Game Preview: Golden State Warriors 1/15/14

Game 1 Highlights

Coming off a tough loss to the Jazz, the Nuggets (19-18) will play at the Warriors (25-14) tonight. The Nuggets fell to the Warriors 81-89 in their first meeting of the year (highlights above). There's no team I would love to see the Nuggets beat more than the Warriors. I'm still sore from the playoff series last year and Iguodala jumping on their bandwagon. Here are the keys to the game.

REBOUND: The Nuggets only gave up 7 offensive rebounds to the Jazz, but it felt like they gave up so much more! Probably because they gave up a second chance bucket on almost every one of them. There will be little room for error tonight, as the Nuggets with have to deal with Bogut and Lee.

Energy: There are 82 games in a season, you're not going to play your best basketball every night. What separates teams like San Antonio from the rest of the pack, is that even when they're not playing great, they play hard and grind out a win. This is something the Nuggets need to learn.

Put Your Hand Up!: Curry and Thompson will hit their 3's, and there's nothing you can do about it...except to make it hard on them. Put a hand in their face, close out hard, etc.

Key Match up: Kenneth Faried VS David Lee
It's always fun to watch these two go at each other. It seems they are developing quite a rivalry, they don't only seem to play hard against each other, but it sure seems like they are starting to not really like each other!


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Off-Season Review

Yeah, this review is a little late, most off-season reviews are made just after free agency. I wanted to wait and see how the summer league and a couple preseason games went just so I wouldn't jump to any crazy conclusions as a lot of reviews did shortly after the big changes made this off-season. Alright enough of me making excuses for putting this off, let's dive into this crazy off season.

Departures:

Masai Ujiri: The most needless overreaction of any of the departures this year in my mind is that of Masai Ujiri. From the causal fan, to local sports radio hosts, all I've heard about Ujiri's signing with Toronto is how terrible it was to let him go. Sure, I will admit that Ujiri was very capable, demonstrated most aptly in getting the most out of the "Melo Trade", but the notion that Josh Kroenke is just another rich owner meddling with a team in a sport that he knows nothing about is ludicrous. Let's look back to the "Melo Trade", whenever there was a photo of Ujiri fielding offers on the phone, constantly texting someone, who was always right next to him? That's right, Josh Kroenke. I believe Josh had just as much (if not more) of an influence on this team than Masai has the last couple of years. As a Nuggets fan, I'm perfectly comfortable with Kroenke calling the shots.

Andre Iguodala: I'm not a huge fan of Iguodala. While his 13ppg and lock down defense will be missed, I'm just not sold that he was really 100% into it last year. He seemed to have an attitude that he was better than the team - coaching. Luckily, the Nuggets won 56 games, so he never really had an opportunity to complain. As much as it hurts to lose that kind of an athlete, I can't really say I'm surprised or even that disappointed.

Kosta Koufos: Kosta's biggest strength in my mind last year was his consistency, that coupled with great fundamentals made him George Karl's perfect fit for center. I really liked Koufos, but the additions of a couple big men this off-season should make his loss pretty irrelevant.

Corey Brewer: I would venture to say Brewer was the biggest loss this off-season, mostly because I really thought he would stay with Denver. Yes, he probably took a little too many 3 point shots, but he more than made up for it with his defensive tenacity and will to win. I doubt that I will ever forget 3-21-13 vs the Philadelphia 76ers, when Corey scored 6 points in the last 10 seconds when the Nuggets where down by 5.

George Karl: I like Karl a lot (and not just because his last name is my first name), but I do think it was time to part ways. Last year Karl brought out the very best in his team, 56 wins is crazy with the roster he had. And the funny thing about this is, this is the biggest reason he had to go. Karl didn't have very much time left to coach last year, which I think drove him to want to win it all now. The problem is that he didn't have the roster to win it all. His championing players like Andre Miller and Kosta Koufos, and keeping players like Evan Fournier and JaVale McGee on the bench won him some games in the present, but seriously hampered the success of the Nugget's future. It was a great run, and like I said, I have a lot of respect for Karl and what he did in Denver, but it was time to move on.

Additions: 

Randy Foye: This dude can flat out shoot. He gives us something that we haven't had in a looong time, a pure spot up 3 point shooter (Voshon Lenard maybe being the last one?). I mean, last year the guy shot 41% from the three point line. He is also a great guard defender and will help out the Nugget's terrible free throw percentage, shooting 86% in his career from the line.

