Now That The Dust Has Settled, A Look At The Revamped Denver Nuggets

Posted by Sujeet under NBA Analysis

The Nuggets transformation is official. I honestly thought the Nuggets were just trying to save money this off season at the expense of winning. After this blockbuster trade all doubts I had were answered. Though Camby was let go for peanuts in a pure salary dump one can admit his best days are behind him. Their “energy” player Nahara is now a NJ Net. Though Nahara is a great player off the bench he will not bring you a championship. Instant offense AI is now a possession of Detroit. Anyone that loosely follows the NBA knows that Iverson did not improve the Nuggets (though he made them entertaining). That covers the deletions from the Nuggets.

Now let’s look at the additions. Billups is a sensational pickup. He instantly makes the offense more legit. He will structure the Nuggets and enable them to take higher percentage shots. There has been a lack of discipline with the Nuggets shot selection for the last 2 years.

AI is perhaps my favorite player of all time. I love his intensity and dedication to the game. That being said he is selfish when it comes to his “looks.” It became obvious to me after watching the Lakers annihilation of the Nuggets in the playoffs last year that the Melo/AI experiment failed. Both players in combination created a fantastic up tempo style. That style lived and died by low percentage shots. When those shots were not dropping all the pressure was put on Camby to make a great individual defense plays. With AI and Melo on the floor at the same time the defense was minimally effective at best. AI on defense equals steals. He gambles so much on defense that he puts the team at a disadvantage.

The point here is that the “fantastic” up tempo style will get you wins (50-32 last year) during the regular season but it won’t correlate to playoff success. Just look at Phoenix as the best case in point in the modern NBA. They were perhaps the best up tempo style I have ever seen and yet they never won a championship. What happened last year? They accepted the failure of up tempo and traded for a seen better days Shaq. By default in trading for Shaq they became a half court team with him on the floor. As of today the trade has not been successful but there is still plenty of time.

Denver has taken a page out of Phoenix’s book. By trading for Billups they also become a half court team. Billups will run that offense in the more traditional sense. He will set up plays and execute them. By doing such he will create higher quality shots for Melo, Martin, JR Smith, and Nene. We are beginning to see a trend develop in the Western Conference. Hybrid teams that run the half court set and then transform into an up tempo style with slight lineup changes. Denver and Phoenix are living proof. I’m not saying that Denver and Phoenix will no longer run. That is simply not the case. They will run but they will be more selective as to when they push the tempo.

For the Nuggets to be successful this year and actually advance out of the first round they need two players to step up – Billups and Nene. Billups will not only have to lead the team on the floor offensively he will also have to play tremendous defense. The Nuggets are still weak on the defensive side of the ball. This year they have given up 104 PPG while they have only scored 102 PPG. With the addition of Billups he will immediately improve their exterior defense.

The improvement on the exterior is ESSENTIAL because of the huge step back they have taken on the interior with the loss of Camby. Nene is finally a full time player. He will need to fill the void with Marcus gone. He isn’t known as a defensive stopper but as long as he covers his assignment and closes down the lane when required the Nuggets should do enough on defense to remain competitive.

With any luck George Karl will make the appropriate defensive substitutions down the stretch. Now George has Billups and Anthony Carter. These two in tandem become a strong defensive back court. If Chris Andersen can find his mojo he also becomes a defensive sub for Nene down the stretch. This is a new option for George Karl as last year he had very few defensive replacements on his bench. The shear fact that I typed George Karl and defense in the same sentence gives me hope for the fans of Denver! Denver gets an A+ for their early season moves. Now let’s see if success follows.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Now That The Dust Has Settled, A Look At The Revamped Denver Nuggets”

S.J. Pollock on November 10th, 2008 9:07 am

What a carefully put together deconstruction of the “New” Denver. It is clear that you have looked at this team from nearly all angles. This article is so effective in illustrating the “addition by subtraction” and improvements to this team that it should be required reading for any disgruntled Nuggets fan.

Wouldn’t be surprised if the team itself co-opted this article for their home page! I look forward to seeing how accurate your views were as Denver plays out the season and look forward to future articles from you with great anticipation.
Brandi on November 10th, 2008 9:59 am

I learned a lot… thanks for the insight.

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