Kiki a Net, DerMarr a Spur

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Former Nuggets are on the move.   

Kiki Vandeweghe has been hired by the New Jersey Nets to fill a front office role under Rod Thorn.  This is undoubtedly a case of Thorn paying Kiki back for not only taking Kenyon Martin off of the Nets hands, but also giving New Jersey three first round picks for the right to do so.   

Kiki did a tremendous job tearing apart a horrible team with a couple of huge contracts and rebuilding from scratch.  The Nuggets went from a laughingstock with no future to a perennial playoff team in just three seasons thanks to Kiki’s work.  He made a good trade that landed the Nuggets both Camby and Nene, knew when to sell high on Raef LaFrentz getting rid of Juwan Howard’s atrocious deal in the process, he avoided giving horrible contracts to the Anthony Goldwires and Tariq Abdul-Wahads of the world and when he did spend money he did it reasonably, for the most part, as he signed Andre Miller and Marcus Camby to flat contracts that did not include an exponential jump in value from year to year.  In fact, he was able to get them each to accept a reduction in salary in the second years of those contracts in order to maximize the Nuggets’ cap space that resulted in the sign and trade for K-Mart. 

Of course, that is not the entire story of the Vandeweghe era.  He made the aforementioned gaff of giving up three first round draft picks in the sign and trade for Martin.  That contract has become one of the worst deals in the league although to be fair no one had any idea Kenyon would need microfracture surgeries on both knees at this point in his career.  But we all knew the Nuggets overpaid for Martin both monetarily and in resources throwing in the three first rounders.   The Nets gave no indication that they would have matched an offer sheet and in fact what was coming out of New Jersey make it sound like they would definitely not match an offer sheet, which would have made Martin’s contract much more reasonable.  The offer sheet would have been for one less season with lower annual salaries.  However, Kiki gave up the three first round picks just to make sure he did not have to wait the 15 days the Nets had to match.   

Add in the fact that from everything I have read and heard Kiki would have drafted Darko ahead of Melo, he drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Ricky Sanchez and he drafted Nene ahead of Amare Stoudemire. Throw that all in a pot and mix it together and you see a GM who basically deconstructed a team, spent the team’s cap space somewhat responsibly and misappropriated a handful of draft picks.   

That record is spotty at best. 

Kiki put the Nuggets back on the map, but some of his decisions also kept them from reaching their final destination.  Kiki was never afraid to do something controversial, but it is difficult to know if that is ego (I will show everyone how smart I am) or intestinal fortitude.   

I cannot wait to see how the Thron/Vadeweghe administration handles the many issues that are facing the Nets.  Maybe Thorn brought Kiki on board to help him deconstruct the mess that he has made. 

In other news DerMarr Johnson has been signed by the San Antonio Spurs.  I always liked DerMarr as a ninth or tenth man.  He seemed to be a solid defender when he challenged himself to be and was an effective shooter from the corner.  During the Nuggets amazing second half run in the 04-05 season it seemed like DerMarr was automatic form the corner, especially in the first quarter, after which many of their games had already been decided. 

However, last season his three point percentage dropped from 35% down to 22% and without giving a consistent effort on defense, rebounding or passing he essentially lost all of his value. 

It will be interesting to see if he can get on the floor for San Antonio.  Free Agent signee Ime Udoka can not seem to get off the bench and he is a consistent defender and a solid shooter from that corner spot.  The Spurs seem to keep their fifteenth spot on the roster in constant flux.  DerMarr may not be around for very long.

Game 29: Denver Nuggets 124 – Golden State Warriors 120

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

What happens when two teams who are both in the top three in scoring and pace factor play each other?   

Fast breaks.  Lotsa’ threes.  Points.  Fun. 

Going into the game it was clear that the Nuggets faced a stern test.  Golden State has gone 8-1 at home since Stephen Jackson returned from his suspension for pretending he was the star in an action movie during the off season.  Golden State is a great offensive team because they create matchup problems all over the floor.  They usually have four players who are capable and willing three point shooters and there are several sequences during every game where all five players on the court are ready and able to pop the three.  Then to take that advantage to a higher level they push the pace relentlessly.   

They also have a big man in Andris Biedrins who does a great job of cutting to the basket both off of pick and rolls and from the weak side.  Biedrins has great hands and is a very good finisher around the hoop.   

Add in good isolation players like Barron Davis, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson (who is more crafty than quick) and the only way to shut these guys down is to pray for a power outage.   

The offenses (and defenses) of both teams did not disappoint.  After the first possession of the fourth quarter both teams were already over 100 points.   

Thanks to NBA League Pass and the fact that the Warriors play a lot of late games due to society’s insistence to use time zones I have seen a lot of Golden State games over the past couple of years.  When playing at home the Warriors have a tendency of ramping up their defense in the fourth quarter.  They ride the emotion from their great crowds and play with great intensity.  Free flowing games end up grinding to a halt as they milk the clock and rely on Baron Davis to create shots for himself or his teammates late in the shot clock. 

With this in mind I was very worried about the Nuggets’ ability to keep up with the Warriors when Melo was called for his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter.  Allen Iverson came to the rescue as he so frequently has in the past couple of weeks.  He singlehandedly kept the Nuggets in the lead through the fourth quarter. 

Even after Melo returned Iverson was the man that carried the load.   AI did a great job of forcing contact and getting to the line.  He found himself frequently matched up with players such as Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.  It is easy for quick players in those situations to settle for long pull up jumpers.  Iverson continually attacked them and that resulted in eight fourth quarter free throws.   

In the end Stephen Jackson had his chance to make love to pressure as he claims he is wont to do, but pressure had a headache, rolled over and turned out the light as his three pointer that would have put the Warriors up one in the closing seconds caromed off the rim.  Now we all can say we know how it feels to be an NBA player. 

I thought the Nuggets played another focused game from start to finish.  We have seen them string together two and a half consistently good efforts in a row starting at half time of the Kings game.  They have done that a couple of times so far this season only to go on a stretch of maddeningly inconsistent games. 

The schedule takes them home to play Golden State on Sunday and then they get a long rest before facing the Spurs on Thursday.  I think you will see the Nuggets put forth good efforts in those games and hopefully run their record up to 20-11.   After that they go on the road to face the horrid Timberwolves and as we all know, that is probably a big warning sign for Nugget fans. 

Other Observations From Game 29: 

 - I mentioned pace factor earlier in the post.  Pace factor is simply how many possessions a team averages over the course of a game.  Denver is first in pace factor at 103.  Golden State is third at 100.9.  Obviously the pace of tonight’s game would make Lance Armstrong wishing he was about to head into the Andes with his little ten speed.   

I charted the pace quarter by quarter and extrapolated it out to what that quarter’s pace would be if it was carried out throughout an entire game.  Here is what I found out: 

First quarter pace factor = 118

Second quarter pace factor = 104

Third quarter pace factor = 100

Fourth quarter pace factor = 92 

Earlier I mentioned how the Warriors like to make things as crazy as possible through three quarters and then try to buckle down in the fourth.  These numbers bear that out.  Both teams scored over 30 points in each of the first three quarters.  In the fourth quarter Golden State outscored Denver 23-22.   

I find it interesting that both teams that are known to push the pace are content to play a much more half court style when the game is on the line.   

 - This was a tough game for Nene.  You would expect him to be able to dominate in the paint against a smaller Warrior squad, but Golden State is used to having teams try to pound the ball in side and they are very adept at swarming around and making life difficult on bigger post players.   

The Warriors are also good at exposing bigger players when they are on offense.  Both Camby and Nene found themselves in foul trouble partially due to unsuccessfully trying to draw charges against quicker players.  Actually the unsuccessful part could be up for debate.  It kind of seemed like the Warriors got all the borderline, and not so borderline charge/block calls, but why complain about things like that after a win, right?   

 - It was also a bad game for Najera to have to start in place of Kenyon Martin.  Najera is not a post player capable of taking advantage of his extra girth on offense and he was too slow to keep up with Matt Barnes and Al Harrington.  If Martin can play on Sunday, it will help the Nuggets with that matchup problem. 

 - Melo missed a lot of time in the second half with foul trouble and we talked about how Iverson took care of the fourth quarter, but Linas Kleiza did a very good job to keep them in the game in the third when Melo was on the pine.  Kleiza actually scored the last 11 points of the third quarter for the Nuggets. 

Melo only scored six points in the second half, but the Nuggets still managed to score 53.  Iverson scored 21 of those and Kleiza and Camby came up big to help fill in some of the slack.  Anthony Carter hit a shot with just over seven minutes left in the third quarter and after that the only Nuggets to score were Iverson, Kleiza, Camby and Melo.  That attack was about as diverse as a KKK rally.   

 - The Nuggets may have won the game at the foul line as they shot 33-37 for the game.  Iverson, Melo and Kleiza were 29-31 from the line.   

 - At one point Altitude missed ten seconds of game time and what was described as a long two by Stephen Jackson after repeatedly showing a charge called against Carmelo.  We saw it, OK!  We know it was a charge!  We know he should have either pulled up or passed it!  Show the fricking game! 

 - By the way, Microsoft Word in all of its contempt for humanity suggests I change fricking to frisking or frocking.  I may take them up on frocking.  That sounds kind of naughty.  

 - The Nuggets were not as stationary as they have been in the past on offense, but their offense was definitely comprised of mostly isolation plays.  They ended up with only 13 assists on 43 makes.  That is usually a deadly ratio for the Nuggets.  The offense was helped by the fact that Golden State did not have anyone who matches up well with either AI or Carmelo and they were able to create quality shots on their own.   

That style of offense is fine when AI and Melo are shooting a combined 23-43, but if one of them had an off night things would have been much different. 

 - If you will permit me let’s look at a basic box score stat one more time.  The Nuggets scored 124 points while only being credited with six fast break points.  How is that possible?  Typically if they end up with six fast break points they would end the game with 78 points or something similarly insipid.   

 - I am always impressed with the Warriors unselfishness from the perimeter.  They frequently make an extra-extra pass.  Many times you see them swing the ball around the three point line and when they have the shot most teams take and most defenses are designed to have a player running at the shooter on the rotation, they throw the ball one more time to a player that the defense is completely unprepared to guard and instead of having a defender run at them, they have a completely open shot.   

 - J.R. Smith played very well.  He played eight minutes and took four shots, but none of them were threes.  He drove to the rim at every opportunity and from what I saw only made one late rotation on defense. 

 - I liked the breakdown of minutes amongst the point guards.  Anthony Carter played 27 minutes and Chucky Atkins played 21.  I have no problem with Atkins playing 20 minutes in the role of a sniper and the only Nugget who seems to be able to pass the ball to the roller on a pick and roll.   

While we are here, I know he is one of the premiere scorers of all time, but has anyone ever explained to Iverson that the pick and roll is not just designed to get him a shot.  Can one of the Nuggets plethora of assistant coaches please inform him that there actually is another option on the play? 

To partake of some insight from the Warrior’s perspective, and to see one of the absolute best blogging communities around, check out Golden State of Mind.  Just try not to be too disappointed with Born a Nuggets Fan when you come back.

Game 28: Denver Nuggets 125 – Milwaukee Bucks 105

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

The only way you can get away with using injures as an excuse is playing like the Nuggets did tonight once everyone gets healthy.  With all apologies to Steven Hunter at this point we are going to proclaim the Nuggets at full strength. 

Time will tell if this was the Nuggets coming out party or if it was just a combo of a hot night by the Nuggets combined with a nightmare game by the Bucks.   Because the competition was somewhat lacking tonight we cannot draw any strong conclusions from what we saw, but we can celebrate the many things the Nuggets have done correctly: 

They shared the ball on offense and actually moved without the ball as well.  Those two things go hand in hand and they made the Nuggets offense nearly unstoppable.   

I do not have the stats in front of me to prove it, but I am going to guess the Bucks are not one of the better rebounding teams in the league.  That allowed the Nuggets to run out on almost every possession resulting in a ridiculous 44 fast break points. 

Nene.  I left a comment after the article on the Denver Post’s website reporting that Nene and Kenyon Martin would play tonight stating that we had better see the well conditioned version of Nene tonight.  Well, Nene looked about as good as Bo Derek in “10” right down to the cornrows.  He played with energy and was very productive.  Welcome back Nene! 

Carmelo is still hitting the glass.  He notched a fourth consecutive double digit rebound game nabbing exactly ten.  He has taken it personally that even his teammates question his desire to fight for rebounds.  There is no reason he cannot average 8+ rebounds every night.  The five or so he has been producing is an insult to basketball. 

It was good to see Iverson heat back up.  After a couple of rough shooting outings AI made some good decisions with the ball and took only good shots.      

Their defense was solid but not spectacular as the Bucks missed quite a few open shots in the first half, but the Nuggets had 13 steals and 11 blocked shots (ten by Marcus as he earned a triple double when he splashed a trey to give him his ten points on the first possession of the fourth quarter) and they outrebounded the Bucks by 11. 

As those numbers would lead you to believe, the Nuggets were very aggressive on defense and they harassed the Bucks into playing at a pace that was much quicker than they are accustomed to.  The Nuggets lead the league in pace factor at 102.9 and the Bucks are the eighth slowest team at 92.8. 

The Nuggets played as well as they could ever be expected to play.  I have been on them for allowing themselves to slip mentally a little because of the injuries they have dealt with.  If that mindset was really there, look for them to begin playing with more confidence and urgency now that they are healthy again.  They know this is their time to make a move.   

It is a great time to get healthy as the Nuggets face three stern tests in a row with a home and home against Golden State and then a clash with the Spurs.  If they can play as focused in those three games as they did tonight, there is no reason they cannot sweep those three games and establish themselves as one of the true contenders in the West. 

Other Observations From Game 28:

 - Why on earth was Iverson in the game in the fourth quarter?  He played over 36 minutes and was in the game for four minutes of the fourth quarter.  Why?  Are we trying to prove to the world that his age is not catching up with him?  Is there some language in his contract that he must play at least 40 minutes every game?  If so I want that same contract at work, I want to work 40 minutes every day.  Of course, some days I that would require to increase the time I spend actually working at work. 

 - I may be giving the Nuggets too much credit.  I should take some credit for myself.  I had an HDTV installed in my bedroom this afternoon and it may be the presence of the fancy technology that pushed the Nuggets to a higher level.  Of course, I may have to take it back because my wife wanted to get the couches reupholstered so it is a situation that bears monitoring. 

 - I know it is difficult to play disciplined in a blowout where the ball is switching sides of the court almost as quickly as a tennis match, but J.R. Smith needs to take show that he can play under control and smart no matter what is going on around him on the floor.  I thought he played very well, but there were plays where he made poor decisions.  I really like when he is on the floor because he really is a well rounded player, when he is playing smart ball.  He is a very good passer, he can drive and he has shown a willingness to work hard on defense, he just needs to hone his mental focus.  If he wants to earn more minutes, he needs to remain controlled even in the chaotic fourth quarters that go down during a blow out. 

 - Michael Redd and Bobby Simmons were both -30 for the game.  That is not good.  Melo led the Nuggets with a +26.   

Check out Brew Hoop for some attempt at making sense of this game from the Bucks’ perspective.

Game 27: Denver Nuggets 106 – Sacramento Kings 105

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

I will be honest.  When Linas Kleiza hit the game winning shot I jumped around my living room and ran up and down my little hallway cheering like a nut job.  It was an awesome ending for Nugget fans. 

