The Nuggets are at the center of trade rumor season in the NBA, but coach Michael Malone says there’s no fire accompanying the smoke for now.

Asked on Monday how he manages the locker room when trade talks involving specific players become public, Malone highlighted how early in the season it is and referred to his conversations with general manager Calvin Booth.

“A lot of it is noise. I mean, I don’t know where it comes from,” Malone said. “You see different things that are out there, and you never want that stuff getting out there. But I’ve talked to Calvin, and Calvin’s had a good pulse on that stuff. And whenever that stuff is happening, he’s in touch with the guys and their agents to let them know what is real and what is not real. And as of right now as we are 25 games into the season, there’s nothing to that.”

The Athletic was first to report last week that Denver is interested in Zach LaVine, whose contract would require the Nuggets to include Michael Porter Jr. in a hypothetical trade for salary-matching purposes. The Nuggets have discussed the possibility of acquiring the two-time All-Star from Chicago this season, sources confirmed to The Denver Post, but they won’t be in any rush to move the 26-year-old Porter if the team is firmly in contention closer to the Feb. 6, 2025, trade deadline.

Entering a two-game Christmas week series with the Suns, the Nuggets (15-11) had won four of their last five, good for fifth place in the competitive Western Conference.

Porter had a quiet three-game road trip, averaging 11.7 points and not appearing in Malone’s closing lineup Sunday against the Pelicans. But he’s still averaging 18 points and seven rebounds this season, and shooting 38.5% from the 3-point line.

Nuggets backup big man Zeke Nnaji has been the other player most commonly associated with potential trades. His $8.9 million salary could also be an essential part of a potential trade for LaVine, who’s making $43 million this season. Under current collective bargaining agreement restrictions, Denver cannot take back more salary than it sends out in a trade. Porter’s current cap figure is $35.9 million.

“That’s where you worry about guys worrying about the wrong thing,” Malone said. “Just focus on what you can control, go out there and play your game, and help this team to the best of your ability. All of the other stuff takes care of itself. I think for years, our front office has done a great job of communicating with players if there is something so (that) there’s never a surprise. There’s never our guys being caught off guard. But that’s something that I think our front office has done an outstanding job of.”

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The Denver Broncos lost to the Los Angeles Chargers because of two significant reasons:

1. Poor coaching all around from the Broncos
2. One-sided refereeing that favored the Chargers deeply

I’m not going to spend a ton of time on point #2 as that’s just the NFL (and our own John Holmes goes into it at a far greater depth than I am capable of). You have to deal with bad ref jobs, though it honestly puzzles me to see such favoritism paid to the lowly Chargers. At the end of the day, good teams overcome this and the Broncos didn’t play good football.

The blame for this loss lays flatly at the feet of Sean Payton and Vance Joseph. Either of them could have called a more sensible game and clinched the win for the Broncos.

Offense

I absolutely loved the run offense dialed up early and often for the Broncos. Sean Payton was rotating backs in almost every play and it kept the Chargers guessing. The play calls were creative and utilized pulling guards and superb blocking.

Unfortunately, Payton decided to abandon his run game once again as the game wore on. This really numbs the mind when you factor in how well it was working.

The other problem with the offense was Payton not forcing more downfield plays. To be fair, this could have been superb coverage by the Chargers as our viewing angle isn’t great for seeing the secondary. That being said, the Chargers were down players in their secondary and I believe good coaching could have schemed up some advantage matchups.

Also, Payton’s decisions at the end of the first half didn’t cost us the game, but make no mistake, they were bad decisions. The Broncos had all of the momentum in the game. You don’t need to try to pass for a first down. Just run the ball three times and get the half over with. I don’t blame the player from special teams for his silly penalty. I blame the head coach for putting them in that position. It was just bad situational football and it cost the team 3 points and momentum.

Quarterbacks

Bo Nix had a pretty solid game at first glance. The problem is that his greatness was on display in the first half when the run game was potent. The second half was a different story as he kept dumping off the ball to his outlet receivers an inordinate amount of times instead of finding a way to push the ball downfield.

One of the big pluses Nix brings to the field is his ability to scramble. His second touchdown of the game was largely due to the threat he is as a runner. The defender on that side had to honor his ability to run and tried to play halfway between Nix and Burton to defend them both until help could get there. Nix made a great throw on the run for the easy touchdown.

