start the season.
Jalen Smith and Ayo Dosunmu led the Bulls bench crew with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Starters Nikola Vucevic (15 points) and Tre Jones (13), and reserves Patrick Williams (12) and Kevin Huerter (11) made it seven players — including four backups — in double figures.
Despite 7-for-21 shooting, Paolo Banchero was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points for the Magic, who lost at home for the second consecutive night. Orlando went just 3-for-24 from beyond the arc.
76ers 125, Hornets 121
Quentin Grimes had 24 points off the bench and drilled a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 15 seconds left to lift host Philadelphia over Charlotte for the 76ers’ second straight win to open the season.
After trailing by 10 points with less than six minutes left, the 76ers finished the game on a 23-9 run. Tyrese Maxey led Philadelphia with 28 points and nine assists, while Joel Embiid added 20 points.
LaMelo Ball had 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for Charlotte, while Collin Sexton added 21 points. Rookies Ryan Kalkbrenner and Kon Knueppel scored 14 points apiece, while Sion James had 10 points off the bench for the Hornets.
Grizzlies 128, Pacers 103
Rookie Cedric Coward erupted for 27 points behind a torrid 3-point shooting effort as Memphis rolled past visiting Indiana.
In just his third NBA game, Coward knocked down all six of his 3-point attempts off the bench. Ja Morant added 19 points and eight assists, anchoring a clean offensive game which saw the Grizzlies commit just four turnovers.
The Pacers got little consistent offense outside of Bennedict Mathurin, who finished with 26 points before exiting with a sore right foot. Aaron Nesmith added 15 while Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin each scored 13.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups — a Denver native and former basketball star at the University of Colorado and with the Denver Nuggets — allegedly participated in a years-long scheme to rig Mafia-led poker games through sophisticated technological means, scamming wealthy players out of millions of dollars, according to a sweeping federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
Billups was arrested Thursday in Oregon and faces federal charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The NBA said he was placed on immediate leave.
The 49-year-old coach appeared in court later in the day, and attorneys from both sides told the judge they had agreed on Billups’ release from custody on the condition he secure “a substantial bond,” though the amount wasn’t discussed in court. He is also prohibited from gambling-related activity.
Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, released a statement to ESPN on Thursday night denying the allegations.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” the statement read.
“Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”
The arrest came as part of a massive federal investigation into illegal, high-stakes poker games with ties to organized crime families. A second, related criminal case involved professional basketball players and coaches allegedly using inside information to set up fraudulent bets for their associates.
The 22-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges the poker games began as early as 2019 and spanned New York state, Las Vegas and Miami.
Victims of the scheme thought they were playing in “straight” illegal poker games, according to the indictment.
In reality, a group of people — referred to as the “cheating team” — worked together to scam them out of more than $7 million, investigators said.
They used a variety of high-tech methods to rig the games, federal authorities alleged. Wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand. Rigged shuffling machines. Electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards placed on the table. Card analyzers that could surreptitiously detect which cards were on the table. Playing cards that had markers visible only to people wearing specially designed contact lenses or glasses.
Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games. In exchange, they received portions of the criminal proceeds, authorities said.
The indictment spells out one game in April 2019, in Las Vegas, when the group defrauded poker players of at least $50,000. Billups, along with four others, “organized and participated in these rigged games using a rigged shuffling machine,” according to the indictment.
‘Threats of force and violence’
Authorities say the games operated “with the express permission and approval of” members of certain organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra.
These individuals — with nicknames like “Spanish G,” “Flapper Poker,” “Sugar” and “Albanian Bruce” — provided support and protection for the games and collected debts in exchange for a portion of the illegal proceeds
The organized crime families used “threats of force and violence” to secure repayment of debts from these poker games, according to the indictment.
All told, the poker scheme defrauded participants of at least $7.15 million, investigators said.
“Using the allure of high-stakes winnings and the promise to play alongside well-known professional athletes, these defendants allegedly defrauded unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and established a financial pipeline to La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families.”
Thursday’s indictment “sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The second criminal case involved NBA players and coaches divulging nonpublic information to their associates for the purpose of placing bets.
The 23-page indictment does not name Billups, but does list nine unnamed co-conspirators, including an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and was hired by the Blazers in 2021.
That individual, referred to as “co-conspirator 8,” allegedly told a bettor that several of the Blazers’ best players would be sitting out a March 23, 2023, game against the Chicago Bulls in order to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick.
The gamblers wagered more than $100,000 that Portland would lose the game. The Blazers lost by 28.
Chauncey Billups with the Denver Nuggets during practice at the Pepsi Center in Denver on April 6, 2010. (Photo By Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post)
The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.
Known as Mr. Big Shot nationally and the King of Park Hill locally in Denver, Billups also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Nuggets.
Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota. Billups’ brother, Rodney, is currently the Nuggets’ director of player development and an assistant coach on David Adelman’s staff.
The Portland coach also serves as executive director of the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy, a summer program affiliated with Denver’s Regis University. The academy helps third through 12th-graders “cultivate character development through an extensive academic curriculum and exposes young leaders to career opportunities in their pursuit of individual success.”
Academy representatives said in a statement that they are “deeply troubled by the indictment against Chauncey Billups, co-founder of the Porter Billups Leadership Academy. We respect the legal process and will closely monitor developments as the facts emerge. Our unwavering commitment to the underserved youths through the PBLA program and our institutional integrity remains steadfast.”
Billups’ attorney indicated in the statement to ESPN that Billups planned to fight the charges made by the federal government.
“Chauncey Billups has never backed down. He does not plan to do so now,” the statement read. “He will fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Gordon gets hyphy when he’s near his hometown.
His string of exceptional scoring performances at Golden State might seem to defy explanation, but it turns out there is one. Home is where the heart is, or in Gordon’s case, where the ear is.
“Man, the DJ was playing slaps, you know what I mean?” the Nuggets forward said after Denver’s season-opening overtime loss on Thursday. “So I’m vibing the whole game. He’s playing the straight Bay that I grew up with. Just like hyphy music, you know what I mean?”
He’s talking about Oakland-style hip-hop, the frenetic subgenre that emerged in the ’90s and spread across the Bay Area as he was growing up in San Jose in the early aughts. Give Gordon the soundtrack of his youth, and he’ll give you a memorable game.
Fifty was not enough on Thursday night, and that will haunt the Nuggets, even if it was only the first game of the season. It will haunt them in annoyingly sentimental and emotional ways more than it will in the standings, at least for now.
Warriors 137, Nuggets 131 in an overtime opener for the ages.
“I feel awful for Aaron,” coach David Adelman said unprompted. “Aaron had a night that I’ll never forget. I know that he won’t.”
Gordon shone brightest, but Steph Curry got the last laugh in a city that he wields so effortlessly in the palm of his hand, even at 37 years old. His effect on the Bay Area is as timeless as hyphy’s spell on Gordon. When he stepped to the foul line late in regulation for three free throws, he first paused, took notice of a momentary lull and calmly implored Chase Center to get noisier. They couldn’t jump to their feet fast enough.
“He doesn’t need a lot,” Nikola Jokic said. “He just needs to see one ball go in.”
That was the second-most striking crowd reaction of the night, outdone only by the authentic joy when Gordon missed his first 3-pointer. It happened late in the third quarter, on Gordon’s ninth try. He seemed invincible up to that point, and afterward, too. The final stat line: 50 points and eight rebounds on 17-of-21 shooting, including 10 of 11 outside the arc.
“Whoever scores 10 threes in a game,” Jokic said, “it’s easy to play with that person.”
Even after he cashed in a few, the Warriors relentlessly made head-scratching defensive decisions — going under a ball screen, not picking Gordon up in transition as he brought the ball up, selling out to take away the paint from him off-ball instead of the 3-point line, as Draymond Green did with 25 seconds left in regulation.
Gordon’s 10th triple should have been the game-winner.
But…
“He hit a super-tough shot to send it to OT,” Gordon said. “That’s Steph being Steph.”
From 34 feet deep, Curry pulled up and stole Gordon’s moment. The Nuggets were helpless to stop it. They showed him bodies and ran him off the 3-point line effectively early in the game, but steadily, he turned Christian Braun’s sneakers into ice-skates, predicted the beats and rhythms of Jokic’s double-teams, and found the angles that transferred control back to him. He scored 35 of his 42 points after halftime.
Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors does his “night night” celebration after Jimmy Butler III #10 made a three-point basket against the Denver Nuggets in overtime at Chase Center on Oct. 23, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The Nuggets didn’t defend well enough. They relinquished a 14-point lead.
“A few times, we didn’t send him in the direction of the defense,” Adelman said. “If he gets the other way, there’s no one on the other side of that pick. … The shot he made to tie, it’s a shot that only he can make. But obviously you have to be up (the floor) more.”
Denver still had a chance to win on the last possession of regulation. The Warriors had offense-based personnel on the floor from the previous sequence. But Adelman was OK using a timeout and allowing them to substitute if it meant getting organized on the pick-and-roll setup and making sure his players didn’t rush to shoot before the buzzer. They produced a quality shot out of that timeout, but Jokic missed from floater range.
This was a night when plenty of components weren’t good enough around Gordon. Braun struggled at both ends. Cam Johnson was cold from 3-point range and had a minus-17 in his Nuggets debut. The defense was often tangled or disorganized getting back in transition. But Jokic’s individual inefficiency stood out. In one of the lesser triple-doubles of his career, he missed 13 of his last 16 field goal attempts. He was 0 for 4 in the last two minutes of overtime. He was 2 for 13 from three. It was a sobering inversion of Gordon’s hyphy night.