But I cannot let that exciting finish cloud what happened in the first half or how extremely lucky the Nuggets were down the stretch.  After playing with such great effort the previous game in Portland, the Nuggets came out flat and soft against Sacramento.  Perhaps we should have expected them to come out that way due to the combination of the return of Camby and the fact that they were playing a team they undoubtedly viewed as inferior.  The Nuggets probably did not even notice the Kings have defeated Detroit, San Antonio, Houston and Utah and only lost to Phoenix by two at home in the last month or so. 

In a way I wish the Nuggets would lose games like this so they do not continue to inflate their view of themselves and get away with thinking that they can just turn on the intensity in the second half or fourth quarter and pull out wins. 

That being said we need to give the Nuggets credit for their effort in the second half.  They were a completely different defensive team in the second half.  The Kings scored 66 points in the first 24 minutes, but only managed 38 in the second 24.   

I was particularly impressed with Allen Iverson’s defense on John Salmons in the post.  Sacramento tried to take advantage of the size difference, but Iverson was the gnat you could not seem to swat away.  AI fought with Salmons all night long to the point where the Kings were afraid to throw an entry pass because Iverson would either get a piece of it or Salmons would get the pass, but as a result of Iverson’s defense he would be completely out of position to score.  

I am relieved the Nuggets won.  However, I am definitely still not happy with their mindset.  On the bright side, this is probably another game they would have allowed to slip away last season and they are showing the ability to come back from large second half deficits even on the road.    

I just wish the Nuggets would realize that if they play hard in the first half they will not have to come back from big second half deficits.   

Other Observations From Game 27:

 - Carmelo has finally broken out of his slump, but now Iverson has gone in the tank.  I feel like a kid who opened a present on Christmas only to find that it did not work.  I know my dad will get me a new one tomorrow, but I want it now.  There will be a point when Iverson and Melo are both locked in at the same time, but we will have to wait. 

 - How encouraging is it that the Nuggets two game winners over the last three games have come from Anthony Carter and Linas Kleiza?  Remember back when the Nuggets acquired AI?  Of course you do.  That is like asking if you remember your wedding day, or for others of you the day your divorce was finalized.  One of the primary questions was who is going to take the last shot in close games.  The explanation has always been it would go to the player who was having the better game. 

Well last night heading into the last possession AI was 6-20 and Melo was 11-21.  However, it was AI who took what looked to be the last shot and ended up 6-21.   In Iverson’s defense it was a good look and I expected him to make it when he shot it, but Melo has yet to see the ball in a game deciding situation in the Nuggets last two close games.  Obviously defenses are stacking up on him to try to make sure that he does not beat them, but that is a situation the Nuggets can use to their advantage as long as he is willing to trust his teammates and pass to whoever is open.  If guys like Carter and Kleiza keep hitting game winning shots, Melo should feel comfortable giving the ball up in end of game situations.   

 - I know he hit a couple of big shots against the Rockets and he is coming off an injury and I am trying to give him time to get back into form, but Chucky Atkins has been horrible.  As I said, he needs time to get back into the groove, but he also needs to be smarter about getting there.  He should not be jacking up 19 threes in his first three games back when he is struggling.  Of course, he is a completely one dimensional player so what else can he do to help the team when his shot is not falling?   

Here is a link to Sactown Royalty for our exposure to what Kings fans thoughts are about the game. 

On a personnal note, for those of you who may be alone or unhappy this can be a difficult time of year, but focusing on what we have instead of what we do not have can help us all realize how good life is.  Have a Merry Christmas and may God bless you all.

Game 26: Denver Nuggets 96 – Portland Trailblazers 99

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

It is a shame that I failed to put together a post on last nights’ game until now.  Last night I was as proud of the effort the Nuggets put forth as I have been in a long time.   

I have said that injuries should not be used as an excuse to lose games, but the Nuggets rolled into Portland and had to start a player they had waived just a day before.  That is typically not a precursor to success.  With Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Nene and that Steven Hunter dude (I have heard plays for the Nuggets, but I am not really sure he exists he might as well be Kramer’s friend Bob Sacamano or Seinfeld’s Cousin Jeffrey) all out with various maladies the Nuggets locked horns with a team that had demolish them on the boards just a week or so prior.   

If there was a recipe for disaster, that is probably it.   

The Nuggets hung tough on the glass thanks to another tremendous effort on the glass by Carmelo Anthony who was the leading rebounder in the game with 12.   

They played tremendous scrappy defense and if it was not for a hot streak where the Trailblazers scored 14 points in less than four minutes to start the fourth quarter the Nuggets would have won.   

But the Trailblazers have had ten straight games where they have produced a similar hot streak to pull out win after win.   

There were comments made after the game that the Nuggets found what it took to play all out for 48 minutes and if they can just carry that forward they will be very successful.  Well, this small lineup that brought that level of intensity had shown that they were capable of such an effort in the second week of the season and for some reason George Karl went away from that lineup.   

When you have a strong second five, but your starters are playing too many minutes, that is not good.  Everyone talks about how Iverson can play as many minutes as you can throw at him night after night because he keeps scoring, but the issue with him playing so many minutes is his defense.  Late in the game against Houston Luther Head drove by AI on a couple of occasions where AI could barely move.  The man needs some rest, whether he wants to admit it or not.   

Bobby Jones may never put up great stats and probably leads the league in charges per minute, but he makes things happen.  With Jones able to play the two for 15-20 minutes a game there is no reason AI should play more than 35 or at most 38 minutes a game.  That will preserve him and allow him to play those big minutes in the playoffs and it will let Jones gain some much needed experience.   

If Melo is going to work as hard on the glass as he had the past few games he is going to need more rest too.  Against Portland he missed two dunks he would usually smash and at the end of the game he was so spent that he had a turnaround blocked by Brandon Roy who is not the most dynamic athlete.  Obviously last night Melo and AI needed to play a ton to keep the Nuggets in the game, but I would love to see Karl reduce their minutes. 

Anyway, I am getting away from my primary point and that was to give the Nuggets a great deal of credit for playing hard, and for the most part smart.  They hung with the hottest team in the NBA on the road the night after a double overtime game without their entire roster of power forwards and centers.  They could not have done that without a supreme effort.   

Once again the question regarding this incredibly inconsistent team is can they reproduce the way they played against Portland in the next game or even ever again?

Check out Blazer’s Edge for some insight from the Portland side of things.

Game 23: Denver Nuggets 91 – San Antonio Spurs 102

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

How about that third quarter from the team rated SECOND in the NBA in defensive efficiency?   

The San Antonio Spurs scored 36 points in the third quarter.  They scored on 14 of their final 17 possessions of the quarter.  The Denver Nuggets defensive efficiency rating for the third quarter was 163.4!  It was so pathetic I cannot even come up with a decent joke.  I guess that makes me just as impotent as they were.  Somehow it seems fitting. 

The Nuggets actually played a good first quarter and first three minutes of the second quarter.  They made mistakes, but their effort was strong and their focus was there on both offense and defense. 

Unfortunately, it did not last for long. In the third quarter the Spurs showed the Nuggets that a team can score without having the best athletes or the best creators simply by moving, cutting and sharing the ball.  They also proved that fast break points are not required in San Antonio in order for the Spurs to light up the scoreboard.  San Antonio finished the game with only five fast break points.   

The Spurs again showed that they were a team who has an offensive system they trust in completely no matter which five players were on the court.  That is a lesson the Nuggets need to learn. 

The play that summed up the third quarter was when Jacque Vaughn drove the lane missed a layup and fell down.  He was in the lane on his can and still was able to get the rebound, from his can, and pass it off to an open teammate, from his can, for a score.  Camby and Melo were both “in the vicinity” but they both were too busy trying to make sure they were playing as soft as possible and refused to go after the ball.   

The difference in focus from the first to the third quarter was shocking.  The Nuggets did not even look like the same team.  The transformation actually occurred early in the second quarter as the Nuggets’ offense grew stagnant and they decided not to guard the three point line and by the end of the third quarer the walls of the Nuggets’ mud hut had collapsed under the percipitation from Monsoon Popovich. 

As I am sure you all know, the Nuggets played without Kenyon Martin who apparently elbowed Melvin Ely in the eye socket the other night.  How can we know for sure that Melvin’s eye socket was not already very badly damaged or structurally weak and Martin just got the blame for breaking it the rest of the way?   

However, the Spurs were shorthanded as well playing without Tony Parker.  Tim Duncan returned to action, but only played 20 minutes as he was clearly still hobbled by his sprained ankle and bruised knee. 

The Nuggets did miss Kenyon.  Linas Kleiza started in his place, but found himself in early foul trouble.  Carmelo and Camby also ended up missing time in the first half due to fouls.  Of course, no Spur ended the game with more than two fouls.  Hmmm…interesting. 

The good news is the Nuggets were just another victim laid to waste by the steamroller that is the Spurs playing at home.  They are still in first place in the Northwest and fourth in the conference. 

Next is a home game against a red hot Portland team who is on a six game winning streak including wins against Utah twice and Golden State (all three wins were earned without the services of LeMarcus Aldridge).  They have also won their last two road games as part of the six game streak.   I doubt that tomorrow night will be as easy as the previous meeting with Portland, but the Blazers have to lose sometime right?   

Other Observations From Game 23:

 - Has anyone noticed that Camby has pretty much stopped taking that horrid shot from around the top of the circle?  On the other hand, he has become quite deft at drilling the fifteen foot baseline shot.  Chris Marlowe has called it his knew favorite shot on a couple of occasions. 

I am glad that Chris cares enough to keep asking Marcus what his favorite shot is from week to week.  

 - I think Manu Ginboli’s bald spot is already much larger than it was at the beginning of the season.  It must be growing because all of the stress he is experiencing because of the guilt he feels from defrauding the NBA with his horrible flopping. 

 -  Bobby Jones played well.  He had active hands on defense and made things tough on Ginobili for a short time in the fourth quarter.  It will be interesting to see if he played well enough for George to call his name tomorrow against Portland. 

 - Almost Famous is such a freakin’ great movie.  Maybe I should start a Cameron Crowe Underappreciated Movie Blog.  I could write about Almost Famous, Singles and even Elizabethtown which was not as strong as most of his other work, but was nowhere near as bad as most people claim.  Then I could see which of my two blogs would be the first to attract 100 page views.  Maybe I should just move on… 

 - Somehow Michael Finley, in only 25:30 of game time, finished as a +27!  Think about that.  For every minute he was on the floor the Spurs scored one more point than the Nuggets.  Finley set his season high for points and his second best totals in rebounds and assists.   

 - Melo had a quiet night.  He shot well (7-15) and rebounded well (nine boards), but he was difficult to notice on the court from time to time.  He shot no free throws for just the second time this season.  His defensive effort was not particularly impressive (shocker).  Apart from the fourth quarter of the New Orleans game Melo has not put much of a stamp on any of their recent games.   

 - Iverson was tremendous again tonight.  Even when the game was done and it was just a matter of the clock hitting triple zero, Iverson showed a great deal of emotion in the fourth quarter as he tried to bring the Nuggets back.  Things almost became interesting with a little over four minutes left in the game, but the Nuggets could never get closer than eleven points. 

 - I honestly have not really cared much about the whole Iverson’s team or Melo’s team debate.  I always believed that they both needed to work together to make the game easier for everyone.  Over the past few games, it is clear that Iverson has definitely played the role of alpha dog.  It may just be that Melo has struggled lately and Iverson is just trying to pick up the slack, or it may be something more significant in the entire AI’s team or Melo’s team question.

For insight from the perspective of the spoiled fans of the Spurs check out Pounding the Rock.

Game 22: Denver Nuggets 105 – New Orleans Hornets 99

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

NBA.com Game Report (they give more indepth stats than ESPN.com, thus the switch)

Many times I can start writing this drivel during the game and have a good idea what the outcome of the game is going to be.  Not tonight.  It is early in the fourth quarter and I have no idea who is going to win this game.  The Hornets won a very similar game in Denver the third game of the season. 

The mistakes the Nuggets made tonight are as numerous as the empty seats at the Pepsi Center.  Think of a mistake and the Nuggets made it.  Poor rotation on defense, stagnant offense, questionable shot selection, lack of focus and an attitude of contentment if that is a word. 

It was proof over and over about how one player blowing his assignment can derail a team.  Almost every play in the second quarter could be used as an example, but I will mention a couple of gaffs I witnessed throughout the game.   

On one occasion Kenyon Martin was supposed to be guarding David West.  He ran down the floor alongside Paul seemingly happy to have the use of his legs.  I cannot say I blame Kenyon for enjoying the ability to run, but he still needs to do his job.  He continued to run with no apparent purpose into the lane absolutely clueless as to where his man was.  Well West was spotted up at the top of the circle.  Paul simply passed the ball to the wide open West who easily sank the jumper. 

On at least two occasions when playing zone Melo was pinned inside as Rasual Butler was left open in the corner.  Melo should know from his time at Syracuse, where he played zone exclusively, not to get pinned because if the outside baseline defender is pinned, no one can get to the corner.  It is a play that every high school coach in the country warns his players about.  However, I have noticed that many of those high school defensive fundamentals apparently have no place in the NBA. 

Anthony Carter took himself completely out of a play by not only running, but diving at the ball and sliding into the first row.  He is lucky he did not get a beer dumped on his head. 

Eduardo Najera was guarding Tyson Chandler about ten feet from the basket on the baseline.  All seemed well with the world, but when the shot went up he did not back into Chandler at all.  Najera stood there only a foot or two away from Chandler, who happens to be the number one offensive rebounder in the entire NBA, and when the rebound came off Chandler was able to get it.  Had Najera even just made contact with him Chandler could not have grabbed the rebound.  What is really strange is Najera is the kind of player who would box out his grandma if she dropped a donut.  It is almost second nature to him. 

However, the most embarrassing mistake came when Anthony Carter was called for a foul and proceeded to the bench even though the Nuggets had not subbed for him.  The Hornets, playing 5-4, scored an easy dunk on the other end.  Fortunately Anthony did report for the chance to score on the offensive end. 

I am probably reminding you of your wife right now remembering every little mistake and then refusing to let them go, but there was play after play where the Nuggets made little mistakes similar to those.  I am only listing a few that I remember.  It was a game that would have been fun to watch the film of together and laugh at all the silly goofs. 

However, in the end the Nuggets made a strong commitment and won the game because of their lock down D.  Anthony Carter, Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby made it almost impossible for the Hornets to run their high pick and roll, which they ran almost exclusively in the fourth quarter.  Carter got up close and personal with Chris Paul who was the dominant player in the game for the first 42 minutes of action.  Kenyon and Camby jumped Paul coming off the screens aggressively and Carter quickly got back in Paul’s mug.  Paul had absolutely no room to operate.   

The play that I believe turned the tide happened with 4:28 left in the fourth quarter.  Camby jumped Paul on a screen and stole the ball.  Starting with that play Paul committed two turnovers and had the ball knocked away at least three other times.   

Camby also made the key play on offense tipping the ball twice before getting it in the hoop after Iverson took a bad three giving the Nuggets the lead for good at 101-99. 

Even though the Nuggets were expected to win tonight this game definitely goes into the category of a good win.  Melo was struggling mightily with his offensive game, they were playing sloppy on both ends of the floor and the Hornets were shooting very well.  Despite all of that the Nuggets persevered and earned their second impressive victory in three games (the other being at Dallas). 

