Denver Nuggets: NBA Draft

NBA: Nuggets Ready to Implode?

Hoopsworld — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:53:13 -0700

The Denver Nuggets won 50 games last season. The Denver Nuggets were also eliminated for the fifth straight season in the first round and for the fourth straight season under the guidance of head coach George Karl. As a result, many expected Karl to be fired or possibly even resign. While that didn't happen, a major trade that sent Marcus Camby to the Los Angeles Clippers for the right to swap second round picks in 2010 and a $10.1 million trade exception shook the foundation of the organization.

The Nuggets are now the popular pick of both the fans and the media to implode this season. Given the team's history of struggles and some of the traditionally mercurial personalities on the team, it's hard to blame them.

"I like the idea that people are condescending and degrading our possibilities," explained head coach George Karl. "I just love amateur opinions in the offseason. I wouldn't want to predict any NBA seasons until I saw at least 20 or 30 games, but it will be the first year most people don't think we're going to be any good. Some people are predicting a total demise. I don't see that on our team."

What Karl did see was his starting center and favorite bench player leave the team this past summer all in the span of a couple of days.

"That week where Eddie (Najera) and Marcus go out the window we all were going, 'Wow, what's happening,' " Karl said.

"I don't know how we're going to fix the loss of Eddie," Karl continued. "I don't know how we're going to come off the bench with scoring, but we have some good pieces. We have some very good pieces. It's going to be different than last year, but I personally think the challenge is exciting.

"Marcus was tremendous in patrolling the paint, but he wasn't in to rotating on the perimeter. There's no question that Marcus' presence is going to be missed, but I think Nene in a different way can be as good or better than Marcus. That's his challenge and our challenge. After kind of a unique summer of rebuilding the psyche and spirit of our team, we're in a very good place. We're faster, deeper and quicker with athletes at every position than ever before since I've been here."

The change in personnel is just one challenge the Nuggets will face this season. Perhaps the biggest challenge for Karl and the Nuggets this season will be changing the culture of a team that was often lax on the defensive end and not always as disciplined as many fans might have preferred.

"How you teach the game as a coaching staff sometimes subconsciously allows the team that you're coaching to develop a mentality," Karl said. "Offense, I think in some ways, is softer than defense. I'm not saying we're soft, but I think at times last year we tried to outshoot, outscore and outrun. I think this year we're going to try to keep the good stuff of our offense and incorporate some of the toughness of defense. I think as a coaching staff that excites us.

"Over the last two years me and the coaching staff tried to coach the game with the mentality of scoring, playing fast, kind of the Phoenix Suns' mentality. Learning how to attack, attack, attack is how we taught the game, but we feel that we have to change our mindset to at least move in to the top-half of the defensive teams in basketball."

Karl also indicated the coaching staff studied their fair share of film in the offseason, which resulted in a different approach this week during training camp.

"Last year if I had to evaluate our defense after film studying this summer, a lot of our bad defense was created by our bad shot-selection. Our offensive personality has to have more responsibility. And the second thing is the commitment to run back and play transition defense."

Despite Denver's obvious problems on the defensive end last season, the team still won 50 games in the regular season and qualified for the postseason for the fourth consecutive year under Karl. While Karl & Co. have defended their regular season record in the past, the coach knows that playoff success now has to follow.

"We have some guys on this coaching staff that even though we can rationalize success in the regular season as being good, the truth of the matter is your judgment is based upon how you do in the playoffs. From Melo to Kenyon to A.I., there's a gut feeling of nausea. It's indigestion. We don't really want to talk about our regular seasons even though we try to defend that we play and have done a lot of good things."

This puts Karl and his staff in a tough position. Do they jump down the throats of a team that won 50 games or try to build off of past success?

"The hammer and how I lead the team with discipline and lead the team with changing mistakes and changing what I want and what the team needs to do I think will be -- as I said at the end of last season -- is going to be a little more hammer oriented than democracy oriented," Karl said. "Last year we probably talked our way through mistakes, talked our way through periods of momentum of bad basketball. This year I think you're going to see more of, 'Hey, this is what we want. If you don't give it, it's going to be playing time that is going to be changed.'

"I think our players know we've cut corners, cheated the commitment in some ways. It's frustrating as a coach. Sometimes when you win 50 games it's hard to challenge a team because they go 'Coach, we won 50 games.' The problem is we don't do the little things everyday, and those little things win playoff games."

In a candid moment, Karl admitted that he has made mistakes in the way in which he has handled his team in the past.

"The one frustration as a coach I've had is over the years is I know we've cheated the game, but we've had success. I don't know how to coach that. When you know you're not doing this and you know you're not that but you're still one of the top-ten teams in basketball and you're winning games.... how do you bring a hammer down on winning? It was difficult. I think I've made mistakes in that area. I think I've made... maybe drastic mistakes in that area."

The challenge becomes how far Karl pushes his players. If he pushes too hard, he could lose his team. The end result could be an implosion. On the other hand, if Karl and his staff don't hold the players accountable when they really need to be held accountable, the team will likely continue to be a team that won't advance any further than the first round of the playoffs.

"I have no desire to be liked," Karl said. "The game of basketball and coaching in the NBA is far from what you all think it is. There's more battles, confrontations and anger on a daily basis. There's more ego management and attitude adjustment on a daily basis than ever before.

"I don't know if they want me to like them or I want them to like me. I think those things just happen by the process of what transpires."

One thing Karl and all of the players seem to understand this season is heads are going to roll if the team continues to falter come playoff time. The response to that by his players, though, has been one which has left Karl feeling optimistic.

"This year's team has more George Karl personality to it than any team I've coached here in Denver. It has more son of a bitches. It has more I'll hit you. It has more guys that want to be mean and angry than cool and pretty. I think that's going to help us.

