Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry declined to detail if, and if so how much, contact he had with the Nuggets during the summer, when they were searching for a head coach.
“I don’t know; it doesn’t matter,” Gentry said, smiling. “It’s fine.”
Gentry was one of the hotter coaching candidates when several teams had openings. He had been one of the architects of Golden State’s high-octane offense while an assistant with the world champions last season.
New Orleans interviewed him twice and announced his hire May 31.
He was an assistant at the University of Colorado from 1981-86 and reportedly had interest in the Nuggets job.
Denver hired Michael Malone on June 15.
“They got themselves a really, really good coach, a guy that works his butt off,” Gentry said. “I don’t think there’s anybody out there that works any harder (than Malone) or understands the game. He’s been around it his whole life. So, I think they did great.”
Mudiay update. Malone said rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay’s sprained right ankle injury will be handled with care and not to expect him back soon.
“We trust our athletic training staff to tell us when he can get back on the floor to start practicing,” Malone said. “And then obviously he’ll have to get through a practice before he can play in a game. To be honest, I think he’s probably a little ways away from that. So we’ll be cautious. It’s an injury he sustained while in China, and it’s kind of come back a little bit.”
Mudiay has missed four consecutive games with the injury.
“We want to make sure it’s not something where he plays a game then misses two games,” Malone said. “We want to get him as close to 100 percent as possible and then put him back out there and get him into his rhythm.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
