Nuggets: expect one step back, two steps forward
“Losing Karl will be a blow for the organization – but only temporarily. They won’t win 57 regular season games next season. They might not win 50.”
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The initial shock of George Karl’s firing has worn away. A day has passed since we all first heard that the long time face of the team had been dismissed. Everyone has had some time to digest the fact that the Nuggets had the NBA’s Executive of the Year and its Coach of the Year only two short weeks ago and that now they have neither. Fans and media types alike have moved on to evaluating Karl’s legacy and to attempting to get a handle on what the future will hold for the Nuggets.
The collective gasp of surprise that will all heard has given way to the quiet murmur of speculation. This feels remarkably like the Mike Shanahan firing with the obvious exception of the fact that Shanahan helped put a couple of Lombardi trophies in the cases at Dove Valley before he left. All Karl left at Pepsi Center was a long list of unfulfilled promises. That’s why he’s gone – along with the fact that he badly miscalculated the reaction Kroenke Sports Enterprises would have to his tactics in attempting to negotiate a contract extension.
When Mike Shanahan was canned the Broncos took a giant step backwards. Pat Bowlen blindly placed his faith in the egotistical and wildly unprepared Josh McDaniels who is a stud of a coordinator – and may make a great head coach someday – but took the Broncos to the brink of disaster before he got canned.
Since McDaniels’ departure the team has made great strides forward. Bowlen began by bringing John Elway back. Elway took the ball and brought the Broncos back to respectability almost instantly. Now, under Elway and coach John Fox the Broncos appear poised to make a serious run at another trophy with Peyton Manning at quarterback.
The Broncos made a difficult and painful decision with Shanahan, took a big step backwards and then leaped forward. Now the Broncos are in better shape than they have been since Elway himself was their signal caller.
The Nuggets will follow the same pattern. Losing Karl will be a blow for the organization – but only temporarily. They won’t win 57 regular season games next season. They might not win 50. Maybe they’ll squeak into the playoffs, may be they won’t. A lot will depend on who’s on the Nuggets’ roster. But make no mistake about it – they will be a worse team than they were this season.
This doesn’t mean that the Nuggets are coming apart at the seams. The organization isn’t perfect but it’s in good hands. The perception that the Kroenkes are aimlessly wandering is false. They have a plan and they will implement it. That plan did not involve George Karl. The Kroenkes probably would have allowed him to finish out his contract but they clearly weren’t willing to let him stick around beyond it. They knew that the Nuggets were never going to win a championship so long as Karl sat sulking on their bench. Moving on was inevitable – it was only a matter of when. Karl himself expedited the process by floating the Clippers trial balloon with the willing assistance of Yahoo! Sports.
Now Kroenke Sports Enterprises has a clean white sheet of paper onto which to write the next chapter in Denver Nuggets history. The story will begin with the Nuggets struggling – probably for two seasons – before we see them emerge a stronger team than they were before. NBA Championships are the most elusive in all of pro sports. The ingredients for winning one are assembled over time. By firing George Karl the Nuggets demonstrated that they are willing to invest that time.
It will be tough for fans to swallow when the Nuggets lose players that are currently considered to be key pieces on their roster as part of the fallout of regime change. It’ll be even tougher to see them win fewer games. It will be worth it in the end, though. After all, it’s all about finally winning a championship. With Karl the handwriting was on the wall. Nuggets fans would have to be content with having fun watching the regular season and brace themselves for a crash in the playoffs. Hopefully those days are finally over.
The Nuggets will take a step back. It might be a big one. But they’ll take two steps forward afterward – and that will mean they’ll be further than George Karl was going to take them.
