In his gravelly gravitas, a voice unequivocally from Queens, Michael Malone tried to explain the inexplicable — how the Nuggets will play defense.
Last season, the Denver players surely considered defending at times. Alas, it appeared, the Nuggets decided to devote most of their efforts into moping, or lollygagging, like they were on the 1988 Durham Bulls.
Last season, only two NBA teams allowed more points per game than Denver and only four teams had a worse defensive efficiency.
“Almost every year, the best defensive teams are playing late into the playoffs,” Malone, the new Nuggets coach, said Monday. “And you look at the Denver Nuggets last year — they were a very good transition offense team but a very poor transition defense team. So my question to the players is: If you can sprint on offense, how come you’re jogging on defense? It’s got to be the same.”
I was encouraged after talking strategy with Malone. It’s hard to think the Nuggets’ defense will be worse next season, even if they don’t trade Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried. (If you’re reading this, Tim Connelly, please trade Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried.)
“We’ll have certain core beliefs,” Malone said. “Shrinking the floor, make that paint look crowded, not getting beat middle, contesting and being a multiple-effort team.”
I’ve always felt teaching defense in the NBA is one of the trickier things in sports.
Consider it this way: The Western Conference team that averaged the least points per game last season, the Portland Trail Blazers, still averaged 93.8. In soccer or hockey, if you play exceptional defense, you’ll likely shut out the other team. In football, if you play exceptional defense, you might allow only a touchdown or two all afternoon. But in basketball, if you play exceptional defense, you still might allow 100 or more points.
Defense can be disheartening.
And so, in the NBA, you’re basically saying to your players: Work your butt off and you’re still going to get your butt beat a lot, but stay committed to this, because you might get your butt beat fewer times than normal, and that’s how you win.
That’s a little more complicated than the offensive plan of “go score.”
So naturally the pressure is on Malone to not just talk the talk, but talk the right talk, and get the Nuggets to play like the Chauncey Billups Nuggets.
“It’s really amazing when guys buy in. There’s two options — you can resist, or you can embrace change,” Malone said.
While the pressure is clearly on Connelly to revamp the roster, the pressure is on Malone to hire a quality coaching staff. Last season, word around the Pepsi Center was that one particular Brian Shaw assistant coach was so toxic, it affected the team’s mentality and helped lead to Shaw’s demise. Malone needs to pluck, well, some Michael Malones — some dynamic thinkers and motivators. For it was Malone who helped mold LeBron James into a winner, getting the star to play some serious D. When Malone was let go by the Kings, Yahoo reported James saying: “A good friend of mine got fired in Sacramento. (The Kings) didn’t know what they were doing with Mike Malone.”
“LeBron and I,” Malone said Monday, “had a very good relationship, a very professional relationship, and the one thing I think he always respected about me was: I wasn’t going to try to be his friend, I wasn’t going to try to be his boy and tell him what he wanted to hear. He respected that honesty and respected my work ethic.”
And here’s one nugget about the Nuggets’ coach: Even though he’s from New York, his favorite football team is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Defense was part of his upbringing.
“I’ve been a lifelong Steeler fan. I know the Bronco fans probably won’t want to hear that,” Malone said. “You can look at any sport and see the importance and relevance and correlation that defense has with winning. I’m a Steeler fan, Steel Curtain. Defense.”
Last season, the Nuggets’ defense was a curtain-y curtain.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@ denverpost.com or
