There was no denying this season was a tough personal battle for second-year point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who went from the starting point guard to playing sparingly in the final 39 games of the season. By the end of the season, however, Nuggets coach Michael Malone also could not deny how well Mudiay persevered through it all.
Mudiay enters the summer with a lot of hope, a lot of work to do, and a newfound appreciation for playing the game he loves.
“I’ve never been in that situation, so I was kind of spoiled as a basketball player,” Mudiay said. “Sometimes you have to hit adversity. What that did for me, it made me appreciate basketball, so I think going into the summer I’m going to have to take it up to another level.”
The driving force behind Mudiay’s expected summer of improvement has to come from his play in April, the final month of the season. He put everything he can be as a player on display in five games that month, averaging 12.2 points, 5.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from the 3-point line. His assist-to-turnover ratio was nearly 5-to-1 in those games.
They were all improvements over his full season averages of 11.0 points, 3.9 assists, 3.2 rebounds and shooting percentages of 37.7 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from the 3-point line. Mudiay’s final five games was highlighted by 17-point, nine-assist, four-rebound performance in a huge Nuggets’ win at Miami on April 2. It was an important performance in a crucial game, as the team worked hard to stay in the playoff race. Mudiay followed that with 15 points and seven assists in a Nuggets’ win at New Orleans two nights later.
Offensively, Mudiay returned to the court a better player, particularly in two areas of scoring – catch-and-shoot opportunities and shots inside of 10 feet.
- Catch-and-shoot: 49-of-134 overall (36.6 percent); 4-of-9 in his last five (44.4 percent)
- Inside 10 feet: 110-of-243 overall (45.3 percent); 15-of-27 in his last five (55.6 percent)
So it is within those games that Mudiay, the Nuggets’ seventh overall selection in 2015, begins anew.
“I never doubted myself,” Mudiay said. “I grew up in basketball. I’ve always had confidence in myself. So, when I got the opportunity I kind of just stopped thinking about everything else and I just went out there and just had fun.
“Going through what I went through, I think that was a big learning lesson for me. And the crazy thing is the support that I got from different players around the league. That always surprises me. Those are your opponents; they try to take your head off during the game. But its players that are very-well known – superstar status – so they went through some adversity, too. They were telling me their stories. So that really helped me, too.”
OFFENSE. By the end of the season, when Mudiay was on the court for significant time in games, it was as much with him off the ball as it was on it. And given the way the Nuggets play – with center Nikola Jokic as well as many others doing a lot of ball-handling and distributing -- that’s likely the way things will stay.
That means Mudiay’s catch-and-shoot numbers are going to have to remain high because it stands to reason he’ll get a lot more of those opportunities beginning as early as next season. He averaged 2.5 of those kinds of attempts this season, which was just slightly more than his rookie year.
As a ball-handler Mudiay still must deal with the pick-and-roll, getting better with how he reads situations and make decisions. He’s got good instincts and was improved in screen-roll situations, his most-used action at 28.8 percent. He averaged .727 points per possession, up from .641 in 2015-16. The frequency that he was the ball-handler in pick-and-roll dropped 15 percent year over year, again mainly as a function of the offense. Mudiay’s new offensive world in Denver will be as a combo guard more than just a point guard.
That’s why continuing to improve his jump shooting is arguably his top priority.
“Sometimes I don’t shoot the ball how I want to shoot it,” Mudiay said. “Just knowing where my spots are, and stuff like that.”
DEFENSE. As pretty much any other guard, Mudiay was put through a season-long gauntlet of pick-and-roll defense. Pick-and-roll defense accounted for nearly 40 percent of all defensive actions he was part of, and he graded out pretty well, according to Synergy stats.
Mudiay’s size and length (6-5, 195 pounds) has always been an asset at the point of attack. He’ll work to add more lateral quickness, which will help him stay in front of ball handlers. Although, he was good at it during the season. Mudiay held players to just 38 percent shooting from the field in isolation circumstances.
“Everybody is tested, some way somehow,” Mudiay said. “You’ve just got to bounce back from it. If you bounce back from it, it shows your mental toughness.”