The big area of improvement we saw for Nix in this game was his play against the blitz. He really didn’t handle it well and either didn’t have answers, or the answers he had were smothered by the opponents.

At the end of the day, Nix is still a rookie quarterback who has a lot to work on. I believe he’s nowhere near his ceiling yet. This game is in the long run going to be great for his development even if it stung a bit to lose the game.

Line

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I loved seeing our line block so well early. This was one of their better run-blocking games of the season. The line is still getting some pretty silly penalties that they need to clean up.

One stand out to me was seeing us run plays while pulling Ben Powers. He made some bruising blocks on the move that were impressive.

Running Backs

Audric Estime needs to be the starting back moving forward. He should have gotten more carries in this game as he was averaging over 5 yards per carry. He runs with power and has a knack for finding creases in the defense. It was pretty obvious to me that he was out when we wanted to pass the ball. If that is because of his pass blocking, he needs to level that skill up in a hurry.

Ben Watson got a surprising number of plays in this game. I wasn’t too encouraged by them, honestly. He missed a catch late and only had an average of 2.5 yards per carry.

Receivers

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It was nice to see Devaughn Vele get a touchdown catch off a really smoothly run route. I’m a fan of the young player and would have loved to see him get more targets than the measly 3 he got in the game.

Our #1 receiver on the day was Javonte Williams. He hauled in 7 catches for a whopping 29 yards. Averaging 4 yards per catch is not a winning formula.

Marvin Mimms, Jr. had an eye-popping reception as he scrambled for over 50 yards. This is another player that seems to be thriving, yet the offense doesn’t seem to find its way to him enough.

Defense

It is not new news to us that without Riley Moss, the Broncos don’t seem to be able to play man coverage well enough for Vance Joseph’s tastes. Instead, we’re playing a lot of zone coverages and getting beat often because of blown coverages.

This team needs to figure out what its identity is. I know it sounds good to hear Joseph talk about adjusting his defense to do what his players do best, but I question if that’s really what’s going on. Our inside linebackers especially were not up to the task of defending the middle against crossing routes. This weakness was abused throughout the game.

In the short term, Riley Moss getting healthy is going to be a shot in the arm for this defense. In the long term, this team needs to get more corners who can play man coverage on the outside.

Front 7

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Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

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Zach Allen impressively wrecked a 3rd and 1 single-handedly. It was an example of superb timing mixed with raw power as he blasted into the backfield and got the TFL. He spent a good amount of time pressuring the pocket as he had 4 hurries in the game as well.

Justin Strnad had such a rough game this week. He badly over pursued from the edge on a run that gave up a 1st down. Later on a 3rd and 5 he was flat-footed and let the tight end cross without pursuit. He was just too slow recognizing that it was a pass. He even gave a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty by hitting a sliding Justin Herbert who had clearly given himself up. It was bone-headed and absolutely could have been avoided.

Drew Sanders had only one snap in the game and made it count. He came up the middle on a blitz that the Chargers didn’t account for and got a huge sack. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of him in the last two weeks of the season as I feel like he’s got more ability at ILB than what we’re seeing on the field lately.

Secondary

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Kris Abrams-Draine made a game-breaking interception as the Chargers were driving late in the first half. He played with technique that my boy Chris Harris Jr. would be proud of and robbed the pass by breaking underneath the route. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the rookie. He’s got a big career ahead of himself at corner in the NFL.

Brandon Jones led the team in tackles with 10 (not necessarily what you want from a safety). He was on McConkey one of his big crossing routes and blew the coverage. It wasn’t all bad from Jones, as he did have a really big pass defense late in the game on 3rd down.

P.J. Locke just awful coverage on the outside crashes too deep and lets his receiver go over the top for an easy touchdown. Locke is one of the weakest pass-defense players in the secondary. He’s a guy that keeps everything in front of him but with too much of a cushion and it leads to him oftentimes being late to a play.

Special Teams

Tremon Smith made a huge mistake in punt return coverage that led to 3 points for the Chargers off a free kick (which hasn’t been done in decades). He has to keep himself away from the returner on a fair catch.

Final Thoughts

It is starting to look a bit ugly for the Broncos as the season winds down. Yes, they control their destiny. Win one game and they make the playoffs.

