| Will The Nuggets Become The Best Team Ever To Not Make The Playoffs? Authored by Brandon Hoffman - March 19, 2008 - 6:50 pm
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The Denver Nuggets, 40-27, are on pace for a 49 win season. But if the playoffs were to begin today, they would be on the outside looking in. Short of moving the team to the East coast, how can the Nuggets get to the next level and whose responsibility is it to get them there?
On Sunday, Denver set an NBA season high for points in a game with a 168-116 rout of the Seattle Supersonics. Last night, they gave up 136 points in a 136-120 loss to the Detroit Pistons. Such is the enigma that has become the Nuggets. They are equal parts offensive brilliance and defensive incompetence.
Typically, great team defense begins with a team’s best player and trickles down to the supporting cast. Perennial All-NBA defenders Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett set the tone for their teams defensively. The Nuggets have 2006-2007 Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Camby but Carmelo Anthony is Denver’s best player. Anthony has never been committed defensively and aside from Camby, Melo’s teammates have followed his lead.
Coaches can affect effort but the desire to become a great individual defender comes from within. Coach George Karl is a great coach but he’s no miracle worker. If the Nuggets are to become an elite team, Carmelo Anthony must lead by example on the defensive side of the basketball.
The Nuggets start Anthony Carter, Allen Iverson, Anthony, Kenyon Martin, and Camby. They bring Linus Kleiza, J.R. Smith, Eduardo Najera, Chucky Atkins, and Yakhouba Diawara off the bench. That’s a legitimately 10 deep team, the most versatile roster in the NBA. Factor in the return of Nene and Coach Karl is virtually unlimited in how he can attack the opposition.
But it’s his decision to spread the wealth (shots) equally between Iverson and Anthony that is prohibiting Denver from getting to the next level.
Allen Iverson spent 11 seasons in Philly. Every year, the story was the same, he needed more help. With the Denver Nuggets, AI has all the help in the world and yet the results are the same. Why? Because he’s still Allen Iverson. Pound for pound, he’s the toughest player in the league; maybe the toughest player who’s ever played. But it’s past time for him to put aside his alpha-dog mentality and take a permanent backseat to Carmelo Anthony. The Nuggets are Carmelo’s team.
Melo is the most offensively gifted player in the NBA – capable of finishing at the basket, going left or right, stopping on a dime, posting up, and shooting 3’s. Anthony is the go-to-scorer on a Team USA squad that features Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. But when he returns to Denver he’s asked to share touches with Allen Iverson?
Denver will never become the team they are capable of becoming with BOTH AI and Melo firing up 20 + shots a game. My solution: put an end to the point guard ‘experiments’ that have brought in Steve Blake, Chucky Atkins, and Anthony Carter and move Allen Iverson to point guard full-time. Make facilitating and distributing his primary role.
The Nuggets are 12-1 this season when Iverson records 10 or more assists. When motivated to do so, AI is capable of getting 10 assists in his sleep. That motivation must begin with coach George Karl. Karl needs to make it his mission to close the book on AI’s Philadelphia 76er scoring days and convince Iverson to become the point guard he was destined to be.
- Please feel free to contact Brandon Hoffman via e-mail (ballerblogger@yahoo.com) with comments or questions |
