NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

May 29, 2023

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Practice Day

Q. Coach, you always talk about Jamal and you knew exactly when he was back in that Portland game. With MPJ and his back, was there a moment you knew he was back?

MICHAEL MALONE: Early in the season. I don't have an exact date, but I felt that Michael was fully back. I felt this was by far his best season as an NBA player. The commitment he made to being the best defensive player he could be and buying into that end was definitely evident early on, as well as was his commitment to being the best offensive player he could be and playing without the ball and moving without the ball and spacing the floor.

Obviously Jamal missed a lot more time than Michael, but I think for me with Michael, I could tell early in the season that he was poised to have a very good season. He was moving well, he was healthy and that was all we needed from him because he's such a talented player.

Q. You always tell us about Nikola's maturation. Maybe the last step is finding his voice. Obviously he spoke about it in Game 3 against the Lakers. Have you seen his voice get more pronounced or louder as the Playoffs have gone on?

MICHAEL MALONE: I mean, I think that makes for a great story, but I don't know if it's entirely accurate. I think throughout the year, not just the Playoffs, he's picked his spots in terms of when to be vocal, when to challenge his teammates.

Game 3 was just, hey, here's something we can do offensively, which is great. But I think it's even more important when we're playing at Houston and he calls the guys together before the game starts in warmup lines because he doesn't like how we're warming up.

When he's holding others accountable and he's being a leader in that way, I think that's what really matters. It's something where eight years now -- you have to go back to early on. Young player, not from this country, English not your primary language. Like hey, be a leader, speak more. That's hard.

I think as he's matured, gotten confident and just become more comfortable in that role, he's done it more and more. I think that's been a huge part of his continued development.

Q. A lot of times a rookie has a difficult time joining a good team and not getting the minutes he was used to. How do you think Christian has navigated that whole thing this year, and what do you admire about that?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, you know, all year long the one thing I've talked about with Christian is that he's a winner. The guy has won at every level, and here he is in the NBA Finals. It's kind of staying true to form for Christian Brown.

Then as a rookie, game 2 at Golden State, he plays and he plays well because Jamal didn't play in that game. I think that's when we all realized that for a young player playing against the defending world champions on the road, he wasn't afraid. That really stuck out to me. Most young kids, they get in a situation or environment like that, they're going to be a little bit over their head, and he wasn't.

All season long, Christian has been a pro in regard to staying ready. Am in the rotation? Am I not in the rotation? I'm not going to allow that to take away from my work ethic and my dedication to my craft.

Then obviously the last two months of the year, whatever it was, he was a rotational player for the No. 1 team in the West. He's done his job in the Playoffs. He's gone out there and defended, rebounded, ran the floor, moved without it. He's never afraid of the moment, which you have to appreciate for such a young kid.

Q. What have you done as a team since we last saw you on Friday, and has this week been like a training camp but at the same time you somehow have to simulate playoff tempo and pace with this team?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, it's definitely been a challenge because while these two other teams are going to a Game 7 and it's been great theater from afar because Miami is up 3-0 and now it's going back to Boston for a Game 7 -- yesterday we took off, but all the practices leading into it were about us, with a real heavy emphasis on conditioning, pace, purpose and just working on all the things that we need to.

Then today we started working on things that both Miami and Boston, kind of things that we need to be prepared for, both offensively and defensively.

The best thing about tonight is we're going to finally know who we play, and that gives us Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday morning to get ready for Game 1.

But I give our guys credit. They have been locked in. The energy has been very good. I think that we understand that while we don't know for sure who we're playing, we have an obligation to ourselves to make sure we're preparing and conditioning and doing everything with that pace and purpose that I mentioned.

Q. I asked Nikola if you had changed at all over your time together, and he said the only difference is that you give him the ball more. Do you feel like that is accurate, or do you feel like you're a significantly different coach than you were year one here?

MICHAEL MALONE: No, I think if I'm the same coach I was in year one, then I've failed. That wasn't meant for laughs. Thank you in the front row.

But I think for all of us, everybody sitting in this room, if you're the same person that you were from a year ago, not even just eight, then we've all failed.

I challenge myself to continue to grow, and not just as a coach but in all facets of life. If you're not growing and improving, then you're probably getting worse.

Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind that I am a much different coach than I was in year one. I think eight years in, I think for me, you kind of don't coach every dribble. You don't win and lose with every win or loss. It's not life and death.

You try to pick your spots when you need to be emotional. It can't be every game, it can't be every halftime, it can't be every postgame. But over the years I've challenged myself to look in the mirror, be honest with myself, listen to those around me and become the best version that I can be.

And by the way, I think I've given him the ball for a long time.

Q. In some sense going off that, I feel like one of the commonly used phrases in sports is "trust the process." When you look at this team going back to eight years ago, is this the true definition of what trusting the process should look like in sports, this team?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, I have to give so much credit to Stan and Josh Kroenke. When we beat L.A. the other night in L.A., I loved the fact that they were there and part of that celebration. I often allude to my third season, that game 82 at Minnesota when we lost. We won 46 games, but we lost an overtime game to go to the Playoffs.

Probably 80, 90 percent of pro sports teams probably would have said, we have to pivot here, we have to go in a different direction. I can remember after that game being really dejected and down because we failed in that quest. But John Kroenke came over to me and put his arm around me and was so excited. He talked about look at how well our young players Nikola and Jamal just played in the play-in tournament before the play-in tournament.

