The Jordan Rules were required reading for Michael Malone. It was spoken-word literature he couldn’t escape if he tried.



His father, Brendan Malone, was an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons in the 1980s and 90s and has been credited with coining the aforementioned term and the philosophy behind it, which the Bad Boys used in an effort to contain the greatest basketball player on the planet.



Without getting overly bogged down in the Xs and Os of it all, the general idea was to mix up double teams, sending help from different areas that would force Michael Jordan to stray from his most comfortable launching pads.



That DNA is what has made building the Nuggets into a defensive force such a personal mission for Malone. It’s why last season’s leap to a top-10 defensive unit signaled a new identity was on the way for a franchise long associated with a desire to simply outgun the other team, no matter how high the numbers on the scoreboard...