Nuggets’ Head Coach Mike Malone does not believe that Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson need to re-learn how to play together
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The Denver Nuggets are in San Francisco as they prepare to face the Golden State Warriors for Game 1 tonight. After Jamal Murray and Micheal Porter Jr. were out for the season, Nikola Jokic stepped up and took the Nuggets to the 6th seed in the East. The reigning MVP is on his course to win back-to-back MVP honors.
The Nuggets briefly avoided the play-in games, and instead, booked a ticket for a first-round playoff series against the Warriors. Stephen Curry is expected to return to the lineup tonight, after missing the last 4 weeks. The Warriors are expected to get a huge boost because of the same.
There are a few people who are worried about the fit. There are reports that the Warriors would have to learn on the fly. However, Nuggets’ Head Coach Mike Malone doesn’t feel this is the case.
“Those guys have a lot of experience together, sell that iceberg to someone else!”: Mike Malone
The Golden State Warriors this year started off strong. They led the league with their 29-7 start to the season, however, they were plagued with injuries since. Klay Thompson returned, and Draymond Green got injured. Green returned, and Steph got injured.
In this entire season, Steph, Klay, and Dray have only shared the court for a collective 11 minutes. The whole group has not played with Andre Iguodala at all. This has caused a lot of narratives to go around saying the Warriors need to learn on the fly.
However, Mike Malone calls the same b**lsh*t.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone on the idea the Warriors will have to learn in real time during the playoffs since they haven’t had their healthy roster all season: “Learning on the fly, my ass. Those guys have a lot of experience together. So sell that iceberg to somebody else.”
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) April 15, 2022
In all fairness, only 11 minutes isn’t enough for Steph, Klay, and Dray to re-learn how to play after a 1000+ day gap. However, their 10 years together give them an advantage, and I can see what coach Malone was talking about.
I guess we need to wait a few hours and see how good the Warriors’ Big 3 looks together.