I think the fact that they had the ability to be patient and take a step back and have a big-picture approach, we had the chance to do something special if we let this continue to grow and develop and mature. So, yes, I think trusting the process, I think being patient, and that's what all the great sports teams over the last 50 years, regardless of the sport -- you look at teams like the Steelers, they've had three coaches in seems like 70 years.

The programs that change a coach every year or two never get off the ground. You have to let something take root, let it grow, go with the growing pains and hopefully it blossoms into something like we've seen here in Denver.

I think the way we've done it, I hear from a lot of people saying, we want to be like the Denver Nuggets. We want to draft well. We want to have our players develop, add the right pieces around them, be patient and see where it goes.

This has been really fun to be a part of that process. I can't thank the ownership, front office (enough) for being as patient as they have been.

Q. What were your thoughts on the final three seconds of the Heat-Celtics, and what were your coaching takeaways from that whole process?

MICHAEL MALONE: Nobody wants to hear my coaching takeaways. That was a crazy ending. Obviously that game was won and lost quite a few times in the last three minutes. At one point Boston looks like they're going to win going away by double figures. Then Jimmy Butler gets to the foul line. Al Horford fouls a three-point shooter. Great challenge by Joe Mazzulla because even though they don't win the challenge, they put the time back on the clock, which allows Derrick White to have the time to get that put-back in before the final buzzer. That's why you always preach to your players, you've got to play for 48 minutes. That game right there is a perfect example of that.

I know I speak for everybody in that locker room, we just can't wait for tonight's game to be over, to finally have some clarity, so when we wake up tomorrow morning we know who we're playing, we know who we're preparing for and we can kind of turn the page and really focus in on that.

The Eastern Conference Finals has been a hell of a series. I think this is the first time where a team has been down 3-0 to force a Game 7 and have home-court advantage. So we'll see if that plays a part. But I'm expecting another crazy game and ending in is Boston tonight.

Q. What's it like for you watching these games? Are you in your basement by yourself taking notes, watching it diligently from a studying it standpoint, or are you just enjoying it as a basketball fan?

MICHAEL MALONE: All that. For us obviously knowing we're going to be playing one of these teams and all week long with my coaching staff, we've been talking about both teams, the problems they present and the things that we have to be worried about. We always identify the themes going into each and every series, and they change depending upon who you're playing and what problems they present.

We had a long meeting this morning, and tomorrow we'll have more clarity in that regard. But I watch it as a fan of the game. I watch it as a coach getting prepared to play Game 1 against one of those two teams.

But I allow my wife to come down once in a while to check on me. She's allowed down.

Q. It's been a long time since Michael Porter Jr. was in the Playoffs, a couple years until this run, and he's been through a lot in that time. I think his growth on the court has been pretty self-evident, but how about his mental growth? What have you seen from him in terms of his mindset or how he's grown during that time since his last playoff run?

MICHAEL MALONE: What stands out for me is that because he's healthy, he's confident. When you're not healthy and you can't move and do the things that you're accustomed to doing, that really makes it hard to go out there and be confident in your game and what you're able to do.

First and foremost with Michael being physically healthy, I think that is giving him the mental confidence to go out there and play the game at a high level.

I think the series he had against the Lakers, just the scoring, the rebounding, the efficiency was a huge part of us sweeping L.A. in that Western Conference Finals.

But he's in a very good place right now. He's confident. He's really bought into trying to become the best player he can be on both ends of the floor.

One example of that is end of games. He does not want to be taken out because of the perceived lack of a defensive player.

Every time this season when he has been taken out, he gives Ryan Saunders a death glare -- like, I can't believe you're taking me out. He's closed a lot of games for us lately because he's 6-10, he's defending well and he's rebounding at a high level.

He's confident, he's aggressive and he's had a huge impact on this team.

Q. Flashing back to the trade deadline in 2021, what do you remember about your perspective and the lead-up to acquiring Aaron Gordon? From the jump, you guys had that 8-0 start. How obvious was it how perfect a fit he was going to be next to Nikola in the front court?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, it's interesting, when I go back to that trade deadline, I think we were in Tampa playing the Raptors. As is always the case, to get a player, an impact player, you have to give something up. Gary Harris was a huge part of our team. Gary Harris was here when I got here and was a big part of us kind of building our team into what it is today.

To give up a guy like Gary Harris, as well as R.J. Hampton, who was a rookie, that was hard. The lead-up, we're driving to the airport. We spent the night after the game. We're driving to the airport. It's the day of the trade deadline, and Gary is on the bus with us. I get a call, and as we're approaching the plane, the trade is done.

In a weird way, maybe it was great it happened this way because a lot of guys were crying, and we all had a chance to give Gary a hug and let him know how much we loved him and appreciated him.

So that was hard. That's something that is never really talked about when trades are made. You always talk about the player you're getting. Just like trading a guy like Monte and Will for KCP, man, those guys were here for a long time.

Second part of your question, it was evident pretty quickly, to your point, but the game that stands out right after that trade deadline was our game in L.A. beating the Clippers. They were healthy, we were healthy and we beat them, and Aaron's impact was noticeable because of his ability to guard a guy like Kawhi Leonard.

I know after that game, I felt we had a real chance to win a championship that year.

Then unfortunately as we all know, soon thereafter, Jamal suffered the ACL injury, which kind of put things out of whack for a while. So Aaron has been tremendous for us. You look at the job he's done against Karl-Anthony Towns, against guys like Kevin Durant, LeBron James and whoever we have next round he'll play just as important a role for us, so very grateful that Aaron is here.