AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Getting back to full health is a good thing. The Nuggets are as close as they have been to a fully available roster. They didn’t have that happen all of last season, and they haven’t had it through the first five games of this one.
But Gary Harris’ return Saturday night – albeit in limited minutes – meant that only one player is left on the Nuggets’ injury list: Will Barton.
“And he’s close (to returning),” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
But with full health comes decisions. Tough ones for a team full of players who can almost all stake a claim to playing significant minutes.
“Itap definitely a challenge because I have such a deep team and I look at my sub-chart going into every game and I say ‘How are we going to play all these guys?’ ” Malone said. “Itap great to get healthy, but now that we have more bodies available, tougher decisions have to be made, and when Will Barton comes back itap going to be even tougher.
“Hopefully our guys are going to understand. And something I’ll have to do a better job at as we get healthy is assigning roles, accepting roles and understanding that this is what we feel is going to give us the best chance to have success on a nightly basis. … Itap impossible to keep 15 guys happy, I realize that. My goal is not to keep anybody happy. My goal is to win as many games as possible while trying to keep everybody at least understanding what their role is and how they can help this team.”
Harris finished with five points on 1-of-2 shooting, his lone make a 3-pointer. Harris played 15 minutes off the bench in his first game since suffering a strained right groin in the Nuggets preseason opener on Oct. 3.
“We’ve been missing him,” Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler said. “Especially on the perimeter on defense. We missed him a lot on both ends of the floor, and once he gets in a rhythm he’s a capable player.”
