Denver Nuggets

Father Time comes for everyone in professional sports, and sometimes that can lead to amusing interactions between younger players and older ones who are on the backend of their careers.

Carmelo Anthony and Rudy Gay talked about just that topic during a Wednesday appearance on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, and the former recalled a specific interaction with Michael Porter Jr.

"Michael Porter is guarding me," Anthony said. "I catch him on like the right elbow and just like catch it, post, quick jab, go left and lay it up. He like, 'damn Unc, I ain't know you still had that.'"

That the game was against Anthony's former team in the Denver Nuggets probably made the exchange stand out even more for the 10-time All-Star. Notably, he said it motivated him to call for the ball back and attack Porter again on the offensive side.

Many current NBA players surely view Anthony as an all-time legend.

After all, his resume includes a scoring title, 10 All-Star Game selections, six All-NBA nods and a spot on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. He was one of the best players of his generation and was seen as an elite scorer who could beat defenders a number of ways.

Yet he couldn't do that as consistently as he did in his peak by the end of his career, which Porter surely knew when he was guarding the future Hall of Famer. The response from the Nuggets forward is amusing in hindsight, but it seems to have motivated Anthony when they were going head-to-head for the rest of that game.

Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone heaped praise on veteran guard Russell Westbrook following Wednesday's 124-122 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

According to Bennett Durando of the Denver Post, Malone was especially impressed with Westbrook's defensive effort, saying:

"I think defensively he's been a rockstar. And what I love about Russell Westbrook: 17-year vet, leopards don't change their spots, but he is trying so hard to be disciplined. He's trying to do the things we're asking him to do, and I appreciate that so much. Because a lot of times at 17 years in, you are who you are. But he cares, man. He is so invested in this team and what he's bringing to this team, and he's so hard on himself. I can coach a guy like Russell Westbrook any day."

The Nuggets were without guard Jamal Murray and forward Aaron Gordon on Wednesday due to injury, which pushed multiple players into bigger roles, including Westbrook.

Starting only his third game of the season, Westbrook led Denver with 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with six assists, six rebounds and one steal.

The Thunder were undefeated at 7-0 entering Wednesday's contest, and they were essentially fully healthy with stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams playing a full allotment of minutes.

Denver only used an eight-man rotation during the game and all five starters played at least 32 minutes, but it managed to overcome the disadvantage and secure its biggest win of the year thus far.

Westbrook, who will turn 36 next week, is in the midst of his 17th NBA season overall and his first with the Nuggets.

He was once a superstar with the Thunder, winning two scoring titles and an NBA MVP Award, but in more recent years, Westbrook has taken on a lesser role, primarily as a bench player.

After finishing a solid seventh in the Sixth Man of the Year voting last season with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Nuggets brought him in with designs on him filling a similar role.

Although Westbrook got off to a slow start this season, he has scored 20 or more points in each of the past two games and three of the past five. He has also mad 60 percent of his shots or more in each of the past two games after shooting a horrendous 23.2 percent over his first six outings.

In addition to his offensive improvement, Westbrook has been committed defensively as well, averaging 1.8 steals per game, which is his best production in that category since his final season in OKC in 2018-19.

Westbrook will almost certainly fade back into a bench role once Murray returns to action, but he is going to see significant minutes for the rest of the season regardless, and he could have a big hand in whether the Nuggets win their second championship in three seasons.

The Denver Nuggets are in the middle of an inconsistent start to the season at 4-3, and they will now need to tread water for the immediate future without one of their best players.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Tuesday that Aaron Gordon will be sidelined for "multiple weeks" because he suffered a right calf strain.

This is quite the blow for Denver, as Gordon's overall versatility on both ends of the floor will be difficult to replace. His chemistry with Nikola Jokić also stands out, as the big man often looks his way for lobs and kick passes when facing double teams.

Gordon is averaging 15.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists a night while shooting 52.9 percent from the floor and 54.5 percent from deep through seven games this season. He poured in 31 points in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves and has provided important outside shooting that hasn't always been a consistent part of his offensive arsenal.