Asked if he could’ve done more to establish an interior presence in lieu of those 3s, though, Jokic played a bit of defense.
“I think I need to mix it up, (but) I’m happy with the 3-point (looks),” he said. “I think I was open. Most of them seemed like they were going in, but they didn’t. So I mean, I’m happy with the shots.”
Just not the results — a beloved teammate’s career night wasted, a homecoming squandered.
“It sucks,” Gordon admitted. “They’re asking if I wanted the game ball. And no, I don’t want the game ball to take an L home with me. No, thank you. So it sucks. But it’s one game. It’s our first game. That’s a good team. It’s a really good team. It’s hard to win on the road. You’ve gotta execute offensively and defensively down the stretch. So we’re gonna reconvene, watch the film, go back home and try to play better in our home opener.”
SAN FRANCISCO — In his first pregame news conference of the season, and his tenure as a full-time NBA head coach, David Adelman didn’t hear as many basketball questions as he probably would’ve liked.
That’s because a somber cloud hung over the league on Thursday, after the arrests and federal indictments of an active player, Miami’s Terry Rozier, and a sitting head coach, Portland’s Chauncey Billups, in a wide-ranging FBI gambling investigation.
“It’s tough,” Nuggets guard Bruce Brown said Thursday morning before the team’s season opener. “I know Chauncey’s a great guy. I’ve hung around him a little bit. It’s just unfortunate.”
The indictments — particularly Rozier’s, which involved NBA players and coaches divulging nonpublic information to associates for the purpose of placing bets — raised another round of questions about the spread of such information and, more generally, the potential for corruption associated with the proliferation of online sports betting.
“It’s new, so it’s like anything else. When the world changes, there’s gonna be hiccups,” Adelman said Thursday evening. “People get themselves in tough situations. I think all you can do is just keep pounding the rock and just (emphasize), ‘Hey, you’ve gotta be careful and understand what this is.’
“(Betting) is such a part of our culture now and community, it’s not going anywhere. … You have to bring it up maybe more. Have more meetings about it. Mention it more throughout the year. Because you care about your players and you care about your staff, and you just don’t want to see them get in a tough situation.”
Rodney Billups, who is Chauncey’s brother, is an assistant coach on Adelman’s staff and remained with the team Thursday. Adelman declined to specify whether they had a conversation about possibly stepping away from the team for personal reasons, but he stressed the importance of supporting his coworkers.
“Whatever Rodney needs for his family is all I care about,” Adelman said. “The situation itself, I only know what I’ve read. You guys know what I know. When your family member is affected by something, you have to support that person. Rodney has been nothing but great for us since he’s been here.”
Adelman and Warriors coach Steve Kerr both explained that the NBA facilitates meetings with each team about gambling and information disclosure. One example in Thursday’s indictment alleges that a co-conspirator told a bettor several Portland players would be sitting out a March 23, 2023, game as the Blazers were tanking for a better draft pick, allegedly leading to more than $100,000 in wagers that Portland would lose.
“They give us the guidelines of what it is,” Adelman said. “Obviously, a tricky situation with some of the ‘don’t text, don’t talk,’ that kind of stuff. You’ve just gotta be careful in casual conversation with what you say. That’s the only level of it I know. They give us all the advice about it.”
“I feel very comfortable sharing details because the league is really adamant about this stuff,” Kerr said. “Every team has to listen closely and hear everything, and a big part of that meeting was, (if) you tell one of your friends that ‘so and so is not playing’ and then that person tells someone else, you are liable. We know this.”
Players also deal with an increased proximity to emboldened, aggressive fans on the internet stemming from the gambling industry.
“Obviously, after every game, we get DMs about not hitting people’s parlays,” Brown said. “… There’s been games where I’ve been called every name in the book, just because I didn’t hit a 3 or two. I mean, that’s just the state of the game we’re in, since sports betting (became) legal. So I mean, just kind of deal with it. Not think about it. Don’t check your DMs after games.”
The arrest of Billups marks the second time in as many years that a Nuggets player or coach has had a sibling embroiled in a criminal case involving betting. Michael Porter Jr. was on the team in 2024 when his younger brother Jontay Porter became the first active player banned from the NBA for gambling-related reasons in 70 years.
In the case of Billups and Rozier, much remains unclear as lawyers representing both released statements Thursday expressing their intention to fight the FBI’s charges.
“For me to have an opinion of my shock value would be unfair to the people involved in it,” Adelman said. “The defendants and then obviously the federal government. … I just hope it plays out correctly, in the right way. I care about the people involved that I know. It’s a tricky situation, and I’m just hoping for the best for everybody. This is not how we want to start the season in the NBA.”
