DENVER—When “O Canada” played at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Wednesday, it wasn’t just the visiting team whose country was being honoured.
There are more than a few Canadian connections within the Nuggets’ camp: Head coach Michael Malone’s dad Brendan was the Raptors’ very first head coach and he later got to know the Canadian basketball scene when he served as an assistant on the national team under Leo Rautins; assistant coach Micah Nori worked for the Raptors for 15 years before moving to Colorado; power forward Trey Lyles, selected 12th overall in the 2015 draft by the Utah Jazz and currently averaging three minutes with the Nuggets this year, was born in Saskatoon; and Jamal Murray, a 20-year-old from Kitchener, is among the pieces Denver plans to build around.