An injury to Gordon is also particularly difficult for the Nuggets beyond just his own individual talent.

This team isn't very deep, especially in the daunting Western Conference. Any setback for one of the key players such as Jokić, Gordon, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. will put even more onus on a bench that has drastically underperformed in the early going this season.

And Murray is in the league's concussion protocol and missed Monday's win over the Toronto Raptors.

According to NBA.com, Denver's bench is last in the league in net rating at minus-6.9.

With Murray and Gordon dealing with injuries, that struggling bench will be all the more important as the Nuggets look to position themselves in the Western Conference playoff race. Look for Peyton Watson and Zeke Nnaji to see more playing time while Gordon is out.

Christian Braun shouldered the blame for the Denver Nuggets' 119-116 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday after his celebration of a poster dunk on Rudy Gobert led to a confrontation on the court that resulted in double technical fouls being assessed.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Braun explained he thought that moment halted the Nuggets' positive momentum and allowed Minnesota back in the game.

"I got to be more responsible," Braun said. "It's two points. Obviously, those are the plays you want to make and those are the momentum plays I want to make, but getting a tech throws the momentum their way, so I got to do a better job of controlling myself."

The incident occurred midway through the fourth quarter. Braun's dunk came during a 13-0 run for the Nuggets to give them a 112-102 lead with 4:17 left to play.

Minnesota closed the game on a 17-4 run to erase the 10-point deficit and steal a victory.

Even though Braun tried to take responsibility for halting the Nuggets' momentum, the bigger issue during the final four minutes were the struggles of Nikola Jokić.

The reigning NBA MVP committed two turnovers in the span of three offensive possessions for Denver that led to five points for the Timberwolves. He also missed his last two shot attempts in the final minute, including a three as time expired that would have tied the game.

No one is going to point the finger at Jokić in a game where he put up 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting, 13 rebounds and nine assists. He was far from the biggest problem overall for the Nuggets, but his miscues in crunch time stood out because the rest of the team is struggling to execute.

Jamal Murray still looks broken after scoring six points on 2-of-7 shooting in 22 minutes. He is shooting just 37.0 percent from the field in five games.

The Russell Westbrook experiment is going about as well as expected. He had nearly as many turnovers (four) as points (five) and went 1-of-8 from the field in 25 minutes. His plus-minus is now at minus-51 in 104 minutes this season.

Braun played arguably his best game of the season with 14 points and seven rebounds.

All that can be said about the Nuggets right now is they are a deeply flawed team with a superstar in the middle of everything. They are below-average by defensive rating and net rating.

Despite having Jokić to run the offense, they are 12th in offensive rating. All of this has resulted in the Nuggets losing three of their first five games, with their lone wins coming in two overtime games against the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets.

Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray was ruled out of the team's matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday due to a concussion.

Murray went to the locker room after colliding with Timberwolves forward Julius Randle in the third quarter of the game and didn't return.

He finished the contest with six points, two rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes on the floor while shooting 2-7 from the field and missing all three of his attempts from behind the arc.

Murray's potential absence would be a tough blow to a Nuggets team that was already attempting to replace the perimeter scoring of former shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who joined the Orlando Magic in free agency over the offseason.

The 27-year-old wasn't off to a strong start through Denver's first four games of the season. Murray averaged 18.8 points and 4.8 assists per game on 37.9/35.0/90.0 shooting splits heading into Friday's contest.

Still, he's shown that he can bounce back from a string of poor shooting performances and his shot-creating ability alongside superstar center Nikola Jokić is crucial to the Nuggets' offensive efficiency.

While Murray doesn't have an All-Star nod under his belt in a Western Conference loaded with elite point guards, he's still averaged 20.5 points and 6.3 assists per game while shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 41.0 percent from three over his past two seasons.

After helping the Nuggets win their first championship in franchise history during the 2022-23 season, Murray signed a four-year contract extension worth $208 million with Denver on Sept. 7.