Skattebo has been a revelation. Cast as a situational player in the draft, he boasts 338 yards rushing and five touchdowns. He is Brian Bosworth meets Mike Alstott, inspiring teammates with his rock’em, sock’em robot running style. He leads with his chin in every conversation and carry.
Some cayenne pepper got sprinkled on Sunday’s game with trash talk, sanitized as it was. Reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week Jonathon Cooper made it clear he is not impressed with Dart, saying, “He’s feeling himself a lil’ bit. He’s out there running around. He’s got the chain on. He’s dancing. I feel like everybody needs something, you know.”
It was a warning. Dart found it amusing.
“I think a lot of guys wear chains and dance when they score touchdowns,” Dart told the New York Post. “I appreciate him following my dance touchdowns.”
Covering players like Dart is a blast. But quarterbacks lacking humility get clobbered by reality.
Drew Lock ring any bells?
He was the singing QB with the nifty backpack celebration until he wasn’t. He has been cast as a career backup since 2021. Dart is more athletic than Lock, but his total disregard for his body and overconfidence have helped him lead the league in blue tent visits the past three weeks.
This Broncos defense is frothing, eager to put on a show to impress the Super Bowl 50 champions, who will be honored at halftime.
Dart is great for the Giants, even if his yards per play are worse than Russell Wilson’s. He loves attention. He just picked the wrong week to engage in verbal jousting. The Broncos have not allowed a touchdown at home, while posting nine sacks.
Good luck “Hanging with Mr. Cooper” on Sunday, Dart.
It is the team, not QB: Time to stop pointing the finger at first-round quarterbacks who fail when history shows coaching and organizational dysfunction is largely to blame. Baker Mayfield is 5-1, and an MVP candidate. Daniel Jones is 5-1 and an MVP candidate. Sam Darnold is 4-2 for Seattle. Here are the records of the teams that drafted them: Cleveland is 1-5, the Giants are 2-3-1 and the Jets are winless.
Wrong tone: The Chiefs welcome back receiver Rashee Rice this week. Can folks stop acting like he is returning from knee surgery? He was suspended for six games for his involvement in a six-car crash that resulted in multiple injuries and led Rice to plead guilty to two felony charges. His absence had nothing to do with his health.
Latin for winning: Talked to Nuggets center Jonas Valanciunas. And teammates about Jonas Valanciunas. It is clear he has bought into his role as Nikola Jokic’s backup on a team with championship expectations, following the “Age Quod Agis” message posted on the practice wall. Translated, it means: “Do what you do.” Valanciunas gets it.
“Whatever it takes to win. We all got to put our egos away and come into the building knowing that only together can we do big things,” Valanciunas said.
Stats don’t always lie: Some good news has surfaced in the Rockies’ promised front office overhaul. According to Patrick Saunders, the club will create a chief revenue and strategy officer position to help invest money in data, analytics and strategy. For all of the reasons the Rockies stink, not understanding the infrastructure of the sport ranks high on the list. The job title is eyewash. But modernizing the baseball operation, which has been operating in the Stone Age for more than a decade, is absolutely necessary.
In one of the most peculiar sights of the decade so far for hard-core Nuggets fans, Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas played hot potato.
It was Sunday in Los Angeles, in the middle of Denver’s third preseason game. Peyton Watson was having trouble feeding Jokic in the high post, so Valanciunas flashed to the top of the key to give Watson an outlet.
The Lithuanian center collected the ball and quickly passed it to the Serbian center — the original intended target. But Jokic had limited options with both Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac sitting back in the paint, unconcerned by the 3-point threat of Valanciunas. Jokic immediately passed back out to the open Valanciunas, who reluctantly fired away.
Yes, the Nuggets were playing two centers together, as first-time coach David Adelman promised before training camp. Their 102-94 win over the Clippers marked the preseason debut of their new double-big look, with the three-time MVP center Jokic essentially playing power forward.
And yes, the floor spacing looked a little funky at times. Adelman could only chuckle about it later.
“I thought it was hilarious to watch it on tape,” he said Tuesday before the Nuggets hosted the Chicago Bulls. “We haven’t had a ton of time (practicing with) those guys. They’ve scripted together, but they haven’t played together. But it’s kind of like, rip the Band-Aid off and just see what happens.”
That’s precisely what preseason basketball is for, Adelman will attest. Denver played only five offensive possessions with Jokic and Valanciunas on the floor together that night, scoring four points for an offensive rating of 80.
But again, note the minuscule sample size and the lack of practice time devoted to this particular lineup so far.
“If they end up playing together a lot, we’ll slowly but surely add a package for those two guys,” Adelman said. “And not just for them, but to make the other three guys comfortable. I’ve made this point about Houston. Offensively, with the two bigs, (Alperen) Sengun was the point person, and (Steven) Adams just crushed the glass. So it’s like, our personalities are a little bit different. Val can crash the glass, but he’s also skilled. So I have to find a way to get those guys comfortable in space so they’re not right on top of each other.”