J. J. Hickson and Darrell Arthur: Why would I put these two together? Because they are so similar. They are both semi small (6'9) big men who rebound at a high level (Hickson averaged a double double last season), can score in post ups, have soft touch on free throw line jump shots, and are great on both offensive and defensive pick and roles. From the limited amount of video I've seen on them, Hickson is more of a high motor and energy guy, while Arthur is a smoother player, relying more on skill and a soft jump shot.

Nate Robinson: How could you not love the way this guy plays? He gives all of us sub 6' people hope doesn't he? But seriously, I have seen few people ever play the game with as much heart as Nate. He's one of those players (like J. R. Smith was) that can win you a game, or lose you a game with his shooting, but there is one thing he will bring every game, 100% effort.

Brian Shaw: The biggest reason Karl was fired, is probably the biggest reason Shaw was hired, and that is player development. Count on seeing a lot of young players playing a lot of minutes for the Nuggets this year. Shaw isn't going in a completely different direction than Karl, he still wants the young team to run and take advantage of the altitude. Defense seems to be what he's changing the most, fewer switches and more sticking with one man, which may be a wise move with moving screens being a point of emphasis this year.

Break out player this year:
As much as I would love to say Evan Fournier, I just haven't seen very much improvement over the off-season, with him not making the French team, and the fact he played a far second fiddle to Jordan Hamilton in the Summer league. I'm going to have to go with Wilson Chandler. Chandler has all the tools, he can shoot the 3, drive hard and finish, play great defense, and has that cool NBA swag. If he can stay healthy (which he is already being slowed down by a hammy) I could see him breaking out to an all-star level.

The Wild Card: 
Danilo Gallinari. The difference between a 50 win or 40 win season this year could be how Danilo effects the team once he comes back from the ACL injury.

Conclusion:
When it's all said and done, the Nuggets most likely will not win as many games this year, and probably won't get out of the first round of the playoffs. So does that mean it was a bad off-season? Not at all, as long as the Nuggets develop their young players to have a bright future, I think this was a great off-season.

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Teamness Comparison: How the Nuggets Must Improve This Offseason

     As tough as it is to say, the Nugget's season is now over before the second round of the playoffs once again. I can already hear the voices coming back out of the woodwork, you remember, the voices who say "You can't win in the playoffs without a superstar". And while those who say you can't get out of the first round without a superstar have no argument (see the Grizzlies VS Clippers series), those who argue that you can't win a championship have a little more of an argument. The one thing us Nuggets fans can cling to is a championship team that did it without a superstar nearly ten years ago, the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons. This Pistons team showed you don't need a superstar, but what you do need is players who fill every role greatly. So as we look at how the Nuggets need to improve this off season, let's compare these roles between this year's Nuggets team, and a team that won the championship on teamness.

1. Scoring:
Pistons:
Richard Hamilton 17.6, Chauncey Billups 16.9 PPG
Nuggets:
Ty Lawson 16.7 PPG, Danilo Gallinari 16.2 PPG


2. Rebounding:
Pistons:
Ben Wallace 12.4 RPG, Rasheed Wallace 7.0 RPG
Nuggets:
Kenneth Faried 9.2 RPG, Kosta Koufos 6.9 RPG

3. Assisting
Pistons:
Chauncey Billups 5.7 AST
Nuggets: Ty Lawson 6.9 AST

4. Defense
Pistons:
Ben Wallace 1.8 STL, Ben Wallace 3.0 BPG
Nuggets:
Andre Iguodala 1.74 STL, JaVale McGee 1.99 BPG

Now, Just looking at these stats, the Nuggets seem to be not very far behind the Pistons, but there are 2 areas I think the Nuggets need to improve in this off season.

1. Leadership.
When comparing these two teams, the most obvious area where the Nuggets are lacking is leadership. With the 2003-04 Pistons, there was no doubt who the leader was, Chauncey Billups. Who was the Nuggets leader? Lawson? Miller? Iguodala? The Nuggets need to develop better leadership to get far in the playoffs next year.