Other Observations From Game 22:

 - I thought Melo played about as good a game as he had all season.  He was struggling like I had never seen him struggle with his offensive game.  I thought he definitely forced some shots in the first half, but he also made an effort to post up and drive to the basket.  Absolutely nothing was working for him.  In the past, he would have blown up and done something stupid.   

Instead, he decided to work his butt off on the offensive glass.  He ended up with four offensive rebounds, but was in the mix for probably about twice that number.   

His hard work was rewarded in the fourth quarter.  Anthony broke out his slump in a big way by going 5-7 from the floor and 4-4 from the line totaling 15 big points.   

Melo struggled with his shot for four games and the Nuggets were able to win three of those four games.  In the past when he was bad on offense, the Nuggets had no chance to win.   

 - Anthony Carter is slowly winning me over.  His defense on point guards is something the Nuggets need badly.  You should all know by now that I am no fan of Chucky Atkins.  The only benefit Atkins can bring is supposed to be outside shooting.  Atkins is only a 37% three point shooter, which is solid, but that small benefit is not worth giving him time over superior players.  Carter is not a good three point shooter, as I have pointed out previously he is a very good perimeter shooter from 20 feet and in.  You can stretch the floor from 20 feet just as easily as you can from 23′ 9″. 

 - I mentioned that the Nuggets made the mistake of contentment.  What I meant by that was they went on a 9-0 run to take the lead early in the third quarter.  After that they seemed to grow a little happy with themselves and they went on to fall back behind by nine not long after they took the lead. 

 - Iverson had another strong game.  He struggled with his shot in the second half, but still ended up shooting 8-16 and he ended up with 11 assists.   

 - I have to give George Karl credit tonight.  According to Julie Browman (believe it or not, people actually do internet searches for Julie Browman.  I know because some of them have found Born a Nuggets Fan by searching for her) Karl was repeatedly encouraging the Nuggets and pleading with them to work through their frustration.  He knew that Melo was exceedingly frustrated and the team was down double digits in the second quarter due largely to some of the weird mistakes they were making that I referenced earlier.  Karl knew what the team was feeling and he addressed it directly.  Now click here to proceed to FireGeorgeKarl.com.

 - The Nuggets are now tied for third in the Western Conference with New Orleans.  Teams such as Dallas, Utah and especially Houston are struggling.  If the Nuggets end up in the top four, it will be more because of teams stumbling than the Nuggets reaching that 55-60 win mark.  I will be very interested to see how they react to this recent success.  They play at San Antonio, who should have Tim Duncan back, next so the quality tests continue

For some insight on the game from the perspective of Hornets fans check out Hornets 24/7.

The Potential Problems With an Iverson Extension

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There is a report in the Denver Post today that Allen Iverson wants to opt out of the final year of his contract at the end of this season and sign an extension, a six year extension, with the Nuggets.   

This may sound like great news.  The chance to lock Iverson up and make it highly likely that he retires a Denver Nugget is very appealing.  However, as much as I love AI this is not the slam dunk decision it may seem to be for the Nuggets. 

If Iverson resigns for anywhere near his value the Nuggets will be locked into their current core of players for the near future.  For example, let’s assume that Iverson signs a three year extension for $10 million a season, which I believe is highly conservative considering the he is making over $19 million this season.  For the next two seasons the Nuggets will be over or close to the salary cap with just Carmelo, Marcus Camby, Nene, Kenyon Martin and AI.  The third season of Iverson’s hypothetical deal Camby comes off the books, but they will still have Melo, Nene, Martin and AI in high priced deals.  Look at that core of players.  Carmelo is the only player in that group that has been able to stay consistently healthy and is not past his prime.  Would you trust them to be contenders in 2009-2010?  I do not think I would. 

The other problem that rises if you keep this core together for the next three seasons is there will be very little to work with to add quality players to the roster.  The Nuggets will be a good team, but probably not a great team.  If they cannot win a title with this group this year or next year, they will most likely begin to decline due to age.  Camby will be 34 by the end of this season and Iverson will turn 33 during this season’s playoffs.   

Can we rely on them into and past their mid 30’s?  If the Nuggets extend Iverson at the end of the year, they will have to.  The only move they have available to them would be to trade Camby’s expiring deal at the trading deadline in 2010.   

If Iverson is extended, the Nuggets’ brass better be pretty darn certain that they can win a title with this current group.  Otherwise they will waste between a quarter and a third of Melo’s prime seasons with a team that while good, it will probably not be great. 

I had been hoping that the Nuggets could assess whether or not this team was a title contender as next season progressed.  If they were not legitimate contenders, then they had Iverson’s $20 million expiring contract to make a deal to acquire some new pieces.   

However, that scenario was never very realistic.  Every player anywhere near Iverson’s abilities wants to know they have an extension ready before they reach the end of their current contract.  Should Iverson opt out the Nuggets are going to have to make a very difficult decision after this season.  Do they sign him and lock that core of players listed above in Denver for the next two or three years, do they let Iverson walk or do they try to pull off a sign and trade? 

I already expressed my concerns with resigning AI and obviously just letting Iverson walk would be a horrible decision.  The Nuggets would still be well over the cap and they would not be able to add a player of Iverson’s caliber to replace him.  Picture the core listed above without AI.  That would be the reality for the next two seasons.  Not a pretty picture. 

The Nuggets best option may be to sign and trade him, but only if they can get a good young player in exchange for him.  Who would that player be?  I have no idea.  As good as AI is, I do not think there would be very many teams calling the Nuggets to work something out.  Maybe the best bet would be an expiring deal and lottery pick.  You can see what a tough predicament they will find themselves in. 

The Nuggets made a very big gamble trading for Iverson.  I still think it was the best deal they could have made and it was a deal they should have made.  As I wrote previously, this is the first time as an NBA team the Nuggets have been considered at least borderline contenders.  But the bill may come due for that gamble as early as July of 2008 and once again the Nuggets could face a very important crossroad for the development of the franchise. 

In my mind this is just one more reason this team should be playing with more urgency than they are this season.  Their best shot at a title is probably right here and right now.

Fire (Up) Karl

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George Karl is a lightning rod for Nuggets fans.  Some are calling for him to be fired.  Some think he needs to become a little more active and others still believe he is a good coach who can take the Nuggets beyond the first round in the playoffs. 

I certainly do not believe he should be fired at this point in his tenure.  Even if he is dismissed who could the Nuggets bring in who has enough cache to get the players’ attention?  Larry Brown?  After the way he mailed in the Knicks job I think I will pass.   

The realistic question becomes how can George Karl improve as the coach of the Nuggets?  At this point in the season I think there are a handful of ways where he can make the team better by making himself better. 

First of all, there is some concern, at least on my part, that he does not command enough respect from his players.  I have mentioned before how there are times where after a timeout Julie Browman will report that George said they need to do this or that and when the game begins you do not see even a remote trace of what Julie said George asked them to do.  Either Julie is a horrible reporter, or the players do not take everything George says to heart. 

Think back to when George first arrived in Denver.  He was replacing a coach with absolutely no track record of NBA success in Jeff Bzdelik.  He was the successful veteran coach who could make young spoiled players not only listen to what he said, but believe he was right.  That team played hard and smart.  They ran on offense and played hard on defense.  Consequently they went on one of the great runs of all time the second half of the season.   

By the end of the 2004-2005 season the Nuggets were playing great basketball and we all knew it was thanks to Coach Karl.  When he took the court before the beginning of every home game George Karl would receive a rousing standing ovation.  He probably would not have received a better reception had he personally handed each fan in attendance a $1,000 although that may be because most of the fans would have run out of the arena to spend the $1,000 on crack and prostitutes.  He had a team that was a nice mix of veterans and unproven youngsters playing at a high level.   

How did he do it?  If a player did not do what he wanted, it was guaranteed that that player’s posterior would end up on the bench next to George.  Even young star Carmelo Anthony found himself watching important possessions from the cushy fold out chairs found courtside.  Karl showed that no one was immune from losing playing time if they did not play hard and play smart.   

You want proof?  Look at Melo’s shooting percentage pre George Karl and post George Karl.  2003-2004 Melo shot 42.6%.  2004-2005 Melo shot 43.1%.  Karl rolled into town halfway though 2004-2005.  Then in 2005-2006 Melo shot 48.1%.  Last year he shot 47.6%, but this season he is down to 44.9%.  Why the jump after Karl took over?  He would sit Melo down for taking bad shots.  Maybe Melo has forgotten that lesson as his shooting percentage has dropped off significantly this season.     

George needs to recapture that discipline.  I think this team has a nice mix of veterans and youngsters just like the 2004-2005 team did.  When guys stop running they should get to watch from the sideline.  When someone gets a little jump shot happy show them that it is not acceptable by having them take a seat.  If the defense is a little lax, send in a player who is not afraid to get down and dirty.   

Right now there is not one of the primary players who are in danger of being yanked out of the game if they are not playing hard and/or playing smart.  If players are not afraid of losing out on playing time, they have no reason to make a little extra effort and do what the coach wants them to do.  Karl talks about how players get too wrapped up in debating with the refs or they stop running or they take bad shots, but if all he is going to do is tell them to stop it, that is not enough.   

Another area I would like to see Karl make a change is his style of defense.  When he was with Seattle he was known as a coach who would use pressure and traps to get a team off kilter and produce turnovers.  This Nugget team is actually statistically better at forcing turnovers than those SuperSonics teams were.  The Nuggets average almost two steals a game more than Karl’s best Sonics team did (thanks to basketballreference.com for the old stats).   

I realize when you have a short bench you cannot afford to play that style of defense, but now that everyone of consequence other than Nene is back, yes I know Chucky Atkins is still out, they have the manpower to play just such a trapping havoc creating style.  Players like AI, Melo, Kenyon Martin and Camby all have good instincts and could be great in just such a system.  Add in Kuba Diawara, Bobby Jones, Anthony Carter and J.R. Smith and they have tremendous athleticism on the bench to help out. 

Perhaps Karl does not think that type of defense will work anymore or maybe he thinks it would be a waste of energy.  I do know that Karl has had success with that type of defensive scheme before and they also have Mike Dunlap on the staff.  Anyone who watched Dunlap’s teams at Metro State, a Division II school in Denver, knows they had ingenious blitzing scheme that completely rattled their opponents.  Dunlap used that style to win two championships and get to a title game on a third occasion.  Dunlap was a hot coaching name and it was my understanding that the Nuggets brought him on board to have him help institute some of his revolutionary ideas.  So far, I have not seen anything similar to what he did at Metro State utilized by the Nuggets. 

From my point of view Karl has both the personnel and the brain trust to play some trapping high pressure defense.  As I said, he may have some good reason for not doing so, but I would like to see them try it.  If anyone out there has heard or read anything about this and I have missed it, please leave a comment.   

Lastly, Karl has made some “interesting” decisions involving game management.  The Nugg Doctor has made a case on more than one occasion that Karl has called timeouts too late when the opposition has made a run.  I will not attempt to steal his thunder and will let you read for yourself should you so choose.  Perhaps Karl has joined the Big Chief Triangle Appreciation Society and gone the way of Phil Jackson who prefers to allow his teams to try to figure out what they need to do to stop a run instead of calling a timeout.  I can appreciate that sentiment, but momentum can be like quick sand.  The more you struggle against it the worse things get.  Sometimes all you can do to break free is to stop the game altogether.  

We have also talked about his lack of fire during games before and again, I am not going to get into it again here.  Karl also makes some strange lineup decisions such as leaving Bobby Jones and Kuba on the bench after they played such a big role in the six game winning streak earlier this season.   

No matter what you think about George Karl he is going to be the Nuggets coach for at least the remainder of this season and probably next season as well.  He has had as much success as any Nuggets coach in his NBA career.  Hopefully he can recapture some of that fire that triggered the Nuggets to great heights in 2004-2005 and lead them beyond the first round for the first time in what will be 14 years by the time the playoffs roll around. 

I am afraid if he does not, it will be more of the same from our Punxsutawney Nuggets.

Do Not Read This Post Standing Up

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Jon Hollinger pointed out in a recent chat that the Nuggets are third in the league in defensive efficiency.  I almost fell out of my chair.   

What is the one area that we can all point to where the Nuggets have struggled mightily almost all season?  We are all constantly railing on the Nuggets defense.  How on earth can the Denver Nuggets under any statistical measurement be one of the league leaders in any defensive category other than steals?  The Nuggets are only yielding 97.9 points per 100 possessions safely ahead of teams such as San Antonio, New Orleans, Detroit and Chicago.  Good for third in the league. 

How on earth is this possible?  I had to investigate.  My initial gut feeling was that the Nuggets had built up such a solid defensive efficiency rating during their six game winning streak earlier on in the season was somewhat artificially inflating their rating.   

Defensive efficiency is determined by how many points a team gives up per 100 possessions.  To test that theory I added up the total possessions in each of those six games then divided the number of points they gave up in those six games by the number of possessions.  Then I multiplied that points per possession number by 100 to get points per 100 possessions and my rough estimate of their defensive efficiency.   

The Nuggets opponents had 616 possessions over those six games, but they only scored 565 points.  That amounts to a 91.7 defensive efficiency rating which is absolutely stellar.  There is the smoking gun.  They only reason they have such a good rating is because those six games were so low that it has placed them far above where they should be.   

To prove that point further and show how absolutely atrocious the Nuggets defense has been I decided to determine what their defensive efficiency rating is for the other 14 games they have played.  I will not bore you with my eighth grade algebraic methods, but the results were not exactly what I expected.   

Using the Nuggets’ pace factor (don’t ask unless you want to be bored by more math talk) their opponents had roughly 1,468 possessions over those other 14 games and they had scored 1483 points.  That amounted to a 101.0 defensive efficiency rating.  That is just over three points per game worse.  That sounds bad, but here is the kicker.  After removing those six games where they undoubtedly played very good defense against some poor teams that 101.0 rating still would rank ninth in the league ahead of teams such as Miami, Toronto, Dallas and Cleveland who much more well known than the Nuggets for their defense.   

My next guess was they were putting up such a good defensive rating because thanks to Marcus Camby, they league’s leading rebounder, they prohibit teams from getting many second chance opportunities.   

Upon further review that is definitely not it.  From watching their games it seems like the Nuggets give up more than their fair share of offensive rebounds and they do.  They are the sixth worst defensive rebounding team in the league, even with Camby having such a great season on the boards.  The truth is they have a very good defensive efficiency rating despite the fact that they allow a bunch of second and even third chances to the other team.   

What conclusion can we draw from this information?  Perhaps the Nuggets are athletic enough that even with a subpar effort and lack of focus, they actually are a decent defensive team.  If that is true, just think how good they would be if they put forth a maximum effort on defense every night.  They could be an absolutely dominant defensive team.   

This has rocked many of my assumptions to the bone.  Perhaps bacon double cheeseburgers are not healthy for me to eat every other day.  Maybe Santa doesn’t actually exist.  Could it even be that I am not as suave and good looking as I think I am. 

Nah, I bet by the end of the season the Nuggets will plummet down the defensive efficiency list and I will be as good looking as ever.  However, we will have to pay close attention to the Nuggets place on the defensive efficiency rankings throughout the remainder of the season.

Game 19: Denver Nuggets 107 – Los Angeles Lakers 111

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Box Score 

It is easy to dwell on how amazing Allen Iverson was tonight.  He was incendiary.  It was awesome to watch, but it is all overshadowed by the outcome of the game.   

