One thing to watch in Sunday's preseason game; Michael Porter Jr. open to playing different roles | Nuggets notebook

A new addition is helping the Nuggets address one of their biggest issues to start the preseason.

“We have to be better in transition,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Saturday. “We just can’t be a great half-court defensive team. It’s got to be in transition, as well.”

Enter Russell Westbrook.

“Every day in practice, he’s very intense. He brings energy out of the group. He’s been playing great. Coach Malone is doing a good job of letting Russ be Russ,” Michael Porter Jr. said.

“Russ is finding guys, scoring the ball and shooting the ball. He’s doing everything.”

In the week between Denver’s two games against the Celtics in Abu Dhabi and Sunday’s matchup with Phoenix, the veteran point guard gave his new teammates a closer look at a weakness while looking like his old self.

“The other day, Russ looked like he was year five. He was shot out of a cannon, still gets downhill and puts pressure on the defense. Great for Russ, he’s getting to the rim, making plays,” Malone said.

“Bad for us, because we’re allowing him to go wherever he wants.”

The issues were two-fold. First, there are the 43 turnovers through two preseason games. Some of that is to be expected as players work into a rhythm and teams try out different combinations of players in the preseason. The more concerning instances came when the Celtics got easy offense off made baskets or dead balls.

“That’s definitely probably one of the bigger concerns as we move forward in our preseason and our training camp,” Malone said.

Porter open to different roles

Added muscle could make Michael Porter Jr. more versatile this season, and he’s open to exploring different roles.

After being listed at 218 pounds last season, Porter said he expected to play at more than 230 pounds this season. That makes more minutes at power forward a possibility. He didn’t expect that to be too big of a difference, but he’s preparing for a slight change.

“I’ll probably have different matchups, different guys defending me, so I just got to know what I can get to when a smaller guy is defending me versus what I want to get to on a bigger, slower guy,” Porter said.

Porter will continue to start at small forward with Aaron Gordon at power forward and Nikola Jokic at center. Jokic also didn’t think Porter needed to do much different depending on position.

“Just stretch the floor, he can go by guys,” Jokic said. “I think it’s going to be really good to see him, how he’s going to do in that role.”

If Porter can serviceably play the four, that could mean more opportunities to stagger with Denver’s second unit should they need more size or shooting. He’s open to that possibility as well.

“It’s whatever coach wants, but yeah, I would be with it,” Porter said. “Whatever the team needs and whatever works best for us.”

Preseason plans disrupted

The WNBA Finals impacted Denver’s preseason plans.

After the Minnesota Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun and advanced to the finals against the New York Liberty, the Nuggets’ final preseason game in Minnesota was moved up from Friday to Thursday to accommodate Game 4. That leaves just one day of rest between Denver’s final three preseason games.

For now, the Nuggets plan to play their starters into the second half Sunday. That didn’t happen in Denver’s first two preseason games. The plan is to adjust from there as needed.

“The Lynx and Liberty, congratulations to them,” Malone said. “It is what it is, so we’ll figure out how we approach Games 4 and 5 after tomorrow night.”