"Our players have a different spirit to them than we left here four or five months ago. I don't know if it's they know I'm a little bit angry, they know the organization is fed up with losing. I know the Marcus trade shook people in the direction like 'Wow, we're going to get better or something's going to happen.' "

Something is going to happen. That much is certain.

"There's a lot of differences to this team, but there's a challenge to take the differences and make it better," Karl said.

Either the Nuggets will step up to that challenge and prove the vast majority of the pundits wrong or the team will be enveloped by the pressure of the circumstances surrounding this season, which could quite possibly lead to an implosion.

Safe to say it won't be boring this season at Pepsi Center regardless of how this thing plays out.

Cheerleader of the Day: Denver Nuggets

Shawn Siegel — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:48:58 -0700

Cheerleader of the Day

Thanks to our friends over at Icon Sports Media, we have access to thousands of great college & NBA basketball photos to use on the site. Each day, along with our Picture of the Day, we'll be featuring a Cheerleader of the Day. In honor of the recent NBA Draft, we'll be focusing on NBA dancers until the end of July!

Denver Nuggets: Dunking

- Check out past Cheerleaders of the Day!

- Also check out the Picture of the Day!

Denver Nuggets: NBA Draft Team Needs

Raphielle Johnson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

2007-08 Record: 50-32; 2^nd Northwest

Draft Picks: 20

Key Free Agents

G Allen Iverson (early termination)

G J.R. Smith (restricted)

F Eduardo Najera

How they got here and what they need

The Nuggets once again got into the playoffs...and once again were bounced in the first round, this time falling to the eventual conference champion Lakers. Their inability/unwillingness to buckle down on the defensive end (outside of Marcus Camby) was on display throughout the series as Los Angeles pretty much took whatever they wanted on the offensive end of the floor. And there have been whispers this offseason about the possibility of a trade involving Carmelo Anthony, and Allen Iverson can opt out and become a free agent if he so chooses.

As for what this team needs, the Nuggets need a guy who can come off the bench and supply the team with some defense. Eduardo Najera would give his all whenever he got into the game, but for the remainder of the bench it seemed to be a quest to take as many shots as they could before Carmelo and Allen checked back into the game. Defense is an attitude, and it would be wise for Denver to select someone who believes in that end of the floor.

Who they take

Well, a solid perimeter defender in the form of Kansas' Brandon Rush may be on the board at twenty. Also an unselfish player on the offensive end, he'd have no problem with having to settle with whatever crumbs came his way while Melo and AI took the majority of the shots. If available, the Nuggets should select him.

Draft History (since 2000)

2007: No Picks

2006: Leon Powe (49)

2005: Jarrett Jack (22), Axel Hervelle (52)

2004: Jameer Nelson (20)

2003: Carmelo Anthony (3), Sani Becirovic (46)

2002: Nickoloz Tskitishvili (5), Frank Williams (25), Vincent Yarbrough (33)

2001: No Picks

2000: Mamadou N'diaye (26), Dan McClintock (53)

Do Lottery Players Equal NBA Success?

Jeff Fox — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:40:49 -0700

The title of the article pretty much sums it up – do the number of lottery drafted players on a NBA team’s roster affect the team’s outcome on the court? At first blush the obvious answer would be yes – more often than not talent wins out on the court, so more talent on a roster should equal more wins. On the other side of the coin, normally the worst teams in the league are the ones drafting in the lottery, so therefore crummy teams should have their rosters saturated with lottery picks.

Your trusty writer went about trying to answer this question by perusing all 30 NBA team’s rosters from the 2006/07 season. Any player who appeared in at least one game for a team qualified to be counted towards that team’s lottery player total, so lottery players who were traded during the season counted on multiple team’s totals. After all the number crunching, NBA teams had on an average about five players on their roster who were selected in the lottery. Here are the teams that disobeyed the average and were at the far ends of the spectrum:

Top of the heap:

Golden State – 9 players (Davis, Richardson, Biedrins, Dunleavy, Diogu, Foyle, O’Bryant, Pietrus, Wagner)

Denver – 8 players (Anthony, Iverson, Camby, Hilario, Miller, Smith, Martin, Johnson)

Miami – 8 players (Wade, O’Neal, Williams, Mourning, Walker, Payton, Jones, Doleac)

All three teams made the playoffs, so talent does get you that far. Miami’s stockpiling of veteran lottery picks (and some kid named Wade) got them the title in 2006. It’s hard to say if the Nuggets’ motley crew of lottery picks will ever be able to play together as a team and really make some noise in the playoffs. Golden State’s big mid-season trade took away some of the lottery talent, but they had enough left over to shock Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.

Bottom feeders:

Indiana – 2 players (Dunleavy, Diogu)

Milwaukee – 2 players (Bogut, Villanueva)

San Antonio – 3 players (Duncan, Horry, Ely)

Utah – 3 players (Williams, Harpring, Brewer)

Until their mid-season trade with Golden State, Indiana didn’t have any lottery picks on their team – and they suffered through a horrible season. Milwaukee also had a horrible year but at least their lottery talent is young still. The real interesting two are the Spurs and the Jazz, who battled in the Western Conference Finals this past season. These two teams proved it doesn’t matter what spot you draft a player at, rather it is more important to draft and/or trade smart. While having lottery picks Tim Duncan and Deron Williams on their rosters definitely help, it is the later picks that really make the difference for both teams – Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur.

While it is hard to draw a definitive conclusion from all of this, the main point that these numbers illustrates is that a pick in the lottery isn’t a guaranteed ticket to a championship. Unless that pick is named Duncan or O’Neal or probably Oden and/or Durant. So draft wisely NBA GMs, even those of you who aren’t in the lottery this year.