Denver Gazette beat writer Vinny Benedetto takes you around the NBA and inside the Nuggets locker room:

NBA Insider

David Adelman’s experimentation is going to continue into the season.

The Nuggets’ new coach has established a willingness to try a variety of different schemes in his short time as an interim coach last season and the first four preseason games since his temporary tag was removed.

It started last postseason with more zone mixed into the equation. The Nuggets even threw some full-court pressure at the Clippers in the first round and some junk defenses at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder in the second. With first-year assistant Jared Dudley coordinating the defense, the team’s man defense is also significantly different, though Adelman said they might not show some of the tweaks during the preseason.

“The defense is new for us. There’s a lot of new concepts, a lot of new actions. We’ve been good up to this point. Obviously, we’re not too worried about offense, just got to worry about the defense side of the ball,” Christian Braun said after Tuesday’s preseason win over the Bulls when Denver turned 18 Chicago turnovers into 18 points.

“We’re throwing different things. We have a lot of different lineups we can throw at people. I think the zone was so good for us in the playoffs. It was a different look.”

Adelman came into the season wanting to see what it looked like with Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas on the court together. It took three preseason games for the two-big lineup to play its first minutes together.

“That’s going to be a process. I’m not going to shy away from it,” Adelman said. “I think it can work. There’s been really good moments and very confusing moments.”

In the fourth preseason game, Adelman paired the two centers with Aaron Gordon at small forward in a supersized lineup “just to see it.” Adelman also went the other direction, playing Spencer Jones, listed at 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, at center. With one new member of the starting five, three new faces in the second unit and plenty of new coaches, the Nuggets spent the start of training camp and preseason building the foundation. The more creative stuff came later. The evaluation process will carry into the meaningful games.

“I think you have to be OK with trying things for three minutes,” Adelman said.

“It’s not like we’re practicing for 14 hours a day. We’re not an NFL team that gets six days to script plays and put these different combinations out there. You’ve got to let them go do it and see what happens. You can’t freak out if it’s ugly.”

What I’m Thinking

Hands should be nowhere near the panic button when it comes to the start of Cam Johnson’s and Tim Hardaway Jr.’s stints with the Nuggets.

Shots haven’t fallen – Johnson is 5 for 16 (31%) from 3, and Hardaway is 2 for 18 (11%) but they’re taking the right ones far more often than not. Johnson’s two makes against Chicago came off handoffs from Gordon and Jokic, a staple of Denver’s offense and an easy way to generate looks for Johnson, who’s shot 39% or better from deep in the last three seasons. The misses were a clean catch-and-shoot attempt and an aggressive pull-up 3 in transition, the only questionable attempt. The more important part is Johnson’s comfortable with where he’s at in the integration process.

“I’m feeling out the movement of everything, where people go, where people look … where passes come from,” Johnson said. “It’s a spacing thing. It’s a personnel thing. It’s just getting used to playing with the guys. I feel good about the spots I’ve got shots out of. Just finding other ways to be aggressive outside of that is probably more of my concern.”

Hardaway’s success is going to be more contingent on getting the 3s to fall sooner than later. He’s attempted four shots inside the arc in the first four preseason games. His process has also been complicated by splitting his preseason minutes between the starters and second unit. The veteran’s lone make against the Bulls also came off a Jokic handoff, but most of the six misses, one of which came from 32 feet out in the final seconds of the second quarter, were the shots the Nuggets need him to take.

“I thought we got really good looks,” the Nuggets’ coach said. “We had shooters that didn’t have great nights (but) got great looks.”

What They’re Saying

To the man behind the visiting bench for the Nets’ trip to Denver on Jan. 10 last season, Cam Johnson hasn’t forgotten. Johnson was sidelined with an ankle sprain and spent much of the night going back and forth with Nuggets nation. Johnson also saw some hostile Denver crowds during his time in Phoenix.

“I remember last year when we were playing here, the crowd got like kinda raucous and chippy and, you know, annoying. So, it’s nice to have them backing me now,” Johnson said.

“They’re ganging up, and they’re yelling. There’s one guy that just kept yelling. I’m like ‘Shut up.’ He’s like right behind the bench, just wailing. I’m like ‘Oh my God. Go somewhere.’ It’s just funny now, how the feeling is so different when you switch sides.”

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South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley had a legitimate interview with the Knicks this summer, but she doesn’t think the NBA will have a woman coach in her lifetime.

“If the Knicks have a five-game losing streak, it’s not going to be about the losing streak,” Staley said at a recent press conference. “It’s going to be about being a female coach. So, you as an organization, a franchise, you have to be prepared for and strong enough to ignore those types of instances when you’re going to look to hire a female coach.”

What I’m Following

• Russell Westbrook has a new home. The Nuggets’ second-unit point guard last season is headed to Sacramento. It’s likely another veteran minimum contract for Westbrook, who enters his 18^th NBA season.
• Sacramento also reached a five-year contract extension with forward Keegan Murray worth a reported $140 million. The No. 4 pick became the sixth player from the 2022 draft class to sign an extension. Christian Braun and Peyton Watson remain eligible for extensions until Monday.
• The Nuggets have signed and waived James Akinjo, Terrence Hargrove Jr. and Coleman Hawkins from their training-camp deals in the last week. The moves allow the Nuggets to add the trio to their G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold.
• The 2017 Rookie of the Year has decided to call it a career. Malcolm Brogdon decided to retire Wednesday. Brogdon joined the Knicks this offseason. He also won Sixth Man of the Year with the Celtics in 2023.
• Mavericks coach Jason Kidd received an extension Tuesday. The Knicks had interest in interviewing the Dallas coach in the offseason but were not granted permission by the Mavericks. Kidd starts his first season coaching No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg with a little extra job security.