The Nuggets tend to get a little too cute on defense coming up with schemes where they believe they can take advantage of a matchup here or there, but once again tonight they out-thought themselves.  When Chris Mihm was in the game in the first half Camby did not guard him unless he entered the paint.  (I know about the box and one with one guy playing man to man, but what is it called when four guys play man to man and the other plays zone?  The dot and four?)  This unconventional defense left the Nuggets confused on their rotations and assignments once someone had to help on a screen or drive.  Because of their confusion they gave up a bevy of wide open three point shots in the second quarter. 

Fortunately in the second half the strategy was abandoned, as far as I could tell and Mihm helped by not straying from the paint anymore, but the damage was done as the Nuggets gave up seven threes in the second quarter alone.  Iverson had his best quarter scoring 18 points, but that was negated by the threes they gave up on defense.  Instead of going into halftime with a six or eight point lead, they were down four. 

There was an aspect of Iverson’s big game that did worry me a little and that was the offense was largely stagnant as Iverson pumped in bucket after bucket.  That is very difficult to avoid when a player like Iverson is taking over the game and there is a good reason to let it happen.  Watching the game unfold you kind of dreaded the potential situation where Iverson either cools off or the rest of the Nuggets have to pick up more of the load on offense.   

The Lakers made sure Iverson did not end up beating them.  Through three quarters Iverson had 49 points.  He scored two in the fourth quarter. 

In the first half the Lakers were frequently doubling Carmelo, but in the fourth quarter the Lakers decided to aggressively double Iverson and take the ball out of his hands.  On a night when J.R. Smith was 1-10, Kenyon Martin was 2-8 and missed three of four free throws in the fourth quarter and Marcus Camby was 0-3 there was not much help to be had.  Anthony had played a decent offensive game up to that point, but went 3-9 in the fourth quarter excluding his meaningless made layup with two seconds left.   

Iverson did his part posting four of his eight assists in the fourth quarter as he tried to set up his teammates as a result of the double teams, but it was a difficult adjustment for the rest of the team to make after he had scored so much on his own for the first three quarters.  He must have felt like he was playing with the likes of Matt Geiger, Eric Snow and Aaron McKee again. 

This game reinforces what I said after the encounter in Los Angeles last week.  The Lakers are simply a better team than the Nuggets at this point in the season.   In several ways the Nuggets outplayed the Lakers tonight.  They ran pretty well putting up 23 fast break points.  They had a slight lead in points in the paint.  They both shot and made 11 more free throws than the Lakers and they outrebounded them as well.  But the big difference in three point shooting was the clincher for the Lakers.   

Thus we see another game go down the tubes that the Nuggets really needed to have.  The Nuggets travel to Dallas tomorrow night (back to back and injury excuse warning!) and if they drop that game they will finish up the first quarter of the season at 11-9. 

In case you were wondering, but even if you were not, the Nuggets have lost six of the seven games they have played in Dallas since Carmelo joined the team.  They usually do not play very well there, but hey who does?   

I will be very interested to see how they respond if Dallas puts a run on them in the second half.   

Other Observations From Game 19:

 - Eduardo Najera is the best cutter on the team.  He has a great sense of timing for when to make his move. 

 - Melo put forth more effort on defense tonight, but it was actually frustrating to watch.  He will play close to his man, denying the ball and staying close to him for a while, but if he gets picked off or if his man moves out to the perimeter after Melo covers him on a cut he will just stop playing.  It almost seems like he is content with what he did and he considers his job to be done.  On a few occasions he just completely stopped.  He was not going for rebounds and he plays absolutely no help defense.  He even stops paying attention to his man.  That is not quiet a commitment to defense.  He is in a relationship with Defense, but he is still seeing his old lady friend Apathy on the side.  I hope Apathy has something going for her and is worth it, because I hate to see Defense treated that way.     

 - I got a kick out of Chris Marlowe pointing out that Melo was taking on the challenge of guarding Kobe at one point in the second quarter.  Melo guarded him for two possessions one of which he was rubbed off by a screen and switched off of Kobe almost immediately.  He was relieved of that duty when Anthony Carter checked back into the game. 

 - The Lakers were playing on the second half of a back to back set and on the road no less, yet somehow they won.  How could that be possible?  Any thoughts on that Marcus? 

 - Again, I do not like just reciting stats out of the box score, but Camby had another 20 rebound game.  He is pouring his heart out on the glass every night, but he still just plays pick and rolls like the ball handler has cooties.  During a key sequence in the last couple of minutes he did not step up to slow down Kobe when all J.R. needed to get back in front was a little help.  Camby just watched him go by and score a layup.  At least he tried to remedy that mistake on the next pick and roll, but Kobe did such a great job of quickly getting away from the screen Smith had too much ground to make up and Kobe was able to shake Marcus and hit a big jumper.  I do not expect Marcus to stop Kobe in that situation, but I do wish he would have put forth the same effort during the play that he could have made a difference. 

 - Don’t you just wish you could watch film with the Nuggets sometime with the remote in one hand and a pointer in the other?  I would probably get jumped afterwards by a lynch mob of posse members and beaten to a pulp, but if I get my message though it might be worth it.  I have enough life insurance to pay off the house.   

 - Lamar Odom had been struggling big time and it was only a matter of time before he had a good game.  He played very well scoring all 17 of his points, in the first two and a half quarters. 

 - I absolutely hate hearing cheers over the television when the Lakers score during games in Denver.  It grates on me like a braggart foisting his silly pathetic stories on a fair maiden. 

 - The Nuggets keep playing zone here and there and it makes me nuts.  They play sloppy defense when they are in a zone and the do not rebound well at all.  They have the potential to build the foundation of being a very good man to man defensive team.  After all, Melo is in a quasi-serious relationship with Defense for the first time in his career.   

 - I think it is safe to say that George Karl has lost faith in Bobby Jones and Kuba Diawara, who is back to being the Nuggets leading three point shooter after the 0-5 night J.R. Smith threw up.   

 - I thought it was interesting watching Iverson heading towards the bench after the third quarter, being met on the court by Karl and then emphatically telling him that he did not need a rest and would prefer not to be taken out of the game.  They guy had 49 points through three quarters in a close game.  You might as well be asking a pitcher in the middle of a no hitter if he wanted to let someone else take care of the last three outs or asking Drew Carey to date someone who does not take their clothes off for a living. 

 - I just hit my funny bone so I am going to wrap things up. 

Again, for some thoughts from the Lakers’ perspective on tonight’s game and to see what a high quality blog actually looks like as opposed to this slop check out Forum Blue and Gold.

An Open Letter to More Optimistic Nuggets Fans Than Me

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Disco left a comment after my post for the Miami game.  He brings up some good points and I wanted to make sure that everyone saw it because it displays a more optimistic side of things for the Nuggets and may very well prove to be accurate when contrasted to my more pessimistic view of what may transpire for the rest of the season.  It is definitely a good conversation starter and I think we could have some good discussion regarding these issues.   

Here is Disco’s comment:

Assuming GK/AI/Melo/Camby are ok with losing anything is silly. These are some of the most competitive guys in the NBA we are talking about. Most people assume Karl is fine with losing because he made this comment… but what would you have him do? Call out Melo/AI in the press? Right…thats gonna make the team better. I think you have greatly misjudged the psychological makeup of this team. This team thinks they can beat any team on any night…which is why they get lazy. They do not think its ‘OK to lose this one’.

In addition, its silly to extrapolate a season worth of games from the first month ESPECIALLY with this team. I think we all agree this team has not hit its stride yet.

These are all good points, but I tend to disagree with what he said so here is an open letter to optimistic Nuggets fans everywhere addressing the comment left by Disco: 

I can see and appreciate where you are coming from.  It is possible that I am being too hard on the Nuggets, or further still, completely wrong.  But it is obvious to me that this team is not making the obvious changes that are necessary to succeed consistently on the court.  That is a mental issue that this team has.  You are right that they are not in the locker room before a game saying to one another, “We can afford to lose tonight.”  It is a more subtle subconscious process that is allowed to fester by Karl himself using the excuse of injuries or Camby using the excuse of playing five back to back sets of games to rationalize poor performances.   

I wrote that I did not want to hear one player or coach use injuries, or anything else, as an excuse for why they lose because it fosters that defeatist mindset.  As soon as someone allows themselves to think that they lost because of injuries, it becomes an acceptable reason for the team as a whole to underperform.  The Nuggets, specifically Karl, let that happen. 

As far as their competitiveness, I agree that Camby and especially Iverson are competitive.  Melo is competitive, but he is no where near the level of Iverson.  I actually think Melo is a frontrunner where he is great when they are scoring a lot of points and things are going his way, but when things start to go bad, he gets frustrated and if that frustration festers for too long he becomes a detriment to the team.  His shot selection becomes atrocious and he starts pouting.   

Karl is much more difficult to read.  I know he was a very passionate player and coach when he was younger, but we do not see that much anymore.  I wrote a couple of days ago that he is clearly trying not to grate on his players as he used to.  He definitely makes a point of not calling his guys out in the papers, but none of us have any idea what he says to them behind closed doors.  He may be doing all he can, but I do not get the sense from him that every loss just eats him up inside.   

Ultimately with this team the problem is not having enough competitors who do not want to lose, but how that competitiveness manifests itself when the other team makes a run and how they react when they are not playing well.  I think Iverson is by far the most competitive player on the team.  I believe every loss hurts him and more than anything he wants to win a championship.  He gives it his all every night and will never stop fighting, but he is only one guy. 

I have also seen a downside of that super competitive nature that Iverson possesses in how it impacts the way he plays.  We all know that this team is at its best when they are playing some semblance of defense, running the floor and moving without the ball on offense.  When Iverson senses things are going bad and that hatred of losing boils to the surface, he becomes even more of a one on one player.  Ultimately, he relies on himself to carry the team out of it and usually that only exacerbates the issues on offense.   

When a game starts slipping away I want to see AI, Camby and Melo call everyone together and get on the same page.  Demand that everyone shares the ball and moves on offense.  Demand that they all start gritting it out on defense.  Remember together that they play their best when they play as a team and not as individuals.    

Instead, when things start to go bad we see Melo jacking up more and more contested jumpers and AI over dribbling.  The result of which is things seem to go downhill even more quickly.  At this point that attitude I wrote about comes in where the excuses they use to dismiss poor play impact their acceptance of what is happening on the court.  Again, I am not saying it is a purposeful decision, but a reason to let the flood of momentum overwhelm them.  Their effort becomes hollow.   

The best example of this was the game against the Clippers in Los Angeles.  On several occasions they were only down four in the second half, but they never gave me the slightest inkling of belief that they would get any closer.  After the game I wrote that it was the most insurmountable small third quarter lead I had ever seen.   

That game happened to be the second half of a back to back and they were playing without Nene, Chucky Atkins, Anthony Carter and Steven Hunter.  To top it off Linas Kleiza was injured in the second half as well.  Mentally they completely mailed in the second half.  It was pathetic.  Is it a coincidence that those excuses they site so readily were present in that game?  I do not think so.  Somewhere in their minds they decided that with all the obstacles they were facing that game was one that they could let go of.   

Instead of pulling together and fighting back when things get tight, they let a 17 point lead against the Lakers turn into a 28 point blowout, a nine point lead against an undermanned Clipper team turn into an inexplicable 11 point loss.  They have had one game all year where things were not going their way and yet they fought back to win against a decent team and that was the game in Indiana where we know Karl gave them a good thrashing at halftime.  They have come back to win games against Seattle and twice against Minnesota, but those were against the two worst teams in the league.  I do not think that is much to get excited about, but to be fair it does merit mentioning. 

Based on what I have seen, I have to question this team’s mindset and attitude heading into games.  I have to wonder why they allow themselves to play four horrible games in a row without showing the slightest interest in changing the things that they know they need to do better in order to win.  The very fact that they make excuses about injuries and schedules when those things do not prevent them from moving without the ball or taking good shots or rallying their teammates to change how they are playing shows where there mind is.  How else can you explain what we have seen the first month of the season?  This is a veteran team that should not have to keep learning the same lessons over and over again. 

You bring up another good point that has bugged me for the past three years.  They have a very arrogant attitude about themselves.  They do get lazy against poor teams and they lose important games because of it.  I do not believe the reason is because they know that they can beat anyone at anytime.  I believe it is because they think they are good enough to just show up and win.  That is a ridiculous attitude to have for a team that has not accomplished anything together. 

Concerning the projected record I put together, I was merely working with what they have done this season and their performance in previous seasons to develop what kind of pace they were on.  I am not saying it is etched in stone that they will be 50-32.  I think I used sound arguments for how I came up with that number.  Can they win 55 games?  Sure, but it seems unlikely.  Have they hit their stride yet?  You are correct in saying they have not.  One of the points I have tried to drive home though is that the schedule gets much more difficult.  Look at what they have in store for them in March.  They will have to play much better than they have to this point just to win seven or eight games that month. 

I do have very strong reservations about this team.  I may be wrong and I may be misreading their mindset, but I do not know how else to interpret the indifference, inconsistency and lack of urgency I see from them.  I hope I am wrong and they can begin playing consistently great basketball.  They definitely have the ability to do so.   

It really makes me worry that they know they need home court advantage and a favorable playoff matchup to have a good chance to advance in the playoffs, but their play has not reflected that belief.  November was a month to prove that they were a team to be taken seriously and get a lead on many of their competitors and they failed to do that.   

I would like to thank Disco for posting his comment as well as all of you who take the time to share you thoughts.  I truly appreciate all of you who chose to read this blog.   

I think this can be a good starting point for more discussion so please leave your thoughts below.  Am I completely wrong?  Do we need to give the Nuggets more time?  I am looking forward to what everyone thinks about the state of the Nuggets at this point in the season. 

Game 17: Denver Nuggets 123 – Los Angeles Clippers 107

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

What I saw from the Nuggets tonight made me even more disappointed in the results last night in Los Angeles against the Lakers.   

They did many of the things tonight that they failed to do last night.  They pushed the pace for more than a few minutes, even after makes, they had much better movement on offense resulting in a plethora of easy shots in the paint and they played good defense for a majority of the game.   

Of course, that has been the way they have done things for years.  When you can claim that you played the champions as well as anyone, or that you did really well for having to fight through injuries, why change anything?  As long as players keep getting injured, you can keep that line of crap going for years. 

Getting back to the game, the Nuggets played well enough that I was surprised when looking at the box score that some individual numbers were not better. 

I was very impressed with the play of Kenyon Martin.  He played very tough defense on Chris Kaman.  He was constantly working to push him away from the block when Kaman was trying to establish position and he met Kaman in the lane and began working him over instead of letting him come across the floor and then start fighting him.   

Martin was also aggressive on offense as he drove and cut to the rim frequently resulting in at least three dunks.  He was also very determined on the glass fighting everyone, even Marcus Camby on a couple of occasions, for rebounds.  Martin ended up with nine points and five rebounds, but I would have guessed he had 15 points and eight or nine rebounds from the way he played. 

When Martin was out of the game, Eduardo Najera did a very good job on Kaman as well frustrating him on more than one occasion. 

Carmelo Anthony made a concerted effort to get to the basket in the first half and I do not recall an instance where he forced a shot over a double team.  He also brought some effort on defense once again although only in spurts.  Most of all I was impressed with Melo’s effort on the defensive glass, especially in the second half when he recorded all of his rebounds.  He was so aggressive that, as with Martin, I thought he ended up with eight or nine boards.  He actually only grabbed four, but he kept some other rebounds alive by tipping them until a teammate could get to it. 

