Bol Bol spent the short offseason getting back to the basics after his Nuggets’ breakthrough in the NBA bubble.

Prior to the season’s disruption in March, Bol, a rookie out of Oregon, spent the season with the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s G League affiliate. With the Nuggets short on healthy bodies, Bol played a role in the scrimmages and seeding games in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., before resuming his bench role for the meaningful minutes of Denver’s 19 playoff games.

“It brought me closer to the team,” Bol said Wednesday. “That was my first time actually being on the court with everybody, so it’s just like I got to see what it was like.”

After the Nuggets were eliminated in the Western Conference finals, Bol returned to Denver and worked with strength and conditioning coach Felipe Eichenberger on getting stronger and cleaning up his game.

“I saw what was wrong from playing,” Bol said. “So just like sitting down, figuring those things out and trying to limit that this year.”

There was work on tightening up his handle and making stronger, more confident moves with the ball in an attempt to limit turnovers.

“He’s a little bit stronger,” Nikola Jokic said. “He’s learning. Like I said, he didn’t play that much in the bubble. … He’s still learning the game, but he was good actually yesterday. He was really good at practice.”

But the most important work came without the ball. Bol’s defense, when the team isn’t playing zone, needed to improve if his role was going to grow.

“It’s mostly just sliding my feet and just like learning little things to help me on defense and blocking more shots, but we’ve talked about that and I’ve definitely been working on all of that during the offseason,” Bol said. “Direction changes, going after shots, perimeter defense, inside-outs, I’ve been working on all of it.”

Defense and determining which positions a player can guard play a big part when Michael Malone sets his lineups, the Nuggets’ coach said. Bol displayed the offensive skill required to play on the perimeter last year, but his 220-pound build on a 7-foot-2 frame made defensive matchups more difficult.

“Can he guard some fives? Yes. Can he guard some fours? Yes,” Malone said. “As you saw in the bubble … we used a lot of zone defense, trying to funnel the ball to him so he can be a shot blocker (and) play to his strengths.”

Bol said he sees himself playing power forward, or the four, a position Paul Millsap has been the starter at the last few seasons. Michael Porter Jr., another promising talent, could see some time at that position; the same goes for JaMychal Green. While the Nuggets social media team fanned the hype flames with a video showing Bol swishing a smooth pull-up jumper, throwing down a breakaway dunk and blocking a shot in Monday’s practice, Malone said there’s no guarantee Bol will have a spot in the rotation to start the season.

“We have a lot of talented players. Nothing is going to be given to anybody. Bol is going to have to earn those minutes. He did a really nice job when he got an opportunity in the bubble, but just like I told our team the other day, last season was great. It was historic in nature, Western Conference finals. None of that matters now,” Malone said. “This is a brand new year. … Bol is going to have to earn any minutes that he gets. He has to do that in practice. He’s done a nice job in our first two practices. He’ll get a chance to continue to show his ability to help us on both ends of the floor, and we’ll see how it goes.”

The front office expressed its belief in Bol by converting his contract from a two-way deal that allowed him to play in the G League to a standard multiyear NBA contract in that short offseason.

“It meant a lot because that just shows the organization is showing more trust in me,” Bol said. “That’s good for me. Now, I just got to do my part and do everything that they believe I can do.”