Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone is expecting more than just a potent sixth man from new acquisition Isaiah Thomas, but a commanding voice in the locker room to assert leadership.

Since his departure from the Boston Celtics, his two stops in Cleveland and Los Angeles were relative misfits, asking the 5-foot-9 to be the prototypical point guard, despite being an innate scorer.

“There was a group of people who wanted me to be John Stockton,” Thomas told Nick Kosmider of The Athletic. “I’m like, ‘I’ve only seen highlights of John Stockton; I don’t know how to play like John.’ Mike Malone brought me aside and said, ‘I don’t want you be John Stockton. I want you to be Isaiah Thomas.’ When he called me that first time in free agency, he said, ‘When you come here, and if you come here, I want you to be Isaiah Thomas. I want you to be that leader in the locker room. I want you to get on guys. I don’t want you to hold nothing back.’ That’s all I asked. That’s easy for me because that’s what I’ve done my whole career.”

Malone, who coached Thomas with the Sacramento Kings, knows what buttons to press with the diminutive point guard — and all the signs are showing already, giving his scoring dynamo the reins to do what he does best.

That lack of freedom is perhaps what has been hindering Thomas from fully regaining his scoring ways, now coming off a second hip surgery to allow him to be at full health heading into training camp.