Tonight it was obvious that they knew what they had to change in order for them to succeed.  My question is why did they wait until tonight to make those changes?  Why don’t they approach every game the same way? 

I believe that they go into some games with the idea it is OK for them to lose.   

I have written previously about how important it is for the Nuggets not to site the injuries that they have endured as an excuse for underachieving.  Unfortunately not only are they using injuries as an excuse, it is coming directly from the head coach.  Successful teams and coaches do not give any excuses for loses.   

I think they went into the Laker game last night with the idea that they could lose the game and not feel bad about it because of the “rash” of injuries they have experienced.   

When you add that defeatist attitude they bring into some games because of the ready made excuse of injuries with the arrogant attitude that they think that they can just show up and win in other games they are approaching a large portion of their games with a very poor frame of mind. 

The Nuggets are like the teenager who is happy to get a ‘D’ because it is a passing grade when they are capable of getting an ‘A.’  Anyone who cares about them is upset that they are happy with the results and ultimately, they are hurting only themselves by settling for less than they are capable of.   

What makes things even worse is that the Nuggets achieved their goal for the month of November, which was established by none other than Coach George Karl, to win ten games.  For the Nuggets to proclaim this month a success for posting a 10-7 record is nothing short of preposterous. 

Maybe it is not quite a ‘D’ it sure as heck isn’t much better.  And there is Karl standing in front of the cameras telling everyone how pleased he is with it. Well, congratulations you are going to graduate from high school George, but do not expect to get into any good colleges, or to get any further than the first round of the playoffs. 

I had stated that in order for the Nuggets to make me believe that they are capable of winning 55 to 60 games they would have to end November with a 14-3 record.  Well, as the calendar turns to December they find themselves four games off of that pace and there were some ugly games mixed throughout for such a veteran team with lofty goals.   

Other Observations From Game 17:

 - I am still not sure what to think of Anthony Carter.  He has proven to be an adequate shooter from 20 feet and in.  He has put up some nice assist numbers.  However, he does not seem to run the team very well.  Many of his passes are off the mark and do not allow the recipient to take a shot in rhythm.  I think that is the first time I have ever spelled the word rythym correctly on my first try.  Dang it, I guess I could not do it twice in a row though. 

 - Looking at the stats the Nuggets did much better in all the areas they struggled in when the lost to the Clippers just over a week ago.  They outrebounded the Clippers by one, outscored them in the paint by six and even though they lost the fast break battle 20-14, they did a good job of pushing the pace. 

 - Just yesterday I wrote that the Nuggets might be better off starting AI at point and J.R. Smith at shooting guard, but I can certainly see the merits in having Carter and AI on the floor at the same time.  While playing Iverson at shooting guard is certainly a defensive liability, they run the floor much better when they have two options to take the outlet pass and run the fast break.   

 - Diawara is the only Nugget who has not gone through a slump from long distance.  He made two tonight, the second one killed any hopes of a Clipper rally.  Kuba is 14-31 on the season which equates to over 45%.  He is constantly compared to Bruce Bowen as a defender by George Karl my question is, if he really believes that, with his three point shooting why is he not playing more?   

 - Corey Maggette is by far the best offensive player the Clippers have, but I get the feeling they think he gets more than his fair share of shots up.  There were several occasions where his teammates chose not to pass to him even though he was set up in what seemed to be good scoring positions. 

 - Karl has been taking a lot of heat from fans regarding his lack of fire on the bench and his overly supportive comments in the press.  Everyone wants him to rant and rave along the sideline and call out his players in the papers and on television, but there are two problems with expecting those types of behavior from him.   

Karl is a Carolina guy and reveres Dean Smith as a coach and a person.  Smith was, for the most part, stoic on the sideline and Karl is trying to emulate that style.   

As far as speaking ill of his players to the media, that was one of the issues his players had with him in the past.  By the time his tenure was up in Milwaukee he had seriously hurt his relationship with his players, Ray Allen in particular, because he was hard on them openly with the media.  I think he is talking the way he is now to avoid some of those old problems.   

I am not supporting Karl in his decisions in how to conduct himself during games or with the press.  I am just saying this to give some background to why he may do what he does.

For a perspective on tonight’s game from the Clippers point of view check out Clipper Blog or Clips Nation.

Update:

J.R. Smith deserves a mention as he hit his first four or five threes he took.  They were all quality shots until he took a shady heat check three that ended up being his first miss.  He closed the game going 6-9 from long distance.  His lack of effort on defense and quasi psychotic shot selection made it difficult to keep him on the floor in the past.  Now that he is making an effort to correct those shortcomings, he can be a tremendous asset to the Nuggets.

We Kneed Fewer Injuries

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

The Nuggets finally caught a bit of a break today.  Who among us did not expect the worst after Kenyon Martin hurt his knee against Houston?  After looking over Martin’s MRI the doctors declared his knee injury a bone bruise and not an injury of a more serious nature.   

The ultimate idea of this post is how the Nuggets will deal with yet another injury, but there is another issue to address.  Is this a sign that a more significant knee injury for Kenyon is over the horizon, or perhaps even just around the corner, or might it be a sign that Kenyon’s knees are sturdy and they can handle some trauma without giving way to more significant damage?  I do not think we can draw a conclusion either way until Kenyon either makes it through the season or experiences a serious injury along the way.  It is one of those questions that we cannot really know the answer to, but can spend a lot of time arguing about anyway. 

The results of the MRI show that Martin will miss at least the next game against the Indiana Pacers tomorrow, but will probably also miss a game or two beyond that.   

Other good injury news is that Linas Kleiza is very close to returning and will be a game time decision tomorrow against the Flat and Boring State Pace Cars.  (I went to school in Indiana for two years, no not at IU thankfully, and things there are pretty dull.  In fact, the closest thing I ever received to hate email was regarding my treatment of Indiana in a scathing article I posted on an old website of mine.  OK, I admit that some people in Indiana have more than three teeth and not all of them have an incalculable Body Mass Index, but I still do not want to go back.) 

Whether Kleiza plays tomorrow against the AMC Pacers or not, the Nuggets will be significantly short handed without Nene and Martin.  After Steven Hunter went under the knife, I blogged that the Nuggets could not afford to lose anyone else to injury without it impacting their rotation.  Since then Kleiza and Martin have both been injured.   

It has appeared that the Nuggets have not really missed Kleiza, but that may not be entirely true.  He does run the floor as hard as any of the other players and he brings an energy and determination to the court when he is out there.  However, he did not hurt his ankle until the fourth quarter of the Clipper game and the Nuggets were not running or playing with energy, apart from Allen Iverson of course, while he was in there.  It is a stretch to believe he personally could have made much of a difference in the Timberwolf or Rocket games as pathetic as those performances were, but he would have provided a little of what the Nuggets have been missing.  However, now that Martin is out, they do need him back desperately. 

Even when Kleiza returns they will be undersized at power forward with Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera the only players who can even pretend to be low post defenders.  The Nuggets are going to have to play at a very fast pace to make up for their lack of size and the Pacers, for one, will oblige as they want to play quickly as well.  It will also help that they will be light in the front court as well as Jermaine O’Neal will probably miss the game in Denver with knee problems of his own.  Denver has been successful at playing small ball in short spurts so far this season and it helps that the next three opponents (Pacers, Lakers and the juggernaut Clippers) lack any low post threat from the power forward spot.   

The bottom line is the Nuggets are going to have to play with tremendous effort and passion on both ends of the floor in order to be successful while Martin is out.  Obviously, they have failed to do that for three straight games as miserably as the Maginot Line failed to hold back the Germans.  If they cannot turn things around as they did at halftime of the first Pacer game, they will find themselves staring at a .500 record and a long road ahead of them to respectability.   

I have no idea what George Karl will do with mixing and matching of lineups over the next few games.  He probably does not even know what he will do until Kleiza is either ruled in or out for the Pacer game.  This will be a test of his coaching skill as he will have to find the right mix of players that can work together on the floor and more importantly, prevent the Nuggets from using injuries as an excuse over the next few games.   

If you ask the Nuggets players point blank if they blame injuries for their recent poor performance, I guarantee you to a man they will say, “No.”  But they will list off everyone who has been hurt and deep down in a part of their soul that only God and their agent knows exists I suspect that they may allow themselves some leeway mentally to play poorly because of the current lack of health around the locker room.   

I will make another guarantee.  At the end of the season, if they do not achieve their goals, injuries will be one of the primary excuses at the top of everyone’s list to explain why. 

It is a mindset that Karl cannot allow to be fostered and it is up to him as well as players like Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby and Carmelo Anthony to make sure that such a mindset is not tolerated. 

Game 13: Denver Nuggets 99 – Minnesota Timberwolves 93

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

How dedicated am I to you guys?  My wife and I celebrated our anniversary tonight, and now I am watching the replay of the game so that I can file my post for everyone to enjoy.  The only question is will I make it to my next anniversary? 

Afer watching the replay I am not happy.

I want to know how do they come out flat for this game?  How do they give this team any hope?  I may go back and edit my glowing post following the Bulls game where I lauded their killer instinct and desire to blow everyone out.   

Before the season I laid out the groundwork for what it would take for this team must do in order for me to take them seriously as a contender.  I had to have a 14-3 record at the end of November.  Even though that is what I needed to see from them I let myself get sucked in by a few easy wins.  

Tonight the Nuggets did turn it on with about five minutes left in the third quarter and played with some determination in the fourth quarter, but they could never pull away from the Timberwolves and that was frustrating.

After the jump shooting extravaganza in Los Angeles the other night, wouldn’t you think that the Nuggets might have decided that they were going to work to get better shots?  Maybe try some of those things we have been talking about like moving without the ball, quick passing and pushing the pace.   

I have no idea why, but this team has to keep learning the same lessons over and over again.  What is worse, they know it.  They say things like, “It starts with defense” and “We have to play hard for the full 48 minutes,” but they keep failing to do those things and it keeps them from being a top team. 

That is exactly why I labeled these guys the Punxsutawney Nuggets (I sure wish that groundhog lived in a town like Joes or Hot Lake, it would be much easier to spell).  We see the same problems over and over.  They never get resolved.  At some point the team has to show some legitimate growth.  I have seen growth as individuals here and there, but not as a team. 

I will equate it to the frat buddies who have all finally settled down and started families, but whenever they get together they start doing blow and poking hookers.  Things eventually fall apart, just watch the movie “Very Bad Things” and you will see what I am talking about. 

Plenty of people will say this was a good win, they fought through a tough game and did what they had to, but that is window dressing.  It is soothing a symptom and not the disease.  Teams who contend dominate weak teams.  Sure they lose some over the course of an 82 game season, but they do not struggle so frequently with poor teams at home.   

Other Observations From Game 13: 

 - I was again disappointed with J.R. Smith’s performance.  He took three bad threes in the first half and even pushed McCants down which was somehow completely missed by the refs.  That is the kind of mental mistake that will bite you in a big game.  He has stopped swinging the ball around and has been shooting it himself.  He throws fits after every call that goes against him, even the good ones.  The maturity he was showing has absolutely disappeared.   

Can it be as simple as the position he is playing?  He has played much more intelligently as a point guard.  He has the ability to play the position and it sounded like he enjoyed it.  I know with Kleiza out and Carter back they needed him more at the swing positions, but I think they should consider a long term switch for J.R. He is still giving god effort on defense though so that is a good sign. 

 - Kenyon Martin had a very good game.  He played solid defense on Jefferson when they were not in their silly zone and put up some points on the other end of the court.  He has been consistently deadly within twelve feet all season.  The most encouraging thing for me was to see Martin go 4-4 from the free throw line when the game was still in doubt.   

 - How do the Timberwolves not run their offense all game long through Al Jefferson?  He is their best offensive weapon.  They rely way too much on their perimeter players.  In the first half it seemed like the talent vacant Mark Madsen had more chances on the block than he did. 

 - I wrote after the Portland Trailblazers game that I was disappointed that they came out and played zone because it prevented them from potentially developing a tough man to man defensive identity?  Well, for a good chunk of the first half they played zone and it hurt them.  This is not a very good zone team.  It is too easy to lose focus and expect someone else to do your job or someone else to get the rebound. In the second half they did play man to man exclusively from what I noticed, but the same situation arose as was present in the Clipper game, the tone of the game had been set.   

 - Notice how Chris Marlow is now referring to the baseline jumper as Camby’s favorite shot?  What is going to happen when he starts missing that one all the time?  Will the dunk then become his favorite shot?  I guess in a roundabout way at least people are realizing that Camby has no business taking that shot form the top of the key anymore, except for him as he flung it up there at least three more times tonight and I do not think he made any of them.   

I wish I could get that kind of treatment at my work.  Here he is going for his favorite email, the I thought you took care of it email.  Don’t mention that I am not doing my job, but just accept that I should be doing it because I do it often.

 - Well, the Nuggets got Anthony Carter back.  What did everyone think?  I thought he did a good job.  I do not blame him for fumbling the ball around a couple of times.  He played good defense, but does not seem to always make the right decision on offense.  He forced a couple of passes and made other passes that did not really trigger anything.  I am more in favor of him getting minutes than Chucky Atkins, but time will tell which of them should be on the floor.  Atkins is certainly a better shooter than Carter, but can he bring more to the table than that? 

 - Melo made three long jumpers to start off the game and everyone started getting excited.  I was somewhat concerned.  As noted above, the Nuggets did not work to get good shots against the Clippers.  He can get the long jumper whenever he wants.  It is a criticism of other talented players as well, particularly Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter.  They can get in the paint whenever they want, but it is so easy to take a 20 footer, why not do it.  They all can make it so it seems like a good idea to them to take it when in fact they should be working for a better shot.   

One of the crucial plays in the game late in the fourth quarter saw Melo jack up a 22 foot jumper after holding the ball and making no attempt to get to the rim.  It ended up being a positive turning point for the Nuggets as Camby slammed the miss through, thus letting Melo off the hook.  I did not hear much mentioned about it, but Melo’s shot selection was not good in this game.   

 - Along the same lines from a coaching standpoint it is tempting to go with isolation sets because talented players like Melo and AI can beat almost anyone, but more easy shots come about through moving without the ball and quick passing than standing as the clock winds down.  

 - Post game show in a nut shell:  Did not do this right or this right or this right or that right or this either, but they got the W so life is great.  All these things they struggled with do matter.  They are warning signs on the way to the washed out bridge.  One of the things coaches say is it is tough to teach after a win.  Players know they won the game so they are not going to listen if you try to tell them what they did wrong.   

However, I too fall prey to this as my tracking of bad losses does not include bad wins.  Why?  Because they go in the win column, but we all know the things that haunted the Nuggets in this game will continue to haunt them all season long. 

 - Tomorrow night they get the struggling Houston Rockets who somehow gave up a 26 and 14 night to the artist formerly known as Shaq Diesel on their way to their sixth straight loss.  I guess things could be worse.   

Sorry for the lack of humor tonight, but I used all my wit on my wife during dinner.

 Check out the what Timberwolves fans are saying after this game at TWolvesBlog.

Game 12: Denver Nuggets 90 – Los Angeles Clippers 101

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

Another game, another blow out, but this was not the blow out Nuggets fans expected.  Make no mistake about it, this was a blowout.  From the middle of the second quarter on the Nuggets were cooked. 

