Nuggets Notes: Gordon, Murray, Jokic, Jordan, Ganta

Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, who aggravated a calf strain on Wednesday after missing 10 games due to the injury earlier in the season, is expected to be out for the “next couple of games,” head coach Michael Malone told reporters today (Twitter link via Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports).

Malone doesn’t expect Gordon to be sidelined for as long as he was the last time he injured the calf, tweets Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette. While the Nuggets’ coach was reluctant to project a recovery timeline, he said on Friday that the club thinks Gordon caught the issue before it got bad.

While the Nuggets will be down one regular starter on Saturday vs. Cleveland, guard Jamal Murray has been deemed available after being listed on the injury report due to his right ankle sprain, per the team (Twitter link).

Here’s more out of Denver:

  • Nuggets star Nikola Jokic appears increasingly frustrated with the team’s supporting cast, according to Troy Renck of The Denver Post, who points to multiple examples of Jokic’s on-court exasperation during the Christmas Day game vs. Phoenix and suggests that the team’s decision-makers, including general manager Calvin Booth and governor Josh Kroenke, “better take notice.” So far this season, Denver has outscored opponents by 208 points during Jokic’s 929 minutes on the court and been outscored by 125 in the 430 minutes he hasn’t played.
  • The Nuggets frequently shuffled through backup centers earlier in the season, but have stuck with DeAndre Jordan in that role as of late, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post details. The veteran big man has played between nine and 15 minutes in each of Denver’s past eight games and the team has a perfectly even (+0.0) net rating during those minutes, which is a win with Jokic off the floor. “We’ve kind of settled into our backup five right now with DJ, so I think that helps. You know, ‘Is it Dario (Saric)? Is it Zeke (Nnaji)? Is it DJ?’ Right now, it’s DeAndre Jordan,” Malone said earlier this week. “And he’s playing well for us, and trying to get those guys more and more comfortable, creating that on-court chemistry. But I think if that (second unit) can go out there and hold their own defensively and execute offensively — even if we don’t score, just generate good shots (and) not turn the ball over — now we’re giving ourselves a chance.”
  • Neel Ganta, who had worked in the Nuggets’ front office since 2022, most recently as the team’s basketball strategy/analytics coordinator, is returning to Illinois to become the new men’s basketball general manager for the school, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link). Ganta was previously a graduate assistant for the Fighting Illini.
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