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

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The outfits, outlook and energy remain the same, but Bruce Brown’s still acclimating in his return to Denver.

“Damn, I was tired as (crap). I should’ve never yelled. I took all my energy out, and I couldn’t get back on defense,” Bruce Brown recalled of a third-quarter sequence after Monday’s practice at Ball Arena.

“I’m just trying to insert myself somehow, energy wise. That was just a way I could score the ball, just being aggressive on the defensive end.”

With Denver up 11 points in the final minute of the third quarter, Brown poked the ball free and leaked out on a fast break as Tim Hardaway Jr. gained control. Hardaway passed the ball ahead to Brown, who missed a contested layup. In typical fashion, that wasn’t the end of Brown’s involvement. After Spencer Jones helped keep the play alive, Brown wrestled the ball away from Isaiah Jackson and made the most of his second opportunity.

“He’s been great, especially defensively. He was on the edit a lot this morning before we practiced. Just his intensity, his energy, the way he got into people,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said.

“For Bruce, it’s just getting used to that second unit.”

The exertion cost him on the next possession when Julian Strawther tried to free Brown with a screen. Strawther went onto miss a pull-up jumper with Brown standing around midcourt.

“I told him no,” Brown said. “I said ‘Bro, you go. I’m not moving. I’m dead.’ I was exhausted.”

Brown has no regrets about the yell or the return to town, even though things are a bit different. The 29-year-old played a career-high 28.5 minutes for the Nuggets in 2022-23. So far this season, Brown’s playing 20.6 minutes and is spending less time on the ball. The 6.3 points per game Brown is averaging in his first nine games back in Denver would be his lowest since his rookie year in 2018-19.

“I’m still getting adjusted to it. Obviously, when you come back to a situation you were in before, you think it’s going to be exactly the same, but it’s not,” Brown said.

“The only thing I care about is winning. We’re trying to put another banner up. I’m still getting adjusted to it. Sometimes you might see me come out of the game a little frustrated just because I’m still getting used to it, but at the end of the day, all we care about is winning.”

What I’m Thinking

The next three games are going to tell the Nuggets a lot about where they are at this early juncture.

After alternating home and road games in the first five contests, Denver’s schedule has shaped up favorably through nine games. Denver beat Minnesota without Anthony Edwards, a Miami team that was without Bam Adebayo for most of the game, a Warriors squad sans Stephen Curry and a severely banged-up Pacers squad.

The trip starts with a trip to Sacramento on Tuesday and another road game at the Clippers on Wednesday. Then, it’s off to Minnesota to face a Timberwolves team that recently got Edwards back on the court.

“Sacramento is an unbelievable basketball town. Whether they’re playing well or not, the juice is high there. The Clippers are the Clippers. They need a win,” Adelman said. “It’s going to be a tough trip, and we know what Minnesota is on the back end of it. It’s tough. The West is what it is. It’s crazy teams like L.A. are under .500 when you look at what they have and what they can do nightly.”

Adelman’s squad has mostly taken advantage of the opportunity. A 7-2 start is good for the second-best record in the Western Conference, behind Oklahoma City’s 10-1 start. The Nuggets could be off to an even better start, but late collapses at Golden State in the season opener and at Portland, the Nuggets’ most recent road game, leave the Nuggets 1-2 on the road heading into their first multi-game road trip of the season.

“Every game we’ve played, we’ve had double-digit leads. I think it’s just been a continuation. You’re not going to win every game in the NBA. It’s just what it is,” Adelman said.

“I’ve been really happy with the whole journey so far. It’s only nine games.”

What They’re Saying

The Nuggets coach talked about the balance between building a staff that features former NBA players and people like him after Monday’s light practice at Ball Arena.

“I think you need both. You need guys like me that nerd out, and you need guys that actually played and have been through, in basketball terms, the wars and have had success and had failure,” Adelman said. “They can have communication with players that I can’t have. It’s really important to me that there’s a balance in the staff.”

Jonas Valanciunas chimed in with an early impression of his first-year head coach.

“He has experience,” Valanciunas said.

“Basketball runs in his genes, so he knows his stuff. He’s a smart coach. Yeah, he’s a rookie, but we don’t feel like he’s a rookie. It’s good to have that.”

Valanciunas also dropped an early contender for quote of the year when he was asked about maximizing whatever minute come his way.

“That’s what winning teams do. They die on the court, and the next day, they recover and go do it again,” Valanciunas said. “It’s no excuses.”

What I’m Following

• Nikola Jokic was named Western Conference player of the week for the first time this season and the 18th time of his career. Jokic averaged 31.1 points, 13.3 assists and 11.3 rebounds as the Nuggets went 4-0.
• After a two-day break it’s back to back-to-backs for the Nuggets. Jamal Murray (left calf tightness) and Aaron Gordon (left hamstring injury management) didn’t play in Saturday’s win over the Pacers, Denver’s first back-to-back set of the season. Adelman said he expected them to play Tuesday in Sacramento but added they would once again go through their pregame routine before a determination is made.
• The NBA is mourning the death of Lenny Wilkens, who died Sunday at 88. Wilkens, a Hall of Fame player and coach, was a nine-time All-Star during his playing career. He coached the Sonics to the 1979 championship and the United States to an Olympic gold medal in 1996. “Lenny Wilkens represented the very best of the NBA as a Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame coach, and one of the game’s most respected ambassadors,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Sunday. “So much so that, four years ago, Lenny received the unique distinction of being named one of the league’s 75 greatest players and 15 greatest coaches of all time.”
• Former All-Star Victor Oladipo is back in the NBA, sort of. Oladipo joined Milwaukee’s G League affiliate after most recently playing in China. The 33-year-old last played in the NBA with Miami in 2023.