Nuggets to experiment with forgoing shootarounds for rest of season
Denver Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw said he and the team's front office are experimenting with forgoing the traditional gameday shootaround for the rest of the season, according to the Denver Post.
The team had a later shootaround than normal before its road game against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday and did not have one at all before its game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. Denver lost to the Bulls 106-101 and defeated the Grizzlies 114-85.
According to the Post, instead of meeting in the morning the Nuggets will be instructed to arrive at the arena at 3 p.m. for 7 p.m. games, an hour earlier than usual, for gameday preparations.
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Shaw said he's making the change because sleep studies have shown that greater uninterrupted rest is beneficial, and because he knows a lot of players on his young roster go out the night before games. The Nuggets have just two players on their 15-man roster that are 30 years old or older.
"It's just something that I'm experimenting with now to try to get us to a point where we can come out and be a little bit more sharp," Shaw said, according to the Post. "Our attention span isn't always the greatest.
"When we do stuff in the morning, sometimes it's in one ear and out by the time we come back that night. So the closer we can do everything going into the game, hopefully it will be better for us."
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The Nuggets are 14-20 this season and in third place in the Northwest Division. They play at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.
- Ben Estes