It wasn’t all bad on Sunday night, either. A timeout was called in the middle of the short stint, allowing Adelman to draw up a set “ATO” play using both big men. Jokic set a screen to bring Christian Braun up to the ball, then a second screen under the basket to get Valanciunas coming across to Braun’s side of the floor. Los Angeles switched that second screen, making the entry pass to Valanciunas difficult but allowing Jokic to flash to the foul line. He knocked down an open jumper from there.
“The ATO was great,” Adelman said. “We got them organized with the high-low, and that’s gonna be effective. I don’t know how people will handle that. I’m sure they’ll come up with something.”
The Rockets are a nice template to study after they discovered resounding success with Sengun and Adams last year, but double-big lineups have been a growing trend around the league for longer than that. Adelman is nothing if not an experimenter, and he has expressed an earnest curiosity all preseason about how opponents will guard Denver’s version of the twin-towers look.
The problem might be at the defensive end. There, too, Adelman is drawing inspiration from Houston by trying a zone scheme with both centers next to each other at the bottom. On Sunday, he placed Valanciunas in the middle and Jokic on the edge, forcing him to defend from the corner to the wing on a couple of possessions.
Adelman pointed out on Tuesday that he put Jokic in that same location in the zone a few times during the 2025 playoffs, which allowed Aaron Gordon to play the middle and defend pick-and-rolls.
“I thought we did a really good job as a team defense behind him. … You tilt a little bit more,” Adelman said. “If he ends up with a quality offensive player, wing player, you bring that second defender over a little bit more, as opposed to if it was, I don’t know, Peyton Watson down there. So a little bit of a difference, but not much. And he’s just so smart with his angles, he’ll always force the ball back to where we want it to go.”
The lineup around Jokic and Valanciunas prioritized length: Watson, Braun and Julian Strawther. Whether that’s the best combination remains to be seen. After all, Denver was just ripping the Band-Aid off.
And there’s still time to tinker more — 82 games of it.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be the perfect thing,” Adelman reiterated, “but I definitely want to try it.”
The Nuggets improved to 2-1 this preseason with a 102-94 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night at Intuit Dome. Here are our three initial observations.
David Adelman takes off training wheels
The Nuggets have reached the phase of the preseason where they feel ready to try more stuff. After using a full-bench lineup for the majority of second-unit minutes in the first two exhibitions — and subsequently struggling against ball pressure — they went to a Jamal Murray stagger Sunday.
Notably, that meant taking out Murray for Tim Hardaway Jr. as their earliest substitution, a sign of David Adelman’s trust in Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon to initiate offense without a traditional point guard on the floor. It could be a sensible rotation template. Hardaway seems best suited to share most of his minutes with Jokic and benefit from the resulting open 3-point looks, while Murray’s ball-in-hand burst and authority are qualities the second unit needs. The star guard has also been highly engaged at the defensive end this preseason.
Adelman also briefly went to a double-big lineup with Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas for the first time. They screened for each other off the ball in a couple of actions and played at the bottom of a zone together on defense. Schematically, Denver did a lot of stunting, tried out some zone looks and defended the ball more aggressively. (The last part landed the Clippers in the bonus regularly.)
Rookie extension candidates showing out
With less than two weeks left to sign rookie-scale extensions with Denver, Christian Braun and Peyton Watson are both making their presence felt this preseason. Braun followed up an 8-for-8 shooting performance by contributing 11 more points and three assists in Los Angeles.
He went 4 for 5 from the floor and registered the best plus-minus in Denver’s starting lineup (plus-nine). Not only does Braun’s spot-up 3-pointer look more polished than ever, but he continues to hint at new layers to his game. In the first quarter Sunday, he drove for a contested layup as a pick-and-roll ball-handler with Jokic.
Watson is also on the ball way more frequently than he was in his first two years, bringing it up and running some pick-and-rolls with Valanciunas. He’s always been an underrated passer, but that skill has mostly functioned as connective tissue on the baseline. His play-making could be central to the second unit this season.
Two-way watch
Adelman has given every indication that he wants to use the regular season to experiment and exhaust all stylistic options. That could include using two-way players (especially considering the 15th roster spot will likely remain vacant). One of his most telling rotation decisions so far has been his deployment of Spencer Jones ahead of certain players on the active roster, including DaRon Holmes II and Zeke Nnaji.
Jones has provided some excellent defensive possessions this month. But another two-way youngster who shares his last name stole the show Sunday. In a preseason game characterized by unusually high competitiveness from both teams, the score remained deadlocked with starters long gone in the fourth quarter. Then Curtis Jones went off for 11 points (three 3-pointers), allowing Denver to run away with the win. The Iowa State grad’s eye-popping range should make him useful for occasional regular-season minutes.
