These Ain’t Your Denver Nuggets
Welcome to the latest in a long line of new Nuggets teams, Denver.
Know that saying, “This isn’t your Dad’s team?”
Well, these ain’t even gonna be your Nuggets, Denver.
Remember your team from last year, the one that set a franchise record with 57 regular season wins?
That team is gone, kaput, finito; it’s never coming back.
Masai Ujiri – the man heralded for pulling off huge trades and putting together a solid group of young, team-oriented players – has left the building and the country, to Toronto and the Raptors. Sure, he’s making six times the dough he was in the Mile High City, but it was less about money and more about returning to a basketball home for him.
George Karl – the old basketball coach that was beaten down by the barrage of insults from fans and the media, almost broken by cancer and Denver’s head coach for eight-plus seasons – is somewhere doing something.
Some loved his firing, some thought it was a boneheaded move, with the later group arguing he’d be hired quickly by another team. Well, he’s still at home, likely because owners and executives around the league know what Josh Kroenke knows; Karl’s a hardheaded old man who does things his way, all the time.
Tim Connelly came in and replaced Ujiri. “Who?” the fans asked. A relative youngster at only 36, in a move that seemed to keep all the power with Kroenke, who may have been pulling most of the personnel strings all along.
Brian Shaw has filled the void that Karl left, in what many basketball people believe was a fantastic hire. Shaw, at 47, is young enough to connect with his players, especially given that he was a point guard in the league only a decade ago. Shaw will undoubtedly bring more energy to the sidelines, as well as new philosophies, but exactly which players he’ll have to play with is still being decided.
Andre Iguodala – last year’s best on-ball defender – has gone to Golden State, the team that knocked the Nuggets out of the playoffs and started this domino effect we’re still experiencing nearly three months later. Reportedly, he’s been packaged as part of a three-team deal that will bring point guard Randy Foye to town to likely backup Ty Lawson and compliment him at times as well.
Kosta Koufos, Karl’s starting center over JaVale McGee, was traded away to Memphis for Darrell Arthur and a second round draft pick. Arthur’s a 6’9” forward that will bring the hard-working, hard-nosed defense Denver needs.
Also in is J.J. Hickson, a 6’9” center/forward who will provide toughness and more depth for Denver’s bigs. He averaged a double-double of 12.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per last season as a starter for Portland, but it seems unlikely that he’d get minutes over Kenneth Faried. How he adapts to the backup role will be key for the Nuggs’ power forward position.
On the whole, the team’s youngsters should get much more playing time this year.
Faried and McGee will be your starting frontcourt, with Evan Fournier playing more than last season and Jordan Hamilton will possibly get a fair shot, too.
Of course, Lawson will be the starting point guard, with Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari probables at the two and three positions.
Foye, an eighth-year player, will give Kroenke the flexibility to finally jettison Andre Miller for good. Miller can still play, but his score-first mentality at times isn’t befitting a point guard. Foye can be that way at times, too, and Shaw will have to convince him to share the rock with teammates.
Both Hickson (24) and Arthur (25) are youthful too, like the rest of the squad, and Nuggets fans are already anticipating in which ways Shaw will mold their talents.
The Nuggets new head coach said he won’t bring the triangle offense to Denver, and just the prospect of the team playing in different ways is exciting.
If you’re a Nuggs fan, this is only the latest team-wide blowup in a long line of destruction in Denver; Nuggets supporters just hope this time is different.
Before Karl, the team was terrible year-in, year-out and under Karl they couldn’t get past the first round.
Will the Nuggets ever compete for an NBA Championship?
Fans are hopeful so, as is the man in charge – Kroenke – who will forever be linked to this era of Nuggets basketball.
Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist. Follow Rich on twitter or facebook for all your Denver and Colorado sports news and opinion.
