Preseason results are made to be forgotten, but the way teams play is what sticks. Individual performances, adjusting to new systems and schemes — and for some players, a new league — are the things that matter.
The Nuggets split their first two exhibition games under new coach Michael Malone, losing to the Los Angeles Clippers and defeating the Dallas Mavericks, and there’s much that can be dissected from those performances. The offense was kept simple. The Nuggets ran off misses, and the fast break mostly faded into quick, high-screen action to get the ball handler into the paint and keep the action flowing toward the rim. In the half court, the Nuggets ran NBA staple plays.
Defense appeared the main focus, and it was good, not great, so it isn’t breaking new ground to say that’s fine at this point in the preseason. Opponent field-goal percentage was a positive (71-of-177, 40.1 percent). But in Friday’s game at the Clippers, a team aspiring to win the NBA title, the Nuggets’ defense was gutted while the headliners — Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and J.J. Redick — were on the court. On Tuesday night, Dallas didn’t play starters Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams and Chandler Parsons.
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More observations from the first two games:
Emmanuel Mudiay. His first two games were about as mixed as can be. His 3-point shooting was the highlight. Mudiay has hit 4-of-9 shots from beyond the arc in the two games, which should start to help him and anyone else worried about his long range touch breathe easy. He struggled to finish around the rim against the Clippers, but he was much better against the Mavericks.
Mudiay still gets into taking tough two-point field-goal shots — fadeaways, dribbling into contested shots — and that contributed to this dubious stat: The rookie had more turnovers in the two games (15) than made field goals (12). The turnover number is extraordinarily high, and for Mudiay they came in every way a player can get a turnover. But the main problem seemed to be just carelessness — lazy cross-court passes, jamming basketballs to covered players in the lane, jumping without any place to go with the ball and shaky ball handling.
But here’s the rub. He was never exactly pressured into those mistakes. He just tried things that had worked for him on other levels (in China and high school) that can’t possibly work in the NBA. He will soon learn that. He did seem sped up at times. Breaking down his game, making the simple plays, then building it back up to the flashy stuff is probably his best course of action from here. Mudiay averaged four assists.
Joffrey Lauvergne. He was, by far, the most impressive Nuggets player in the first two games. His road trip: 15.0 points, 12.5 rebounds, 72 percent shooting. If he hadn’t yet earned the right to start at center while Jusuf Nurkic remains out, those performances may have clinched it. Lauvergne was tough on the inside and made shots from the paint to the 3-point line, where he was 2-of-3. His improvement in just eight months has been remarkable. And in addition, he’s a willing screener.
Gary Harris. No Nuggets perimeter player got after it defensively better than Harris. His ball pressure was top-notch. He did a nice job staying attached to Dallas sharpshooter John Jenkins on Tuesday. Against the Clippers, Harris showed quick hands and tenacity through screens while doing a great job in denial defense and playing the passing lanes. And then he displayed speed to get to loose balls. He had five steals in two games. Icing? He also made the most of his shooting opportunities, going 9-of-17 in the two games, including 2-of-6 (33 percent) from 3-point range.
Keep an eye on. Danilo Gallinari played only in the Dallas game, and quickly we can see that he’ll be used much more as a playmaker/decision-maker this season than he was a season ago. He brought the ball up the court at times and initiated the offense. … Will Barton, a shooting guard, played a lot of small forward and some power forward as well. … Darrell Arthur has not yet played.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