“We are trying to be aggressive,” Nikola Jokic said Friday at Ball Arena. “We’re trying to be, like, close to a foul — testing the refs to call the fouls. That’s something that we’re gonna try to do. That was the emphasis of the practice.”
The most accurate term for it is probably the one used by coach David Adelman this week: “junking it up” on defense. In two consecutive postseasons, Denver has been vexed by an opponent’s ability to junk it up and unable to return the favor. Minnesota implored Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels to devour Jamal Murray in 2024.
OKC took the principle to another level last season, collapsing into the paint and recovering to the 3-point line as efficiently as any defense in recent memory. Alex Caruso was the ace in the hole, pestering and prodding Jokic to death in Game 7.
The Nuggets are searching for ways to renovate their defense after it ranked 21st in the league. Junking it up more is one way to start.
“Just different ways to shrink on better players. Zone. Working all that kind of stuff, and then when we do zone, who’s on the court, what their responsibilities are at each spot,” Adelman said. “And we’ll continue to work on it. I don’t know if we’ll throw it out there in the preseason, but it’s something we have to continue to improve on, because I feel like in the past, a lot of times you’re trying to get so many things done on the checklist that you kind of tell yourself you’re gonna get to that eventually. And I think if we’re actually gonna do that successfully, we have to work on it daily.”
Adelman has alluded to zone defense a handful of times this offseason, after deploying it regularly during the playoffs as interim coach. He and his players have also described a structure that’ll be more heavily based around Jokic’s IQ and matchup-dependent decisions. Some games might call for Jokic to be “up to touch” against a ball-handler. Others might be more suitable for various levels of drop coverage.
“It’s something new, so we are kind of trying to adjust,” Jokic said. “But I think we see that it’s going to be really good, and it could help us a lot.”
The ideas are complicated, but the overarching theme is that Denver’s scheme will be less rigid than before. Regardless of how it looks in action, peskier ball pressure is a foundational tenet. To put it another way, better effort than last season.
“There’s gonna be mistakes in this, when we’re not all the way up (the floor) like we’ve been, where the rotations are kind of starting from the get-go of every play, which we were really good at for a long time,” Adelman said. “… We just think this group has the capability of doing some different things, giving different looks, which gives us more flexibility on the defensive end, both man and zone.”
The end goal is to close the gap, at least marginally, with Oklahoma City — a heavy favorite to repeat thanks to its ability to overwhelm with defense.
“Hopefully we can be the silent — how do you say it? — the silent knight,” Jokic said. “Silent horse. Dark horse.”
Gordon’s status
Aaron Gordon didn’t play Monday in the Nuggets’ second preseason game, but Adelman has no concern about the power forward’s health. Denver visits the Clippers for another exhibition on Sunday.
“I think Aaron, Jamal, guys that have had those minor lingering injuries (in the past), we have to get ahead of that,” Adelman said. “So it just felt like the right time for him to take a two-day break, and now he’s back at it.”
Gordon spent most of last season dealing with a calf strain, then he also suffered a hamstring strain in the second round of the playoffs.
Instant observations as the Nuggets defeated the Raptors 112-108 in their second preseason game Monday night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
More like it
Denver’s starters looked a little rusty as a unit in their first preseason minutes together Saturday. Two days later, the rust was gone for the most part. Turnovers still piled up — Nikola Jokic committed six — but ball movement was generally more fluid and crisp.
Peyton Watson and Christian Braun made smart reads as connectors (Watson started for Aaron Gordon, who took the night off for maintenance). Cam Johnson played on the ball a bit more than he did in the first exhibition. On an early possession, he recognized that no entry pass to Jokic was available, used his dribble to put pressure on the rim instead, kicked out to Watson, then relocated for an open catch-and-shoot 3-pointer.
And Jokic was in full experimentation mode. One of his most avant-garde passes was a side-armed, no-look fastball curling around the baseline to successfully reach Johnson in the corner. (He missed the 3.) Another was a reverse over-the-head attempt to find a cutter in stride, but that one was nowhere close to a completion. That’s what the preseason is for.
Pressure release search
The Nuggets finished at an extraordinary clip in Vancouver. They were shooting over 60% from the floor for most of the game, including an 8-for-8 performance from Braun (19 points, three 3s), a 5-for-5 night from Jokic and a mini-collection of tough 3s off the dribble from Jamal Murray, still the preseason MVP so far.
Starting plays, not finishing them, is the tricky part right now. Especially when Murray isn’t on the floor.