2. Consistent Shooting.

With the slashing, driving, points in the paint style of offense the Nuggets play, you have to have consistent outside shooting. If you can't hit from the outside constantly (as the Nuggets couldn't in their series against the Warriors) the opposing team will simply "pack the paint" and not allow inside scoring. When you look at the championship Pistons, they where filled with consistent shooters who could spread the floor, Billups, Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace. The good thing, there seems to be a lot of great shooters that will be free agents this year. Here are some free agents the Nuggets should look to acquire; Kyle Korver, Marco Belinelli, Francisco Garcia, JJ Redick, and Kevin Martin.

I know you get tired of hearing there's always next year, but I'm going to say it anyway. If the Nuggets can keep Iguodala, they can only get better. Remember, the Nuggets are the 3rd youngest team in NBA, the future is bright!

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Significance of an otherwise insignificant game against the Suns.

     An individual who hasn't kept up too much with the western conference playoff picture or the Nugget's season so far this year might look at the schedule on NBA.com and see the Nuggets Suns game and think this is a pretty irrelevant game. Just looking at the game on its surface, it seems they would be right. The Nuggets have 57 wins and have the 4th best record in the league, while the Suns have a lowly 25 wins and have the 4th worst record in the league. I would beg to differ, to me, this game is the most significant game the Nuggets have played this year, and the most significant non playoff game in years. Now before you exit the the page because of how rediculous you think that statement was, hear me out!

     Now most of you know that this game's significance jumps way up for the fact that if the Nuggets win, they will clinch the 3rd seed in the western conference. The third seed represents to me for this team more than just playing an easier team in the playoffs, it represents a resilient team, that was unwilling to give up and use excuses to roll over. At the end of December, the Nuggets where 17-14 and were struggling to gel, playing a tough schedule and fighting to stay in the playoff picture, while the Clippers where 24-6, the thought of the Nuggets finishing above the Clippers was almost laughable. Did the Nuggets use this as an excuse and give up? No, they continued to gel and improve every game. The Nuggets later went on a 15 game winning streak, and just when it looked like the Nuggets had it all going, their leader, Ty Lawson went down with an injury. This was a perfect time to lay down, but the Nuggets didn't feel bad for themselves and continued their winning ways. Then six games ago, Danilo Gallinari, the Nuggets leading scorer for most of the year, went down with a season ending ACL tear, another great excuse for bad play, but they went on to win that game and four of the next five games (1 and a half games without Kenneth Faried).

     All this being said, the Nuggets still must win this game to have the greatest regular season in franchise history in my books. Yeah, yeah, I know that the Nuggets this year have the most wins in franchise history, but look back to the 2008-09 season. In 2008-09 the Nuggets barely held off 3 teams who were right behind them for the 2nd seed in the west. Even though they only won 54 games as opposed to 56-57, they did their job and kept that 2nd seed and to this day, had the best regular season in Nuggets franchise history. Now you see the significance of this game against the Suns, the significance is not only one of the best teams in the league playing one of the the worst, or even getting the 3rd seed, the significance of winning this game is having a really good year or having the greatest year in Nuggets franchise history. What will it be? We will find out tonight at 6 MST!

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Trade Deadline Review

     It has been around one month since the Nuggets decided to not make a move on the trade deadline February 21st. When most of the trade grades come out the day of, or the day after the deadline, I decided to wait a month to grade the Nuggets. For an accurate grade you have to see how the team responds. Good thing I waited, I probably would have given the nuggets somewhere near a c-, I thought they should have traded Wilson Chandler for a three point specialist, boy was I wrong. I'm going to go ahead and give the Nuggets an A+ for not making a deal, and here are the reasons why:

1. Team Cohesion: At the start of the year, the Nuggets were many expert's pick to be a top 3 team in the West with the acquisition of Andre Iguodala. The year started shaky with Ty Lawson and Andre Iguodala really struggling. If you look at the Lakers this year, and the Heat when they first acquired Bosh and Lebron, you can see how hard it really is to adapt to new player in the regular lineup. I think the Nuggets were going through this big time, trying to see where Iggy and Chandler fit in, it also didn't help that the majority of the Nuggets games the first quarter of the season were away. With the decision to not make a trade, the team management have allowed the Nuggets to get over most of their growing pains instead of increasing them. I don't even think the way the Nuggets are playing on this 12 game winning streak is as good as they will be come playoff time, as one of the Nuggets most key players (Danilo Gallinari) hasn't been himself since his injury.