If he's forced to miss time, Russell Westbrook will likely start in his place. Westbrook is recording 9.8 points and 3.8 assists to go along with 1.3 steals per game off the bench this season, but he owns a field-goal percentage of just 27 percent.

Murray's availability should be clearer leading into the Nuggets' next contest, a clash with the Utah Jazz on Saturday.

The Denver Nuggets are expected to reach an agreement on a contract extension soon with general manager Calvin Booth, per ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.

"Booth will be the chief architect of whatever comes next as the Nuggets have for months been speaking to him about a contract extension, multiple sources said, and a deal is expected soon," Shelburne reported.

Booth has been the Nuggets' general manager since 2020. Denver won its first-ever NBA championship in 2023.

The 48-year-old Booth played in the NBA from 1999-2009. Three seasons later, he joined the New Orleans Pelicans as a scout. After one season, he left for the Minnesota Timberwolves and eventually became director of player personnel.

In Aug. 2017, Booth joined Denver as its assistant general manager under president of basketball operations Tim Connelly. He took over the general manager role in 2020 after Nuggets GM Artūras Karnišovas left to run basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls.

In May 2022, Connelly left for Minnesota to become its president of basketball operations, making Booth the team's front office leader.

The Nuggets already had their championship core in place in Nikola Jokić, Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., but the Booth-led office did a great job building around that quartet.

Most notably, the Nuggets signed eventual sixth man Bruce Brown in free agency and traded for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who joined the starting lineup. Christian Braun, now a starter, also landed with the team via the draft.

It's clear the Nuggets want Booth sticking around for the foreseeable future, and all signs are pointing in that direction. He's been part of a winning front office that turned the franchise around, and Denver obviously hopes that trend remains the same going forward.

Michael Porter Jr. believes the Denver Nuggets could be due for major roster turnover if the team falls short of the 2025 NBA title.

"If we don't win it this year, we all know they might have to break it up," Porter told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.

The Nuggets are looking to capitalize on a tenth season led by reigning MVP Nikola Jokić, who is averaging a league-high 31.5 points through four games.

Jokić and the Nuggets are set to play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night in a rematch of the second-round series Denver lost in seven games this May.

Denver has yet to win in regulation this season and required overtime to claim consecutive wins over the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets earlier this week.

The Nuggets are still adjusting to the departure of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a key part of the team's 2023 championship roster who signed a three-year deal with the Orlando Magic in free agency.

Denver also gave up draft capital in order to move former sixth man Reggie Jackson and his $5.25 million player option, a trade that alongside Christian Braun's transition into the startling lineup thinned the team's bench depth.

In addition to the previous exits of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, the Nuggets are now missing multiple role players who contributed to the 2023 championship run.

The Nuggets' biggest moves of the offseason were adding veteran guard Russell Westbrook and giving both Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray extensions.

Denver is currently about $5 million below the second tax apron, below which they are hard-capped, per Spotrac. That has limited the team's ability to build around Murray and Jokić as they look to construct another title contender.

Jokić, who turns 30 this February, is currently signed through the 2026-27 season with a player option for 2027-28.

The Nuggets may have locked in Jokić alongside Murray, Porter and Gordon for at least the next two seasons, but it sounds like Porter is expecting that core to be broken up should Denver exit the playoffs early for the second straight season.

While it was already known that the Golden State Warriors made a push for Paul George during the offseason, there was another Western Conference contender that also tried to get the nine-time All-Star.

Per ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, the Denver Nuggets made an inquiry with the Los Angeles Clippers about George before he opted out of his contract to become a free agent.

Shelburne noted talks between the Nuggets and Clippers "never escalated" because Denver refused to discuss Christian Braun, Peyton Watson or Julian Strawther. The Clippers had no interest in a deal that would only involve them taking back salaries Denver didn't want to pay.

It's unclear exactly what salaries the Nuggets would have offered, but Shelburne noted it "likely" would have been Michael Porter Jr. and Zeke Nnaji if talks had gotten that far.

Another thing that's unclear is if George would have wanted to play in Denver. This scenario would have been contingent on him opting in to his $48.8 million salary for 2024-25.