“We really will not find out much more about them until they play at Houston on Saturday.  That is unless they lose on the road against the Clippers or at home against the Timberwolves.” 

I wrote that just last night after the Bulls game in reference to the fact that the Nuggets were playing much improved defense and doing all they could to run the other team out of the gym. 

Well, all those things they had been displaying over the previous five and a half games suddenly disappeared.   

No heart. 

No offensive movement. 

No focus. 

No chance. 

They lost a game to a team missing three of their four best players (OK, Cassell did come in for a bit in the third and fourth quarter, but the tone of the game was set long before that) because of injury.   

This is the second bad loss for the Nuggets already this season including the Knick game and excluding the Hornets game, which was a borderline bad loss.  Last year Phoenix won 61 games, which is something the Nuggets have stated that they believe they can accomplish.  Phoenix had five bad losses all last season. 

The Nuggets are on a pace for 13 bad losses.  You do not win 60 games, or 55, with that many bad losses.  The only player who made any attempt to get to the basket was Iverson.  He was by far the Nuggets best player tonight.  He single handedly kept them in the game in the second quarter.   

One example of the Nuggets’ mindset tonight was Martin had a shot blocked by Kaman which he thought was goaltending.  He stood back behind the play glaring at the ref while Kaman hustled down and got a wide open layup on the secondary break. 

The Nuggets also missed a myriad of layups in the first half.  In the second half, they did not get nearly as many chances close to the rim. 

To top it all off, they started running the offense they perfected from the first half of the Celtics game.  A devastating combination of a lack of movement and a lack of passing and it worked just as poorly tonight as it did then. 

This was a pathetic display of basketball.   

Other Observations From Game 12: 

 - The bloom is off the rose for Bobby Jones and Kleiza from the three point line.  Jones has missed six straight and Kleiza is two for his previous 15!  Iverson had a couple of chances to kick it over to Kleiza, but he had seen enough. 

 - Even early in the second half when the Clipper lead was hovering around six it seemed like it might as well have been a 20 point lead.  At no time did I believe the Nuggets were in position to make a run. 

 - At what point was George Karl going to realize that Kenyon Martin could not guard Chris Kaman one on one?  He abused Martin in the post over and over.  Maybe he would make an adjustment at halftime. 

 - J.R. Smith regressed in a big way tonight.  He was terrible in the first half.  He was out of control and was lucky that he did not get called for traveling on a couple of occasions because he could not decide when to pick up his dribble.  In the second half he started jacking up bad three pointers. 

 - Camby took four, FOUR, pull up jumpers in the first half.  He actually made two of them to double his total as a Nugget, but that does not change the fact that they were horrible shots.  Other than that, he was quietly effective grabbing another 18 boards. 

 - The Nuggets did not double Kaman in the post in the second half, but there was a possession where they doubled Mobley.  That resulted in a wide open jumper on the off side.  Ultimately I guess it did not matter what they did with the pathetic mental state they were in tonight, they were going to lose regardless. 

 - Someone needs to tell Melo that bodying up to his man 45 feet from the basket is not good defense.  He also has to move his feet.  There is no reason to play that tight on your man that far from the basket anyway.  That is an example of fake hustle and fake intensity.   

 - It is a testament to how talent poor the Clippers are that they were only up by seven at the half and only won by 11. 

 - Karl’s big second half adjustment was to start Mike Wilks in stead of Diawara.  I did not know why Wilks was playing in the first half when he did.  Why he started the second half over Kuba in a game where the Nuggets were lacking defensive intensity was ridiculous.  Let’s say I am mad at my car for getting poor gas mileage.  I do not take the air out of the tires because I am trying to prove a point.  I do whatever I can to get the gas mileage up as high as possible.  Starting Wilks instead of Kuba was letting the air out of the tires.   

 - If it were not for spell check, I would never have spelled the word mileage correctly.  Shouldn’t there be a ‘d’ in there somewhere? 

 - Another thing I wrote last night was that Melo had not lost his head yet this season.  Well, in the second quarter Cuttino Mobley bumped Melo with his posterior which apparently gave Melo a bit of a boo-boo.  He backed off about fifteen feet and let Mobley drain a wide open three.  The rest of the game he was pouting and decided the best way to get back at Mobley was to pick up fouls running through screens and taking poor shots.  He then resorted to firing up a bunch of threes.  Sure he made a couple, but realistically, they were all bad shots. 

 - During the game I received an email newsletter from the Nuggets announcing Iverson was player of the week last week.  Not much of a chance of repeating that accomplishment after this stink bomb even though Iverson ended up having a very good night.

 Have a great Thanksgiving everyone and I truly appreciate all of you who take the time to read this blog and even leave your thoughts in the comment section.

For a sample of what the Clippers fans thought about this game check out Clipper Blog or Clips Nation.

Game 11: Denver Nuggets 112 – Chicago Bulls 91

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

What else can we say about the Nuggets at this point?  Tonight was another example of smart offense, tough defense and near nonstop effort.  They got up early on the Bulls, which is easy as they start two offensively inept players and three other players who are in an extreme slump, and kept the pedal down all night. 

One big change I see in the Nuggets this year is a new hyper-competitiveness.  Right now they have a killer instinct that I have never seen from them before.  One example of that was Camby getting called for a travel late in the third quarter with a 25 point lead and getting really upset like I-just-caught-my-wife-in-bed-with-two-other-dudes upset.  These guys want to destroy everyone right now and I love it. 

Like I said, what else can we say about the Nuggets at this point in the season?  They are blowing out teams that they should be blowing out.  That may seem a bit uninteresting, as much of my material does, but do not discount that as there are many teams who struggle at winning the games that they should win easily in the NBA.  One team that struggled mightily with that was your 2006-2007 Denver Nuggets. 

We really will not find out much more about them until they play at Houston on Saturday.  That is unless they lose on the road against the Clippers or at home against the Timberwolves before that. 

Other Observations From Game 11: 

 - Nocioni is a scrapper and fighter on defense.  One of the things I was worried about was him getting away with the little physical hits and getting in the Nuggets’ (i.e. Melo’s) head(s).  Well, Melo made him look absolutely silly.  Nocioni was never close enough to Melo to get any cheap shots in on him.  Melo was able to use his superior quickness to get plenty of space on Nocioni whether it was in the paint on a sweet spin move or on the perimeter with the step back jumper.   

Nocioni is going to be praying that Argentina plays zone next year in the Olympics against Team USA because he wants no part of Melo after tonight. 

Along the same lines, Melo has not had any big blowups as he has had in the past where he loses his head or starts playing selfish to prove a point.  No throwing the headband or flipping out on refs.  It is almost as if he is growing up.   

 - Melo had a migraine in the morning, and it may have reflected a little bit in his shooting.  He was 0-3 on three pointers and missed a handful of 18 footers.  He did break out of his one game free throw slump in a big way.  He shot 10-13 which was not great, but was much better than the 0-4 he put up against New York.   

 - Martin was tremendous in the first quarter.  He has not only done a tremendous job on defense, but he is just as good on offense.  His shot selection has been as good as I have seen since he came to Denver.  He has eliminated the 20 foot jumper from his repertoire (he did take an 18 footer in the third quarter, but I can excuse that from time to time) and is taking the ball to the basket for his nice little push shot.    

 - There were three different stages of the game where the Nuggets relaxed and the Bulls were able to cut into their lead, at the beginning of the second quarter the Bulls went on a 7-0 run, when the starters came back in midway through the second quarter when they saw a 49-32 lead get knocked down to ten and a couple of minutes at the beginning of the second half when the had a 5-0 run. 

In the past the Nuggets would have let those sequences snowball into a prolonged run.  At this point in the season they are regaining their focus and throwing up a run of their own to not only regain their advantage, but increase it.   

In the past three games neither the Blazers, the Knicks nor the Bulls have been able to cut a big Nuggets second quarter down below ten.  You read that correctly, in the previous three games once the Nuggets have been up by at least ten in the second quarter they have maintained that lead throughout the game.   

 - Even when the Nuggets were temporarily losing focus on defense their offense was in high gear all night.  Melo has been a matchup nightmare for his individual defender for a couple of seasons, but now that he is more dedicated to hit the open man when he drives and that has made him other-worldly.  When he is passing the way he is it will require an entire team effort to keep the Nuggets from having a big offensive night. 

 - Has Nocioni shut up yet?  Dear Lord, the guy complains more than a prissy Valley Girl doing manual labor. 

 - Tyrus Thomas was a complete punk for a short stretch in the third quarter.  He glared at Melo for tipping the ball out of his hands after a whistle.  Then he tried to be a tough guy fighting through a screen the next time down the court and was called for a foul.  After that he threw a mini elbow at Kenyon after Martin was called for a pushing into him on a screen.  He had a really nice game against Detroit this season.  If he does not get his head on straight, that will end up being his career game.   

 - I think Hinrich just missed another jumper.  And he is planning on taking another on the next possession.  Gordon was much worse than Kirk so it may have been better using him, but in the third quarter after the Bulls made their last mini-run he missed jumpers on three or four possessions in a short sequence to kill any chance they had of getting any closer.

 - I really should say something about Marcus Camby seeing how he had another 20 rebound game.  He had a sequence of blocks in the second quarter that left Scott Skiles on the floor yelling at the refs because he could not believe that anyone could do such a thing.  Well, believe it Coach Skiles and enjoy the auto deduction from your next check for the fine you will get after picking up that technical.  As great as Camby has been, it is almost routine to see him grab rebound after rebound.  He is playing at a high level and deserves all the accolades that he is receiving from Nugget fans.

 - I agree completely with what Kenny Smith said about the Bulls on Inside the NBA last week.  They are a jump shooting team that can never get any open jumpers.  Question:  How many 20 footers do those guys take with a hand in their face?  Answer:  More than the average person shoots in their life. 

 - I kind of have a sore throat right now, but I think I will be alright. 

 - I have not really given Iverson, the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week, much attention in the past couple of write ups, but he had 20 points in the first half and was playing superlative offensive basketball.  He is taking (mostly) good shots and getting teammates involved.  He let Hinrich get loose a couple of times in the first half on defense, but was a tremendous pest apart from that.   

The very first possession of the game the Iverson and Diawara were playing such great denial defense that Ben Wallace could not pass the ball off to anyone and had to take an awkward driving shot.  How often do you see that in the NBA? 

Believe it or not, you see it now from the Denver Nuggets.

You can find a perspective from the Bulls point of view at Blog-a-Bull.

Game 10: Denver Nuggets 115 – New York Knicks 83

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score 

I was absolutely thrilled with the Nuggets tonight.  They had an inferior team coming into their building who had just played a double overtime game the night before and they absolutely blew them out.   

No contest. 

No mercy. 

The Nuggets outscored the Knicks by eight in the first quarter, ten in each of the second and third quarters and even tacked on another four point advantage during garbage time in the fourth.  This was dominance on the scale of Godzilla vs. Bambi, Germany vs. France in WWII, red wine vs. white suede or sanity vs. Angelina Jolie. 

In the first half the Nuggets were cutting through the lane as well as I have ever seen them in recent years.  The passing was equally as good as there was an avalanche of layups, dunks and assorted open shots to start the game.   

I will proclaim this on November 18, 2007 for everyone to see and reflect on:  Teams can no longer play zone on the Nuggets.  Not only are they much improved from the three point line, but they have excellent passers at every position.  If they do not shoot their way out of it, they will slice and dice the zone to death. 

It was obvious that Marcus Camby remembered what happened in New York a couple of weeks ago when the Knicks absolutely dominated the boards on the way to a comeback win.  I was not in favor of Camby winning the Defensive Player of the Year award (even though I was glad he did), but tonight he played like a legit Defensive Player of the Year.  He was erasing shots from all over the floor.  Curry and Randolph played the role of comic relief and Camby played the super hero as he continuously swept in and left the bad guys wondering what on earth just hit them.  The Nuggets also outrebounded the Knicks 51-46 and Camby led the way with 20. 

Melo was absolutely amazing as he was hitting jumpers and making sweet dishes left and right.  He is continuing to round out his game as he has added the three point shot, he has committed to pass out of most double teams and on top of all that he is playing defense.  The only thing missing is big time night in and night out defensive rebounding.  I cannot imagine him getting better than he is right now, but the kid is still only 23 and he will continue to improve his game.     

Even better than Melo’s continued improvement may be the emergence of the Nuggets’ second five.  They can D up on anyone, they fight and scrap all over the court forcing turnovers and frustration for the opposition and they score.  When can anyone remember a time where you could look forward to the second team entering the game?  I remember back a few years ago when the Nuggets’ first five should have been their second five.  Paging Vincent Yarbrough, Vincent Yarbrough please report to Memory Lane…Donnell Harvey, please step up to the white loading zone, you are up next.   

As the game wore on the question in the second half was when would Isaiah order the “Code Red” and little Nancy Boy Balkman tried to make his scumbag coach proud by throwing an elbow at Kleiza’s mug early in the fourth.   

I loved how Kleiza kept dropping threes and throwing down dunks in the fourth quarter after the pathetic attempt at thugery by Balkman.  I just wish he would have added in a few glares in the direction of the Knick bench. 

I hope Isaiah was happy that Karl pulled his starters with just over nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.  His weak team sure as heck could not keep it under 40 had he not done so.  Does anyone respect Isaiah as a person anymore?  If you and your spouse were about to have a baby and someone told you your child will grow up to be like Isaiah Thomas or like an axe murderer wouldn’t you kind of be hoping that they turn out to be an axe murderer?  By the way, why do axe murderers get such a bad wrap?  Really, if used correctly, an axe can be a much more efficient tool to kill someone than a gun or a club.  Maybe, I should stop typing… 

Other Observations from Game 10: 

 - Camby must have realized that he did not take a jumper in the last game against Portland because the very first possession of the game he chucked up the dreaded pull up jumper. If you have read this blog before, you probably know what the result of that shot was. 

He missed. 

 - J.R. Smith continues to improve with each passing game.  His effort and intelligence seems to build quarter by quarter.  I could not be more impressed with him.  He continues to attack the basket, make smart passes and is playing inspired hard nosed defense.  Both New Orleans and Chicago must be watching him play and kicking themselves, especially Chicago.  The Bulls did not even consider hanging onto him and sent him to Denver for a pittance of financial relief and two second round picks.   

 - I had not mentioned this before and I was hoping I would not have to as it seemed like things were getting better, but after tonight I cannot hold my tongue anymore.  Whoever the director is for Altitude during Nugget games frequently shows elongated replays that cut into the game action.  I cannot tell you how nuts it makes me to be watching some mundane replay only to hear the ball dribbling in the background and knowing that I am missing live action.  I can see screwing up once or maybe twice, but how can this keep happening?  Helen Keller would do a better job of running things.  At least she would notice the sound of the ball bouncing and stop the replay to get to the live action. 

 - Curry and Lee looked completely winded in the first half. 

 - I have never seen worse jump balls than I did tonight.  The one in the first half between Melo and I think it was Curry was absolutely horrible.  I do not recall seeing a ref call for a rejump because the toss was so atrocious.  Is it that difficult to throw a ball straight up in the air?  Add in the fact that Randolph could not figure out that the ref brought the ball up over his shoulder and then tossed it up when he was going against Martin in the third quarter and they were just disasters.  Maybe they should start using the zeppelin shaped balloons that they fly around at halftime to just drop the ball from above the players.   

