BOULDER — Ask Nuggets coach Michael Malone and he’ll say competition across the roster rolls on. And in just the second week of training camp, it’s the sensible assertion.
But there may be some clarity coming to the center position — specifically, who’ll be the starting center while big man Jusuf Nurkic remains out with a knee injury. With Nurkic sidelined, a bevy of others are working to take his place.
Who is starting, at this point, isn’t important, Malone said. And depending on matchups, it might not matter much anyway because the Nuggets are stocked with players versatile enough to take the team from a traditional lineup to small ball in a blink.
“My thoughts are there are a thousand things we can do at center,” Malone said.
Second-year player Joffrey Lauvergne has been the early standout, coming into Thursday’s game with preseason averages of 15.0 points, on 72.2 percent shooting, and 12.5 rebounds.
He started against the Bulls and scored 18 points with eight rebounds as the Nuggets won their second game of the preseason, 112-94, Thursday night at the Coors Events Center over the Chicago Bulls. Using a suffocating display of defense, they held Chicago to 31 percent shooting in the first half and used a 20-3 run to break things open.
“I love how hard he plays,” Malone said of Lauvergne. “He’s athletic, he has toughness, he has skill. He steps out and knocks down two 3s (against Dallas). In L.A. (against the Clippers), he and Nikola Jokic were out there together, played very well together. He’s just a guy that is going to demand minutes by how hard and how well he’s been playing. We need him to keep on working and getting better and get in great shape. And if he’s able to do that, he’ll get a great opportunity this year.”
Lauvergne has come a long way since joining the Nuggets in February after a spat with his club team in Russia led to his release. He struggled to adjust to a new country, a new team, a new league, in the middle of a tumultuous season.
Now he appears much more comfortable.
“Of course, I improve, but there is also the fact that last year when I arrived, coach didn’t know me, so it was hard for them to give me confidence, and I understand this 100 percent,” Lauvergne said. “But with this coaching staff, I came this year for summer league, I practiced before summer league, I played summer league, and then they followed me in EuroBasket. They know me, you know?”
He has made a big impression.
J.J. Hickson has played center before, too, and he has played on a team with Malone on the staff in the past, so he’s a known quantity.
Kenneth Faried, who played a lot of center late last season, could be called upon to man the post but is more suited to play forward.
Rookie Nikola Jokic, too, has caught Malone’s eye.
“For him to be that young and that skilled is really exciting to see,” Malone said of Jokic. “The fact that he’s gotten so much better even from summer league. So, a lot of options, but this whole month of October will allow us to see what’s best for this team.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