Toronto showed full-court pressure most of the night, and Denver’s backups often struggled to get the ball up the floor and initiate offense cleanly. Five bench players turned the ball over multiple times, led by Bruce Brown’s four. He might just need some time to reacclimate to his point guard role with the Nuggets, but handling intense ball pressure has been a collective issue for the bench so far. Can Jalen Pickett be a consistent answer? Julian Strawther? Even Peyton Watson is handling the ball more than ever through two games.
Bench notes
With Watson sliding into the starting lineup, David Adelman played a four-guard bench lineup around Jonas Valanciunas in lieu of slotting in a more size-appropriate backup four like DaRon Holmes II, Zeke Nnaji or Spencer Jones. (The main second unit was made up of Pickett, Strawther, Tim Hardaway Jr., Brown and Valanciunas.)
That might say more about the current pecking order than anything else. Back from his torn Achilles tendon, Holmes seems to understandably be a work in progress rather than an instant plug-and-play rookie. He did check in and knock down a couple of huge 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter as Denver held off a late comeback, though.
Also somewhat worthy note: Hardaway has been Adelman’s first sub into the game in both exhibitions so far (with Watson on Saturday, alone on Monday).
“You snap your fingers and your career is over, and it’s so short in the big picture of your life,” Johnson, who patrolled the Avalanche’s blue line from 2011-2023 and then again for a smidge earlier this year, mused at Family Sports Center. “And it’s so short in the big picture of your life, that I just figured that, ‘Why not come to the rink every day like it’s the best day ever?’ I hope that rubbed off on people over time.”
Sure did. But seeing the affable EJ call time on a stellar run was also a reminder, and not a sunny one, that the Avs’ current core is creeping closer to the end of the movie than the beginning.
The Avs’ roster as of Monday morning featured nine players 30 or older. It’s the first time a Colorado roster sported an average age over 29, according to the Elite Prospects database, since 2006-07. Joe Sakic was 38 then. That group totaled 95 points but missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated from Quebec City.
Coach Jared Bednar is juggling a few katanas while the Sword of Damocles dangles over his head this season. But load management is among the trickiest, given the annual grind of the Western Conference and the usual stratospheric stakes.
“I think Bedsy and the staff … are going to be smart, particularly with (Gabe) Landeskog, right?” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland replied Monday when I asked about the load. “We’re going to glean information on how (Gabe) does in back-to-backs, or three (games in four days), or four (in six days) and his practice schedule … He’s a really important player. So I think we’ll just we’ll glean that information … and we’ll read and react off that.”
For years, C-Mac’s Avs were young, to paraphrase noted philosopher Bob Seger, and they were strong, running against the wind. Only those winds blow even harder now, and they’re not so young anymore. Big Val Nichushkin turns 31 in March. Landeskog turns 33 in November. Brock Nelson turns 34 next month. Among the defense, Josh Manson turns 34 on Tuesday. Devon Toews turns 32 in February. Burns turns 41 in March.
Time is no longer on Bednar’s side. At one point Monday, MacFarland even sounded reflective, if slightly defensive, about the expiration date on what should’ve been an NHL dynasty.
“COVID hurt us,” MacFarland said. “There’s no ifs or buts about it. And then the uncertainty of Gabe’s situation and the unfortunate stuff with Val. But that stuff’s in the past.
“I think our guys, what Bedsy and our players have done is, that they have a chance. I think the organization’s job is to try and give them as good a chance as possible, and their play dictates that. I think over the last seven, eight years, their play (has) consistently dictated that. Hopefully, it will continue to do so this year as well.”
To his credit, MacFarland has been as dedicated to tweaking and shuffling the fringes of his roster as former Nuggets GM Calvin Booth was to sitting on his hands. Better to try and fail than to shrug, as Booth did, while Father Time coldly ripped the pages from Nikola Jokic’s desk calendar.
But Avs 1.1 (2023) and 1.2 (2024) never got as close as version 1.0 (2022 Stanley Cup champs) did in terms of bottling that combo of strong health, strong depth, strong special teams, strong goaltending, strong intangibles and strong matchups.
Although 1.3 (2025), on paper, flew awfully close. Wise puckheads looked at Stars-Avs last spring and declared that the winner was easily bound for, at worst, a Western Conference final — and that we were getting a main event far, far too early. They were right, in hindsight. Not that it should make anyone in burgundy and blue feel any better.
A long Cup run is a marathon, a two-month, uphill march of sweat, blood, guts, focus and willpower. It’s a battle of attrition and desperation; a story that inevitably demands a dozen hands and five or six heroes.
Lord Stanley is one of the hardest trophies in sports to win and even harder to keep. And yet the fact that the Florida Panthers have made it look even easier than the Lightning did does not reflect as kindly on MacFarland and Bednar, who have been good at their jobs at the same time some peers have been great.
It’s not unfair to assume the pair’s window might have already come and gone. If you’re curious, the last 14 teams with an average age of 29 or more from 2020-21 through 2024-25 averaged 95.2 points during the regular season. Eight of the 14 “old” squads reached the playoffs. And four of those eight got bounced out of the bracket in the first round.
