Michael Malone gave a recap of the first couple of days of practice for the Denver Nuggets tonight. Jameer Nelson hurt his toe in the first practice and Malone confirms in this audio that Nelson will almost certainly not play Saturday against the Golden State Warriors. That provides plenty of reps at point guard for both Jamal Murray and Emmanuel Mudiay, both of whom need them badly. "Every facet of Emmanuel's game looks improved," said Malone, and that makes the competition even more interesting.
Malone’s list of improvements that can be made after the first couple of practices includes some more reps with Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic together, and better defensive communication in game situations. He describes the assessment of the backup power forward position being between Trey Lyles and Kenneth Faried as, “accurate.”
Also, Stiffs, here’s a quote of particular interest to this board: “Torrey Craig is a player, guys. Last night he might have been the Bud Light Player of the Game” for last night’s practice/scrimmage, says Malone. “Torrey’s been a stud.” Torrey Craig watch is on!
Listen to the whole interview below. The audio is a little rough as practice is obviously still going on and you can hear the shoes squeak and the balls bounce, but there’s a lot of good stuff in this 11 minutes.
Here’s a cleaned-up version to reduce the backup noise – if the first link is too noisy for you, give this a shot.
