Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll
I better write some kind of training camp update or season preview or else I am going to lose my blogging license. The Nuggets are fancying themselves as championship contenders. Players are floating around the number 60 when talking about a potential win total for this team. They are also talking like posting the best regular season record in the Nuggets NBA lifespan is a given which would require them to claim 55 victories in order to surpass the 54 wins earned by the 1987-1988 Nuggets.
This kind of talk is not new. Heading into each of the past three seasons we have heard that the Nuggets will fly past the 50 win mark. So far, they have failed to do so in any of those seasons. They were close after they rode the post all-star break wave in 2005 when they ended up with 49 wins. They backslid the next season and landed on 44 wins, which was very disappointing considering the hot finish they had in 2005.
Again, last season there was a 50 win buzz surrounding this team. They then lost Kenyon Martin after two games and Nene was not fully healthy following his ACL surgery. The Nuggets were finally getting in a winning groove when Isaiah ordered the code red and the Garden fracas went down. They traded for AI who struggled to play with his new teammates and they promptly went on a losing streak. When Carmelo Anthony returned, the team once again adjusted poorly. All told from the time Carmelo was suspended on December 17th through the end of March the Nuggets were 22-27.
Heading into April they were 35-36 and in danger of missing the playoffs.
However, they posted another late season winning streak notching 10 wins in their last 11 games. Once again Nugget fans had hope heading into the playoffs, but once again they were facing the San Antonio Spurs. They claimed a game one win in San Antonio as they had in 2005, providing even more hope to the Nuggets faithful. It was all for naught though as the Spurs claimed each of the next four games to dispatch of the Nuggets just as they had in 2005.
Things are starting to seem a bit like Ground Hog Day around here. At the beginning of every season Nuggets fans wake up to the same talk. Bill Murray was accosted with Sonny and Cher singing “I Got You Babe” but we hear the same platitudes every October about how Melo has matured (which he certainly has), they will have a full training camp to get familiar with the changes from the season before (which they will), they are healthy (only Anthony Carter is currently unable to practice) and ultimately at least fifty wins are a sure thing.
Something always goes wrong. Voshon Leonard goes down in the first game of the 2004 season and then the team quit on Jeff Bzdelik causing a slow start following their initial playoff berth in Melo’s rookie season. Nene was injured on opening night in 2005 and they come out of the gate a little too full of themselves following their torrid finish to the previous season. Martin ends up lost for the season after two games in 2006 and Melo and JR Smith get suspended in December.
I wish I could get caught up in the optimistic outlook for this season, but at some point this team is going to have to prove it. Sure they can get as hot as anyone, but the season is six months long and then the playoffs start. Heading into this season I have to wonder who is going to get hurt this year? What dynamic will be responsible for a slow start? What part of the script will repeat itself that the Nuggets will have to overcome this time?
This team is deep and talented. They should win at least 50 games. They should win the Northwest Division. They should win a playoff series. However, this team has not accomplished anything it should have in the previous three seasons. Why should this one be any different?
So put your little hand in mine,
there ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb…
I got you babe.
