SAN DIEGO — After making it through training camp in good health, with the exception of a few bruises, the Nuggets expect to have their full roster available for their preseason opener, coach David Adelman said.
This will be Adelman’s first time managing an NBA roster through the usual series of five preseason exhibitions, which can present an awkward balance between needing reps and wanting to avoid injury. His plan for Saturday (7 p.m. MT) against the Timberwolves? In all likelihood, he’ll let his starters run, at least for a while.
“I think because our schedule, the way it is — playing tomorrow, most likely off with the travel day, playing again, most likely off the next day — you’ll see our guys play,” Adelman said. “I think it’s important. It’s almost like it’s a practice for them. We went light today for that reason. And then we’ll get back at it next week.”
The first two games will both be played at neutral sites. After a week of practice at UC-San Diego, the Nuggets will meet Minnesota at Pechanga Arena, the former home of the San Diego Rockets and San Diego Clippers that’s stationed on land now tapped for redevelopment by the Kroenke family. Denver will then visit Vancouver for a matchup with the Raptors on Monday.
“My father actually played for the San Diego Rockets way back in the day,” Adelman pointed out. “Great jerseys. … I don’t remember who else was on that team, because I wasn’t alive for 25 more years.”
Denver’s injuries have been limited to a collision that required Spencer Jones to get stitches and the ongoing right wrist affliction of Nikola Jokic, who says he’s unconcerned but once again left the gym with it iced on Friday.
Johnson gets first Jokic experience
It comes for every Jokic teammate eventually.
A pass that takes you completely by surprise.
Newcomer Cam Johnson experienced his rite of passage as a Nugget this week.
“He threw one at me that was pretty unexpected the other day,” he said. “I kind of bobbled it, too. I felt bad. But everybody’s like, ‘Hey, get used to it.’ I’m like, I’ll take it. I’ll take it. But you know, it’s a lot of the no-look ones where his body’s kind of turned, and he goes the opposite way that (he passes it). It’s gonna be really cool to get some good looks off of that.”
Other than the relatable bobble, Johnson said he feels like his acclimation process to the starting lineup has been smooth throughout the week. The Nuggets went through some of their script offense Friday in a 5-on-0 environment, looking at end-of-game situations. The main “obstacle” for Johnson, if it can really be called that, is committing new terminology to memory. The concepts themselves, he has down.
“It’s pretty quick,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting out there and playing, and actually hearing it. You see it on the sheets. You go over it slow. But then you get out there, and the first time we call X play or X defensive coverage, you hear it and you process it. Then over time, it gradually just picks up from there until it becomes instinct.”
More drop coverage with Jokic?
Denver’s interest in defensive malleability continued to be a training camp theme Friday, as the team also spent some time working on pick-and-roll coverage.
Afterward, Adelman outlined how the staff hopes to give Jokic autonomy in determining how high up the floor he should position himself — whether that’s at the level of the screen like normal, or in a drop to deter the paint without a helper more often.
“There’s so many levels of drops,” Adelman said. “He won’t be just at the rim like he’s (Rudy) Gobert. But it’s just looking for maybe a little more of (him defending) down the floor, a couple steps down the floor. And more so, I think what we’re trying to create with him — he’s so high-IQ — is the Marc Gasol model, where he’s choosing his levels depending on the quality of player or what the player does well.
“We all know his IQ is so high, but we have to work on that and allow him to work on it in practice.”
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