We know that scenario was in play if the Warriors had been able to work out a trade with the Clippers because George acknowledged such a deal was "close to being done," but it fell apart when Golden State declined to include Jonathan Kuminga in a package.

George ultimately exercised his opt-out and signed a four-year, $211.6 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent.

The Nuggets' decision to bet big on their young, unproven talent around Nikola Jokić is not yielding great results so far. They are off to a 2-2 start and rank 13th in offensive rating, despite the reigning NBA MVP averaging 31.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game.

It's not entirely the fault of struggling young players like Strawther and Watson. After a summer worrying about how he ended last season and looked in the Olympics, Jamal Murray still doesn't look right with a 37.9 field-goal percentage. Porter is shooting 29.6 percent from three-point range.

Russell Westbrook is minus-38 in 79 minutes played off the bench. He has been better in the past two games because he was minus-37 through 41 minutes over his first two games.

George wouldn't be helping things right now because he is on the shelf with a knee injury, but his ceiling when healthy is higher than anyone on the Nuggets roster after Jokić.

Instead, the Nuggets are staring down the possibility of wasting a year of Jokić's prime because they wanted to try the two-timeline thing that nearly derailed the Warriors.

The Denver Nuggets' handling of center Nikola Jokić could be something that shrinks his prime, at least in the eyes of one NBA executive.

Ramona Shelburne of ESPN reported that others around the NBA are concerned with Jokic's significant usage and that the team could "run him into the ground" if they continue to operate the same way.

"The only way they are going to win is if Murray is really good," a rival executive Shelburne. "Joker is the best player in the world, but they're going to run him into the ground if he keeps playing this much."

Jokic is averaging 39.0 minutes per game thus far in 2024-25 and is the key cog of Denver's play style. He is averaging 31.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists in four games this season.

Denver has gotten off to a 2-2 start and is just two seasons removed from an NBA Championship. The team reached the Western Conference semifinals during the 2023-24 campaign and is considered to be a prominent contender alongside the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, among others.

Still, relying so heavily on Jokić could make the team one-dimensional, and struggles from guard Jamal Murray and others are not helping relieve any pressure from the 29-year-old.

Veteran guard Russell Westbrook is off to a rough start in his first season with the Denver Nuggets, struggling in the bench role he embraced last season with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Through four games, the nine-time All-Star is averaging 9.8 points, 3.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 19.8 minutes per contest. He is also shooting just 27.0 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from beyond the arc.

Speaking to ESPN's Tim Bontemps, an anonymous NBA scout put Westbrook's struggles into perspective, saying: "Their second unit is now at Russ' mercy."

Aside from Tuesday's overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets when he scored a season-high 22 points, Westbrook has not had another game with double digits in scoring so far this season.

With Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun, the Nuggets have one of the league's best starting fives, but their bench production has been severely lacking.

Westbrook is the team's leading scorer off the bench, followed by Julian Strawther (7.5 points per game) and Peyton Watson (4.0 points per game).

A lack of bench production has undoubtedly contributed to the Nuggets' uneven start, as they are just 2-2 after winning the NBA championship two seasons ago and reaching the second round of the playoffs last season.

The 35-year-old Westbrook is mostly used to being a starter. After coming off the bench 17 times as a rookie in 2008-09 with the Oklahoma City Thunder, he started every game he played in for the next 13 seasons.

After having a down year with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021-22, L.A. transitioned him into a bench role the following season, but he shot just 41.7 percent from the field and was traded during the season, ultimately landing with the Clippers.

Last season was Westbrook's first full year as a bench player, and he largely delivered, averaging 11.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game, while also shooting 45.4 percent from the floor.

Westbrook finished an impressive seventh in NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting, and the Nuggets undoubtedly signed him with the hope of a similar performance.

However, the one-time NBA MVP and two-time NBA scoring champion is on pace for what would be the worst statistical season of his career by far, and it could force the Nuggets to make some in-season moves in an effort to fortify their bench.