Nuggets coach Brian Shaw started the process of paring down and tinkering with the lineup Monday night, hoping to coax more effectiveness out of his team.
First, he inserted Wilson Chandler into the starting lineup in place of Danilo Gallinari, who has struggled with his shooting through the first few games this season. Going into Monday’s game against Sacramento, Gallinari was shooting just 28.6 percent from the field, including 28.6 percent from 3-point range.
Shaw said Gallo is “still trying to knock the rust off.” Shaw also liked the matchups with Gallinari coming off the bench to run with the second team against opponents’ second units.
Meanwhile, Shaw promised to pare down the center rotation, moving away from the six-minute stints for all three centers — Timofey Mozgov, Jusuf Nurkic and JaVale McGee — and going toward playing just two of them for most of the minutes while playing the third if there is foul trouble or an injury situation.
And Shaw decided to move up McGee to the reserve spot after his very effective game against Oklahoma City on Saturday.
McGee blocked four shots in that game and altered many others.
Shaw cited “JaVale’s rim protection ability that we didn’t have last year” as being a key factor as to why he has been fond of the defensive start of his team so far.
“I think we have improved on the defensive side,” Shaw said. “We are making teams work a lot harder to score baskets.”
Footnotes. Monday was the opener of a home-and-home series against the Kings. The teams face each other again Wednesday at Sacramento. … Denver’s Ty Lawson (ankle) and Randy Foye (wrist) played through nagging injuries against the Kings.