2. Wilson Chandler: If there was a trade involving the Nuggets, it most likely would have involved one of two players, Chandler or Mozgov. Just one month ago I couldn't stand Chandler, it seemed like when he wasn't injured (or in China) he played terribly, shooting at a terrible %, and making a ton of unforced bad plays, only having 1 or 2 good games. In one month I've come completely full circle on Chandler. Over the past month Chandler has shown the ability to shoot from the 3 point ark pretty consistently, drive hard to the basket and finish, defend, rebound, and frankly, carry a team in scoring if it comes to it. I'm excited to see how Chandler develops with this team. With Chandler's versatility, he fits in perfectly with what the Nuggets want to do. Of all the players on the Nuggets roster, I think Chandler has the potential to be an all star level player in the future. Knee jerk reaction? Maybe ha ha.

3. The Future: When I heard Masai Ujiri say,  "We're not a contending team, We also need to be patient as a team, organization, to grow a little bit." in his interview following the trade deadline, I couldn't help but be a little annoyed. "Why would you make a statement like this, with a team like the Nuggets, shouldn't you be going for it all this year? And why give them an excuse to not win it all?" were my initial thoughts. Now looking back I think I understand a little more. Why would the Nuggets trade a project like Chandler for a guy in his prime like JJ Redick (this is what I wanted) when the Nuggets aren't a huge threat to win the championship this year? That would be trading away the future for a player that might help you win a couple more games in the playoffs, that wouldn't have been a smart deal.

So a month later, I'll admit I was wrong about Chandler for Redick. I guess that's why I don't get paid for my opinions.

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Game Preview: New York Knicks 3/9/13

     After two and a half years, Carmelo Anthony will make his much anticipated first return to Denver to take on the Nuggets. This is the game that stuck out on the Nuggets schedule to fans at the beginning of the year. This is the must watch can't miss game. Here are the keys to win this game.

#1. Make It Hard On Melo: It is very likely that Carmelo will hear the boos from the crowd, this will only fuel him more. Melo will get his tonight, they key is to force him to shoot a low percentage from the floor.

#2. Rebound: The Knicks are 21st in the league in rebounding, while the Nuggets are 3rd. If the Nuggets can force bad shots and win the battle on the boards, they should win this game.

#3. Play Your Game: With all the emotions that will be flying around tonight, it is imperative for the Nuggets to play their fast pace game. I believe this is the biggest key to this game. The Knicks want to play half court "Melo" ball while the Nuggets want to play at a very fast pace. Whatever team wins the battle for play style will win this game.

Key Match Up: Carmelo VS Danilo
The Nuggets will send a mix of Danilo, Iggy, and Brewer. Don't think that Danilo can't wait for this game also, look for him to have a big game scoring and play well against his old team and the player he was traded for.

Now here is the question of the day; If you where at the game, would you booo Melo for leaving in the way he did, cheer for him for the year of bringing the Nuggets back to prominence, or neither? Personally, I would find it hard to not let a booo slip out during Melo's introduction.

Game Preview: Minnesota Timberwolves 3/9/13

Coming off a big win against the Clippers, the Nuggets (41-22) will host the Timberwolves (21-37) who they have struggled against this year, winning only one of the 3 meetings. This game has special significance, if the Nuggets win this game, it would mark the most strait home wins since 1989, when they went on a 19 game winning streak at home. Here are the keys to tonight's game.

#1. Stay focused: As Karl said after the Clippers game "We've got to stay focused on (19) games of pretty serious playoff intensity and not get hung up on a loss or a winning streak". The Nuggets need to forget about the win two days ago and play  hard from the tip tonight.

#RUN: It seems like more nights than not, this is a key to the game. This is especially essential tonight, as Minnesota is likely going to be without two of their regulars, Nikola Pekovic (abdominal strain) and Andrei Kirilenko (strained left calf).

Stop J.J. Barea: It seems like J.J. Always plays great against the Nuggets, I see him as the x-factor tonight.

Key Match up: Derrick Williams VS Danilo Gallinari
Due to team injures, Derrick is currently playing the PF position, but it's likely that he will be matched up against Danilo. Williams is averaging 20.5 points in his last six games, so this should be a fun one to watch.

With Memphis playing as well as they are, the Nuggets really need this win to keep pace.

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