Feast or famine. Which pretty well sums up the Avs’ postseason narrative since 2019, now that you mention it.
A few months ago, I asked Nathan MacKinnon about turning 30, about a core getting old.
“Cale’s 26,” MacKinnon cracked, nodding at Cale Makar’s locker across the way. “So I’ll probably be retired before we’re bad. Yeah, we’ll be fine. Cale will be all right.”
With that, he smiled. Time flies when you’re having fun. Just not always with a tailwind.
SAN DIEGO — Aaron Gordon telegraphed the prevailing ethos of Nuggets training camp the day before it began.
Prompted about balancing his focus between offense and defense after a breakout year shooting the 3-pointer, Gordon volleyed back a counterpoint: There will be no balance.
“I’m gonna just turn up on defense,” the power forward said. “We have so much talent on the offensive side, I’m not even really worried about it.”
Defensive intensity has since developed into the defining characteristic of Denver’s first two days together as a team. The first play of the first practice Tuesday resulted in a collision that forced two-way wing Spencer Jones to get stitches. Jamal Murray told reporters Wednesday that turnovers have been an obstacle while trying to get into an organized half-court offense. Bruce Brown said he and fellow bench player Peyton Watson have been picking up full-court to wreak havoc on the starters.
In the modern NBA, defense is vegetables. Especially for a team that has grown overly dependent on its effortless scoring efficiency over the years.
The Nuggets are eating their vegetables this week. Keeping the diet for a full season will be the tough part.
“I think defense sometimes in our league is so hard that it’s not how you drill it,” first-year coach David Adelman said. “It’s just, do you want to do it? It really is. … I would love to see our defense get better. If our offense takes a little step back, we’ll be fine. To have the depth we have, there’s no excuse (not) to play extremely hard. Put your hands on people. Not worrying about being in foul trouble like we’ve had to do in the past. So it’s a different way of looking at the game, and we have to demand it every day.”
Adelman was primarily responsible for Denver’s offense before his promotion this year. The Nuggets ranked no worse than seventh at that end of the floor during his eight seasons as an assistant coach.
But his emphasis has been on defensive accountability and schematic variety since he took over for Michael Malone. The Nuggets ranked unusually low in defensive rating for a championship-winning team back in 2022-23 (15th in the NBA) and regressed to 21st last season — their first as a bottom-10 defense since 2017-18. That was the year before their first playoff appearance with Nikola Jokic.
“Better communication between the players right now, just trying to focus on rotations and everybody covering for each other,” Murray said. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, but as long as guys are talking and trying to put themselves in the right spots, that’s what it is. Defense is reactionary.”
“I think we’ve always had a good frame for defense,” said Christian Braun, who will match up against star guards when Denver plays within that man-to-man framework. “We’ve always had a good idea. … If we can get to a point where we’re playing at the playoff level every single night, we’re not trying to outscore teams, I think that’ll be good for us. Try to blow teams out a little more this year.”
The “frame” involves Jokic playing up the floor against pick-and-rolls while a “low man” rotates from the weak-side corner to prevent the roller from scoring an easy layup or dunk — at its best, setting up a series of high-energy help rotations around the perimeter. Problem is, the scramble mindset can grow exhausting, and Jokic isn’t always effective enough at deterring the ball-handler at the level of the screen. When Adelman took over as interim head coach in April, he started making adjustments more frequently, such as stationing Jokic farther down the floor or zoning up.
Now Jared Dudley has been hired to run the defense, and even if the base scheme remains the same, Adelman has labeled himself a believer in zone. He thinks if the Nuggets work at it more consistently, they can use it more often during the regular season.
“(Dudley) kind of started talking to me in the summer about the defense,” Brown said. “We’re just being more physical, picking up (the ball-handler at) three-quarters court, depending obviously on who you are. Just being more physical and being more assertive.”
Indeed, Nuggets role players have been venturing into the backcourt at training camp to apply extra pressure, to ratchet up intensity. Pressing consistently throughout an 82-game regular season is unsustainable — Adelman knows that — but the concept has its merits in a low-stakes preseason setting.
“It’s good in a competitive way, and I think if guys can do it, they should be doing it, if you’re not playing a lot of minutes,” Adelman said. “But I also think because we have so many lead ball-handlers on this team — not just Jamal — they’re going to get picked up. So it’s great practice for a guy like Peyton Watson who can initiate offense. Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, Jamal, Jalen (Pickett). All these guys.”
The number to beat is 115.1. That’s how many points Denver allowed per 100 possessions last season.
Gordon has a more ambitious goal in mind, one that would require shaving three points off that number.
“If we get to around top-10 defensively,” he said, “it’s going to put us in a position to win it all.”