This was a rough outing, though. This team looked like the team with poor coaching going up against a very well-coached team in the Chargers. I’m seeing a bit of hubris in Sean Payton’s play-calling and game decisions that I’m not a big fan of. It isn’t enough that you act like the smartest guy on the field. It is better when you just do the smarter actions and win the friggin game.

Every Nuggets comeback needs a stroke of inspiration, and this one fittingly occurred without Nikola Jokic on the floor. With 9:18 remaining in a game Denver trailed 100-90, Julian Strawther was barreled over away from the ball while Jamal Murray buried a corner 3-pointer.

A flagrant foul. A free throw for Strawther. A lob from Russell Westbrook to DeAndre Jordan. A six-point possession.

And eventually, an improbable and unnecessarily strenuous 132-129 overtime win over the Pelicans on Sunday night.

The Nuggets (15-11) have won five games this season after trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter. They were down 17 in this one, late in the third frame. But Jokic finally came alive late, and Murray punctuated his 27-point, eight-rebound game with another clutch shot, on one leg with eight seconds remaining to force overtime.

Closing lineup change

Michael Malone learned from last time. On Thursday in Portland, the Trail Blazers took a timeout to set up their last shot after Jokic tied it with 15 seconds to go. Denver’s lineup for the defensive possession: Murray, Westbrook, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Jokic. The result: Anfernee Simons blew by Westbrook and a notable lack of help defense for a layup at the buzzer.

With eight seconds to go in New Orleans, Murray’s 20-footer deadlocked the Nuggets and Pelicans at 119. Timeout, New Orleans.

Denver’s lineup for the defensive possession: Westbrook, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Gordon and Jokic.

Porter had already been excised from the closing lineup after a poor performance at both ends. But Malone made room for both Watson and Braun by trading out Murray as well — in no way an indictment on the star guard’s play, but rather a sensible deployment of two impressive young perimeter defenders. Braun and Watson joined forces, with vital help from Westbrook, to get C.J. McCollum into a tough shot at the buzzer.

Malone stuck with Westbrook and Braun in overtime, while Porter remained on the bench. Braun played just shy of 39 minutes (the second-most on the team). Murray also contributed three steals, including a crucial one in the last minute of overtime.

Jokic largely to blame this time

There’s a valid school of thought that to depend on Jokic too much is dangerous for the long-term prosperity of the Nuggets. That too many minutes, too many touches and too many stats in December are cause for wariness, not celebration.

Even if that interpretation is accurate, there’s a baseline standard of aggressiveness for any team’s best player that Jokic didn’t come close to meeting on Sunday.

Especially against the centers New Orleans was throwing at him.

Until it was almost too late.

Jokic finished with 27 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, after not imposing himself on Yves Missi and Daniel Theis in a way that should’ve seemed obvious for most of the night. He missed a couple of chances at the rim in a scoreless first quarter. Then in the second and third combined, only two of his seven field goal attempts were inside of 10 feet. The other five were all jumpers from 13 or more feet out. He only attempted five free throws.

At the defensive end — where Jokic is intuitive and often impactful, despite the general perception of him — he was a major part of the problem as the Pelicans won the paint 14-6 in the third quarter. They stretched their lead to 91-74 at the 1:32 mark, blowing by perimeter players and never feeling Jokic’s presence at the level of screens or near the rim.

As appropriate as it was that Denver found its spark without him, Jokic still turned out to be essential to the completion of the comeback. Once he committed to posting up, it was a one-sided game. He put up seven points in a two-minute stretch as Denver took the lead, then he added six easy points to get the Pelicans on their heels at the beginning of overtime.

Getting back on defense

The Nuggets had no excuse for appearing fatigued in New Orleans after their recent schedule, which included only three games in the last 13 days. But running the floor after live-ball changes of possession continued to be a bewildering topic.

They entered the game averaging 18.2 fast-break points allowed, the fourth-worst number in the NBA. They allowed 15 to the Pelicans by halftime. It wasn’t all turnovers this time, though Denver did commit 22 throughout the night. Players got caught in-between on 50-50 balls. Porter had an opportunity to rebound his own missed 3-pointer at one point in the second quarter, but as the long rebound bounced toward him, he turned and half-heartedly made his way toward the defensive end instead. An opponent seized the ball and sprinted past him for a layup.

The Pelicans finished the night with 23 transition points and a 56% clip from 2-point range. The Nuggets might have escaped with another win, but their flaws aren’t going away.

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