 - When Kenyon left the game I rewound the feed and could tell that he hurt his back from watching the replay.  To start Randolph grabbed him and kind of twisted him in an attempt to get position and then after the play was over Randolph gave him a little shot in the back.  If he misses time, that will be very bad. 

 - Malik Rose is still in the league?  I figured the Knicks bought him out just after they used the Alan Houston rule to waive Alan Houston. 

 - Is it wrong of me to hope that Chucky Atkins and Anthony Carter never get healthy?  Does that make me a bad person?  I know I have said it before, but honestly, the injuries to those two and Mike Wilks have been a real blessing as J.R. has played great at the back up point guard spot.  I read a quote from J.R. in the Denver Post where he said he loved playing point because he was always guarded by a smaller player.   

 - Remember how poorly the Nuggets ran the fast break in Washington when they tried running for pretty much the first time this season?  Well the rust is gone and it has been replaced by some shinny chrome.  They are pushing the pace and passing very efficiently.   

 - The Nuggets had 12 steals and only 11 turnovers.  They also had 13 steals against 17 turnovers against the Blazers and seven steals compared to 13 turnovers against Cleveland.  Those are impressive numbers.   

 - They also got back on track from long distance hitting 11 of 26 including 2-2 from Melo, 2-3 from Diawara and 3-6 from J.R.  Kleiza took 7 to make 2 and Bobby Jones was 0-2.  As you know I am not an NBA coach, but I think Jones has too much motion in the process of getting the ball in his shooting pocket.  

 - Utah is starting to come back to earth after a hot start.  They tend to be the opposite of the Nuggets where they get out of the gate quickly and then peter out a little.  As a result of Utah’s slacking the Nuggets are back in first with a 7-3 record. 

 - We still do not know how good this team is.  They are starting to blow out the teams that have no business hanging with them, but they still have not played a contender who they can really measure themselves against.

Fan Correspondent Report: Game 9 – Portland at Denver

Welcome to the first installment of the Born A Nuggets Fan Fan Correspondent Report.  For more information on this controversial and groundbreaking program click here.   

Frequent commenter JM was one of the winners of the Tommy Boy quote contest at the end of the “How Not to Run the Pick and Roll” post (other winners will be announced soon so hang in there guys).  To kick off the Fan Correspondent Program here is his insightful and entertaining report from the inside and around the Pepsi Center. 

I work downtown, so my wife got a babysitter for the little one and took the light rail and met me down there for the game.  I walked to the Pepsi Center and got there about 4:45.  So I wandered around the arena in the frigid air.  Fan 950 was setting up the tent and hardly a soul was there.  I made the rounds around Pepsi Center and went into the back of the arena.  The first time I walked by the Trailblazers bus had just pulled in.  I walked further and I walked past Julie Browman.  It was funny, she didn’t even make any eye contact with me.  I wouldn’t either, if I was a svelte female walking alone and some 6′ 5″ stranger tries to say hi.  I didn’t say a word, but it was amusing.  The lady who holds up the “we love (Player’s Name)” signs was on the street waiting for the team to arrive.  I talked with her for a minute.  She was nice but I’m sure she was thinking, “who the heck is this guy?”  Round two around Pepsi Center.  A $300k + Mercedes Benz pulls up into the team’s parking lot.  Based on from what I hear about Marcus Camby’s nice ride, I assume it’s him pulling in.  The windows are tinted and I wasn’t going to gawk as he got out of his car.  I will just assume it was either him, AI, or Carmelo pulling up.

Fast forward to the game after a burger at the Blue Sky Grill.  I won seats from 950 the Fan.  I called my buddy who used to work IT at Pepsi Center to find out where they were.  He said they were great seats, and they were.  Twenty rows from the court opposite of the benches and scorers’ table. As the game starts, I notice there is virtually no one in the upper deck of the arena.  I know we are playing Portland tonight, but holy crap, this arena would sell out every time AI came to town as a Sixer!  People don’t realize how good we have it in Denver.  Anyway, two drunk early-twenty somethings sitting in front of me in the first half.  They were completely obnoxious.  Every other word an F-word, they smelled funny, and were downright stupid.  Then there was the guy in row 17 yelling “Blake sucks!” every time he touched the ball.  I would understand completely if that was Nick Van Exel.  But picking on Steve Blake is like trying to publicly humiliate your Grandpa.  You look stupid trying to do it.  Alcohol has an interesting affect on people.

During the kiss cam, Rocky tried kissing the police officer who looked a lot like Elvis.  Rocky in turn gets him to shake his booty and do a pretty good Elvis impression.  Some national champion jump rope team from Boulder performed the half-time festivities.  Rocky tried his half-court shot during two time outs in the 4th quarter, and failed miserably.  During the second attempt, JR Smith came out onto the court, took the ball from Rocky’s hand and nearly nailed it from that distance.

As far as the scuffle with Camby, I saw him getting into it more with Joel Przybilla than with Aldridge.  In fact, it looked like he was the one who started it.  They were jawing a little at each other during Aldridge’s free throws.  Anyway, it didn’t escalate, and I forgot about it until I read the paper this morning. 

Game 9: Denver Nuggets 110 – Portland Trailblazers 93

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Box Score

Did anyone else watch the first half and just feel kind of unsettled about the game tonight?  Not about the outcome, but about the intensity and the flow.  I would equate it to watching a decent foreign movie.  I was interested in what was going on, but felt a little smarmy and uncomfortable because of it. 

At the end of the first half the Nuggets had a 14 point lead, but did you get the feeling you were watching good basketball?  Towards the end of the second quarter the Nuggets started to get it together to build the lead up to 14, but I felt that was due more to Portland’s lack of performance (a young team coming off of a big win at home against Detroit the night before) than the Nuggets dominating them. 

At half time you could have looked at this game in one of two ways.  Either the Nuggets are good enough that they can play poorly and still handle a mediocre team or they did not have good focus and had they played a better team, they might have been in trouble.   

Actually I think the truth, like a creamy filling, is somewhere in the middle. 

Fortunately the second half was completely different.  The Nuggets came out in the third quarter and played with focus and purpose.  I felt like I was watching a good old American action flick again with lots of explosions and other macho stuff. 

After a cold shooting first half, Iverson was red hot to start off the second.  He knew Steve Blake could not guard him and proved it.   

The Blazers switched to a zone in an attempt to slow down Iverson and the Nuggets took advantage of it to increase their lead.  After the standing around isolation offense the Nuggets foisted on us in the first half the ball movement and unselfish passing was tremendous to watch.  On several occasions Portland chose to double Melo on the wing and he almost always made a smart pass that resulted in a good shot.  Melo, Camby, and J.R. Smith all made tremendous passes that resulted in dunks or easy layups.  

The Nuggets were very active on defense and on the glass.  They stripped the Blazers post players continuously in the third quarter and ended up with a total of 13 steals. 

Following Iverson’s lead Melo was red hot in the fourth quarter and they were able to turn the last five minutes of the game into garbage time.   Heading into a timeout in the third quarter Melo saw that he was coming out of the game and showed some displeasure.  He knew that he could be dominant on offense against this team and wanted to stay in the game.  When he came back in the game he was dominant.  I thought that was good to see.  Melo has the hunger to be an MVP caliber player.  He is also starting to show the all around game and smarts to get him there. 

If there was an area I was disappointed in tonight it was that I believe the Nuggets had a chance to really start to develop a defensive identity.  They had played six quarters of tremendous defense in a row.  Tonight they actually implemented a completely different defensive system than they had in any of the previous games this season.  Instead of fighting through picks and playing straight up, they switched almost every pick.  They also played a good deal of zone defense.    

I almost wonder if George Karl was experimenting during this game as the Trailblazers were a good team for the Nuggets to implement this type of switching defense against.  They did not have a cat quick scoring point guard or a big man who could overpower anyone inside.  Steve Blake was not going to kill the Nuggets and the only Nugget that could not reasonably guard LeMarcus Aldridge on a switch until help arrived is Iverson.   

Even with the defensive game plan differing from what I was hoping for, the bottom line is the Nuggets took care of business at home and easily dispatched of a young team.   

Other Observations From Game 9: 

 - I continue to be impressed with J.R. Smith.  In the past if his shot was not falling, he would be a liability for the Nuggets.  This year he is working hard on defense and creating quality shots for his teammates.  He even passed on a wide open three at one point in order to swing the ball around the perimeter.  On several occasions J.R. found himself matched up with players like Aldridge and Przybilla under the basket either on a switch or when the Nuggets were playing zone.  He never stopped fighting and did as well as anyone could expect of him under those circumstances.  In the past he would have probably run out of there faster than my readers are passing out from boredom. 

 - Kleiza again brought a great deal of energy and hustle to the game.  He dove on the floor for a loose ball in the fourth quarter with a big lead.   

 - Things got a little chippy in the third quarter when Camby took a wild swing at a shot by Aldridge and clipped his head in the process.  Aldridge took exception to the fact that he was hit in the head and the two started jawing at each other.  Fortunately they were separated because if either one threw a punch and landed it their scrawny arms would have probably shattered. 

Later on in the broadcast I picked up on a clue as to why Camby tried so hard to prevent the easy shot by Aldridge.  I forget which Blazer received the pass, but he had an open layup.  Camby violently pushed J.R. Smith into him to prevent the shot from going in.  I heard someone yell, “No layups!” when Camby pushed J.R. into the Blazer.  On the replay Camby’s mouth was moving which leads me to believe he was the shouter. 

That leads me to believe the Nuggets were trying to play physical with the Blazers and had implemented a “no layup rule” at least for the night.   On the play that angered Aldridge Camby fouled him hard enough to make sure he did not get a layup. 

This strategy hurt the Nuggets in garbage time though as they gave up more three point plays than should be legal in most states.

 - The three point watch is on life support.  After three straight hot shooting games the Nuggets had a gooseegg until Mike Wilks hit one late in the game.  They ended up 1-13.  Everyone missed at least one three except for Martin, Camby, Von Wafer and our hero Mike Wilks.  Fortunately Martin and Camby did not take a three and unfortunately Wafer did not either. 

 - The Blazers ran a promo during the Pistons game the night before the Nuggets game where Steve Blake claimed they had a plan for Melo.  They better go back to the drawing board because it was not effective.   

At all. 

 - I do not think Camby took one jumper tonight.  I can not tell you how happy that makes me.  He almost fired off the dreaded pull up jumper, but dropped off a beautiful bounce pass to Martin for a big slam instead.  That was the best decision that has been made since someone put cheese and bacon on a hamburger.  Perhaps he is reading Born A Nuggets Fan!

Once again a very good win against an underrated team.  When my only complaint was that I wish they had played a different defense during a game where they held the opposition to 39% shooting and held their best player (Brandon Roy) to 10.6 points under his average it was a good night.

This reminded me a little of how the Nuggets played during their hot streak to close out the 2004-2005 season, but as always I remain cautious.  A team that is supposed to win 55-60 games should have a large number of these games during the season.

How Not to Run the Pick and Roll

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

It is time for me to share my thoughts on the failings of the Nuggets’ pick and roll game.  The idea for this came to me during a certain blow out loss during the Eastern Conference road swing the Nuggets completed last weekend.   

When the pick and roll is run correctly, it can be the premise for a team’s entire offense.  It creates an instant advantage for the offense and forces the defense to either surrender an open shot or to scramble to cover their disadvantage, which creates an advantage for the offensive team somewhere. 

On the other hand, when a pick and roll is executed poorly it not only is frustrating, it makes the team look very inept.  Unfortunately for the Nuggets they have looked inept running the pick and roll for much of the season.  We are talking Britney-Spears-as-a-mother inept or Billy-King-as-a-GM inept. 

Most of the breakdowns on the pick and roll have come from one or more of the following four problems. 

1.  Spacing – The Nuggets seem to have two predominant sets for the pick and roll.  One set involves the power forward setting a screen for Melo or AI and the other has Melo setting a screen for AI with the majority of the Nuggets screen and roll action involve the first instance with the power forward screening for AI.   

Watch what happens after the run the pick and roll in this situation.  Usually the rolling player will not get nearly enough space from the location the pick was made and where AI is driving off of the pick.   

The other issue is there have been times where they have run a side pick and roll with a third player posting (or standing doing absolutely nothing) on the same side as the pick and roll.  There is absolutely no room for anyone to maneuver in that set.  They seem to have gotten better at this.  

Nene is horrible at rolling.  If you do not believe me, I guess you will have to trust me for the next five weeks until you can notice for yourself.  When he sets a screen for AI he basically rolls right next to him creating a traffic jam.  In one instance against Boston Nene rolled right along side AI and they both basically ran into a third Nugget player who was standing on the block.  How many defenders do you think it took to guard that?  I bet the Celtics could have stopped that play with zero defenders allowing their five players to cover the other two Nuggets like Jackie Christie covers Doug. 

The best “roller” on the team, also known as the anti-Nene, is Kenyon Martin.  Martin does a great job of setting stone wall picks, gets wide and moves away from the path of the player driving off the pick and then cuts strong to the basket.  He not only ensures the ball handler separation from his defender, but he also provides a very nice passing lane.  If he receives the pass, he takes it strong at the rim.  If you are a young player who would like to see how to properly run the pick and roll, watch Kenyon Martin.   

I think that is the first time I have ever encouraged anyone, especially youngsters, to emulate K-Mart. 

2.  Shot Selection – Even in a poorly run pick and roll the ball handler usually has at least a slight opening with which to operate.  I have already lamented the Nuggets propensity to take shots after one pass or less in the half court.  This is a big reason why.  Whether it is AI, Melo or even J.R. Smith from time to time, they all see that gap to get off a shot and they just attack.  I like their aggressive attitude, but many times they take a difficult shot because they think to themselves, “I have an advantage, I have to exploit it.”   

The problem is not that they are entirely ineffective.  In fact, AI can usually either get off a decent shot or get fouled, but when the pass the ball around and make the defense work they almost always get a great shot opportunity.  This goes back to the defensive conundrum that a good pick and roll creates.  As they collapse on the player with the ball, they open up new weaknesses in their defense.  Frequently another couple of passes can create a wide open layup or dunk instead of a contested one. 

A new advantage for the Nuggets is now that they (apparently or as Jim Rome would say, allegedly) have a stable of three point shooters they can kick a pass to the opposite baseline and defenses will have to charge the shooter.  That will allow them to swing the ball around and get a wide open seam on the side of the floor where the pick and roll originated.  Watch any team play and notice how many times they get an open jumper or layup when the ball is swung form side to side one or more times.  The Nuggets themselves did a great job of this in the second quarter in Washington. 

3.  Dribbling Away From the Screen – One of the tactics that has been successful in the pick and roll game is to set your man up as if you are going to run him through the screen, then dribbling away form the screen.  This is great tactic when the defender is set up correctly and they are either already fighting through the screen or are at least leaning into it.   

Watch how many times Iverson dribbles away from the screen without setting the defender up first.  This can be a very effective tactic, but only if the offensive player sets his man up.  If you do not set up your man it is like me wasting all my free time writing posts for this blog.  Useless.  

4.  Not Taking Advantage of the Rules – My primary assumption heading into this study was that the Nuggets were not taking advantage of how the league officiates screens.  How many illegal screens do you see set in the NBA?  Now think about how many illegal screens you see called in the NBA?  The bottom line is the NBA allows offensive players to set moving screens and surprise ninja secret attack screens. The Nuggets have not adapted their techniques to take advantage of the leeway that offensive players are granted. 

The best weapon a pick and roll offense has in the NBA is the surprise ninja sneak attack high screen.  We see this all the time now where the ball handler is in the middle of the floor above the three point line and a teammate runs up to set a pick almost directly behind the defender.  They slightly shift to one buttock of the defender and as the defender begins to lean that way they quickly jump to the other buttock.  (I am not trying to be gross, just describe how the screener is almost directly behind the defender and shifts every so slightly at the last second.  If you have watched NBA basketball at all the last couple of years, you have seen this numerous times every game.)  This is technically a completely illegal tactic, but the referees continue to allow it.   

Eduardo Najera is the only Nugget who does a decent job of this type of pick.  Martin never does it, but he does such a great job of setting legal picks I think we can let him off the hook.  

Other Screening Observations That Are Neither Here Nor There: 

 - There is one more issue that stands out to me with the problem of the pick and roll.  It is not an issue with the Denver offense as much as it is the defense.  

I think the Nuggets appear to run the pick and roll so poorly on offense because they guard it relatively poorly on defense.  When you see the other team constantly getting open looks and the Nuggets taking contested shots it seems like the other team is doing a better job on offense.  The reality is most teams’ big men do a much better job of jumping the screen and obstructing the dribbler than the Nuggets do.  Marcus Camby does an especially egregious job of failing to stop the ball handler on pick and rolls.   

 - The Celtics did a great job of running a player off of consecutive picks either along the wing or across the top of the circle.  I have noticed the Nuggets implementing this a little since that game. 

 - Nene’s rookie season he was able to pilfer several steals from point guards by jumping the high pick and roll, surprising the point guard with his size and quickness and then poking the ball away for a steal.  Sadly, this is no longer part of his game.  His draft weight was listed at 253.  ESPN lists Nene at 268 and the Nuggets roster page on NBA.com says 250!  I am guessing he is on the high side of 280.  That may have something to do with his lack of quickness.

 - If you have read this far you deserve some kind of prize.  I only wish I had one to give out.  In fact, send me an email (BornANuggetsFan @ gmail.com without spaces of course) with the phrase “What the American Public doesn’t know is what makes them the American public” and you will be recognized as Born A Nuggets Fan Reader of the Month.  Just be sure to include your name or nickname and hometown in the email. 

If you can name the movie that quote is from, you can even write your own post if you want.

Game 7: Denver Nuggets 113 – Indiana Pacers 106

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

How many of us wrote the Nuggets off at half time of this game?  It looked so much like the Boston game, or the game that we dare not speak of (that I cannot seem to stop mentioning).  Hot shooting team scoring at will combined with a lackadaisical effort on defense.  There were definite flashbacks. 

In this game, I have to give credit to George Karl.  He was certainly not sitting on his hands this game.   

Karl tried a lot of different things on defense hoping to stumble across something that would slow down the Pacers.  To start the game Diawara guarded Tinsley and Martin was on O’Neal.  That did not work because AI could not handle Dunleavy and Camby could not deal with the perimeter game of Murphy. He then brought in Kleiza for Diawara and Klieza was not able to handle the red hot Dunleavy either.  Next, he went to some three quarter court pressure and trapping which was defeated with even more hot shooting.  Finally Karl tried a zone, which was picked apart with nice interior passes and of course, more hot shooting.   

None of these defenses were effective and at the end of the first half the Nuggets were down big yet again. 

In the second half Karl made one last adjustment.  They decided that the issue on defense was not the scheme, it was the lack of focus.  They played straight up the rest of the night.  They did not double O’Neal the few times he received the ball in the post.  They did not try to out think themselves by mixing up the defensive matchups.  They just buckled down and played tough defense.  

That increased effort and determination working hand in hand with the law of averages, which dictated there was no way the Pacers could shoot anywhere nearly as well as they did in the first half, resulted in an impressive comeback by the Nuggets. 

Indiana set a franchise record for points in a quarter with 46, yes, you read that correctly, 46 first quarter points.  They followed that up with 28 points in the second quarter.  After all of that the Nuggets held them to only 32 points in the entire second half. 

Linas Kleiza was great tonight.  He had at least four or five defensive rebounds in the first half.  He hit a couple of timely threes.  His defense was shaky, especially in the first quarter, but he more than made up for it on offense.  The most important thing was that he played hard the entire time he was on the court.   

The offense was still somewhat stagnant, during the comeback.  It was a 180 degree difference than the night before in Washington, but the lack of movement and passing was overcome by some clutch shot making and the increased effort on defense.  

One interesting development was the comeback was actually triggered by Yakhouba Diawara.  He scored eight unanswered points, including two threes, in a minute and a half early in the third quarter.   I have mentioned Kleiza, Najera and Bobby Jones providing a boost from Downtown, but the Nugget leading the team in three point shooting right now is Diawara.  After hitting 3-4 against Indiana, he has made 10-21 on the season with comes out to 47.6%.   

This is the most surprising turn of events for the Nuggets so far this season.  Diawara shot less than 29% from Steve Kerr land last season.  I really cannot fathom how it was even that high.  He was absolutely horrible.  If my kids life depended on it I would rather have had a blind quadriplegic shoot a three pointer than Diawara last season.  Well, maybe the quadriplegic would have to be able to see, but I definitely would not have trusted Diawara. 

If Kuba can somehow keep this up the Nuggets seem to have finally thrown together a quality three point shooting team.  Melo, Kleiza, AI, Kuba, Najera, J.R. Smith and Von Wafer are all solid to good three point shooters.  Atkins has a good career percentage as well.  This is a very good development.   

Other observations from game 7: 

• The Nuggets have done a great job, especially against Washington, in getting defensive deflections resulting in a high number of steals. 
• Steven Hunter who?  So much for Hunter getting some run with Nene out.  Karl has gone with Najera and Martin playing center and Martin, Najera and Kleiza playing power forward.  I cannot complain.  Hunter is a good player, but with the teams they have played, size has not been an issue.  The only player of any girth that the Nuggets have seen was Brendan Haywood and he only played 20 minutes.  Cleveland is up next and Camby will be able to handle Ilgauskas while he is on the floor.
• One thing to take into account is neither Washington nor Indiana double teamed Carmelo until it was too late.  The Nuggets have struggled offensively to score when Melo is strenuously doubled.  Apparently they do not have game tape of the past few Nuggets games in DC and Indy.
• It was also encouraging that the Nuggets were able to put this kind of effort into a second half after playing the night before and on the last day of a road trip. 

I have been hard on the Nuggets, and this little two game winning streak is good, but they still have a long way to go to prove that they are approaching each game with a sense of urgency.

 Update:  Correction, Diawara is not leading the Nuggets in three point percentage.  It is actually Bobby Jones who has shot 5-8 good for 67.5%.  Sorry for the misinformation.  I will do my best to be more careful in the future.

Game 6: Denver Nuggets 118 – Washington Wizards 92

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

This is a day late and the Nuggets have already had a much better win, even though it may have lacked the style points that this one did, under their belt.  Still, I want to share a couple of thoughts with you all regarding the win against the Wizards. 

The ball movement was phenomenal in the second period during which they took control of the game outscoring the Wizards 32-25 resulting in a nine point half time lead.  The set that was so stagnant in Boston where everyone stood around until someone set a pick for AI, who then would either jack a shot or pass it to someone else to jack up a shot, was only used a handful of times.  They were in motion from the time the ball crossed half court.   

There are two statistical indicators of what they were doing on offense.  First of all they had 32 assists on 45 buckets a very good percentage.  When the Nuggets are winning they are sharing the ball and getting a bundle of assists.  Secondly, AI only had 15 points on only 13 shots.  The ball was not constantly in his hands and that ended up being a good thing. 

Things bogged down a bit in the third quarter, but for good reason.  Melo absolutely caught fire.  He was simply amazing.  It looked like it was a game where dad was playing with the kids and letting them win until they started talking trash.  Suddenly dad got fed up and decided to prove a point.  (You guys with boys over 10 years-old know what I am talking about.) The Nuggets absolutely destroyed the Wiz in the third quarter outscoring them 33-11.  Melo outscored them on his own 18 (I think he had 18 in the quarter, please do not make me go back through the play by play to double check it) to the aforementioned 11. 

Two other quick points and it is on to the Indy game. 

One, the Nuggets actually tried running once again and they looked a little rusty.  They constantly forced passes that were not available and that resulted in a lot of ugly basketball.  You know what, I do not care.  I am just glad that they tried to get out on the break. 

Two, the Nuggets’ three point shooting was excellent.  Melo was 2-3 which put him at 8-21 or 38% on the season, Camby was 1-1, Diawara was 2-4, AI 1-3, J.R. Smith was 2-4, Kleiza was 2-3 and Bobby Jones was 2-4.  As a team the Nuggets shot 12-25 good for 48%.

All in all the Nuggets did what they should have against a team that is not playing very good ball right now.

Camby’s Favorite Shot

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

I have intended to write an article about Marcus Camby’s shot selection for a few days.  The time has come.   

I hate Camby’s propensity to jack up jumpers.   

It makes me nuts.   

We all know that his favorite shot is from the top of the circle.  He takes it at least twice a game and some games he takes it four or five times.  He definitely believes he can make it and he proves it by shooting it over and over.  It does not matter how many times in a row he has missed it.  He is going to shoot it again.  And again.  And again. 

A couple of seasons ago, it seemed like he made a solid percentage of his shots from straight away.  I really do remember him being effective in 2005-2006 from that spot.  I decided to look at the stats to determine if I was right expecting to see a difference in his shooting percentage from 2005-2006 to 2006-2007 when I remember that he really did not shoot well from his favorite spot.  I was wrong, but not in a good way. 

In 2005-2006, when I remembered him shooting reasonably well from his favorite spot, 63% of his shots were considered jumpers.  He made 36% of those shots.   

In 2006-2007, when I remember him being considerably less effective from his favorite spot, 58% of his shots were considered jumpers.  He made 37% of those shots.   

This year, where there is no doubt he has not been able to hit his favorite shot through the first four games, he is shooting only 42% of his shots form outside, but his percentage is 27%!  We can look for both of those numbers to increase where they approach the numbers from the pas two seasons, which is both good (his shoting percentage will undouobtedly increase, but so will his ratio of jumpers).  

Camby has shown the ability to make that shot from the top of the circle even if he has not been shooting well form there since 2005-2006, but that is no longer the shot he consistently takes.  Camby has started shooting from the sides of the circle.  This may not seem like a big deal, but the angle of that shot is drastically different if he moves two feet to the left or right.  When he shoots it from that angle, he very rarely makes that shot. 

My other issue with Camby is that he tries a pull up jumper.  Camby is effective when he drives to the basket.  However, from time to time he pulls up off the dribble to take a jumper.  I have watched nearly every Nuggets game he has played since he came to Denver and in the past three seasons I have missed only a couple of games and I make the following claim with absolute certainty.  You that you can count on one hand how many times he has made a pull up jumper.  In the past two plus seasons I can remember three times he made that shot. 

Three. 

Maybe he has made five, but he has shot at least 50.   

At what point do you say, maybe I better stop doing this?   

This may seem like a bit of a nit picky article.  Camby has averaged just over ten shots a game since the beginning of the 2005-2006 season.  He is not jacking up 15 or 20 shots a game.  He puts the work in on the glass and he deserves to take a couple of shots a game from wherever he wants to. 

There are two problems with that.  Camby has a distinct role with this team.  His number one job is to rebound.  When he is shooting from the perimeter, he cannot be there for the rebound.  But the bigger issue is that he is hurting the offense.  Camby is a center who shoots less than 48%, and usually lower than 47%, from the field.  That places him firmly in the bottom half of starting centers.  Offense is not his strength, but he needs to limit its impact as a weakness. 

You are going to get tired of reading this, if anyone out there is indeed reading it, but the difference between 50 and 55 wins can be just a few points here and there.  Camby is costing the Nuggets some of those points by continually shooting from the perimeter. 

This is just one more thing the Nuggets need to change in order to take tings to the next level.  It is not the number one item on the list or probably even the number five item on the list, but it is on the list.   

I just wish Camby would find a new favorite shot preferably from no more than four feet from the basket.

Game 4: Denver Nuggets 112 – New York Knicks 119

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

I was ready to denounce the Nuggets’ lack of heart in a brief and biting post following the loss to the Knicks, but I have decided to rewatch the fourth quarter before handing out such harsh criticism.   

Here are the facts of the game.  The Nuggets were outscored by 17 points in the fourth quarter.  They were outrebounded by nine.  The Knicks missed 43 shots and ended up with 17 offensive rebounds.  That is a 38% rate. The Knicks shot 13 of 24 in the fourth quarter which is good not great.  They also missed six free throws.  Of those 17 shots where there was a chance for a rebound the Knicks corralled 10 of those rebounds.  Ten out of 17! 

Most of that time Camby and Nene were on the floor together until Nene fouled out with just over two minutes left.  As noted after game three, Nene is looking to be in better shape than he was just a week ago, but he was still worn out by the end of the game.  With no Kenyon Martin my number one question of the game is where was Steven Hunter?  He would have been fresh and would have helped out on the glass in the pivotal fourth quarter.   

After watching the replay, I am a little less frustrated, but maybe it is because I knew what was going to happen.  It was a one point game with under two minutes left.  However, this was a very disappointing result.   

You can talk all you want about how it is impossible to draw conclusions after three or four games, but when you have a trend over the past three seasons and you see the beginning of that trend in the fourth season, that is a good sign that the trend will continue. 

The Nuggets talk of winning 60 or even 55 games is starting to look hollow to me.  Can this team still win 50 games?  Sure.  Can they get home court advantage in the playoffs?  I will answer that question with another question.  How many wins will it take to finish in front of the Spurs, Suns, Mavs or Rockets?  Can they reach that total by losing games at home to New Orleans and against the Knicks?  If the Nuggets do not finish ahead of at least one of those teams, and add Utah to that mix as well, they are going on the road for the first round once again. 

Games like tonight are nearly must wins for the Nuggets to reach their stated goals. 

Other Observations from Game 4:

• Iverson finally had a breakout game.  He shot 13-22 and was the lone bright spot for the Nuggets offensively.   
• Melo was hounded by Renaldo Balkman and faced numerous double teams.  He had his second straight poor shooting game misfiring on 13 of his 20 shots.    
• Is Renaldo Balkman somehow related to the “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid? 
• The Nuggets are not running.  AI is partly to blame as he jogs the ball up most of the time.  He played that way for over ten years in Philly so it is very difficult for him to transition to a fast paced transition offense.   
• The three point shooting watch continues.  The Nuggets were a respectable 6-16.  J.R. Smith hit a couple before missing two very difficult attempts towards the end of the game.  Melo only took one and missed.  AI only took two and made one.  Kleiza was 2-6 but two of his misses were right online, just a tad too long, which is good.  Najera banked his only try in, but utilized a shot fake from the perimeter to get past his man.     

The Nuggets head into Boston tomorrow and Boston has looked very good to start the season.  The Nuggets will have their work cut out for them, but if they can win tomorrow night in Boston, tonight’s game will not sting so badly.  But if they do go on to lose in Boston, the games in Washington, who will be desperate for a win, and Indy, who has been very impressive, will be crucial. Next Game:  Wednesday @ Boston Celtics – Anyone who discounts this team as a contender because of a lack of depth has not watched them play