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uhhhhhhhhh. tough lost but poor officiating there at the end. instead of cutting it down to 3 we go down by 8 on a play that was clearly a foul. gallo had a good game. ty played good. everyone was meh. i really feel we have a good core of guys but we need to find the missing pieces. here are my thoughts on becoming contenders.

* mozzy and koufos, as well as they are playing just do not cut it. mozgov is just to raw, his passing is horrendous. koufos is much better, he should be getting all of birdman's minutes. either way denver needs to move nene back to the center position and find a pf for the future. it could be in the draft or through a trade. either way nene has shown these last few games that he can't really shoot and it is not like there is any center he can't defend. george karl needs to move nene back to center and we need to find a pf that fits this team.

my personal favorite pf's

kris humphries
ed davis
tyler hansbrough
tyrus thomas
david lee
jason thompson
patrick patterson
chandler parsons
carl landry
paul millsap

millsap being my favorite, most of these guys would fit in our system of fast pace offense and we wouldn't need to go small anymore to run the floor.


* we need wilson chandler back. if he is a trade piece thats brings us a pf than so be it but he is definitely needed right now. we need another guy along with harrington, who can come off the bench and score 12+ points for us. rudy has that role but just does it so bad and his defense is horrendous. chandler can actually shoot and play defense.

* birdman has to go. for a guy who comes in to play defense, he just creates too many problems defensively. jumps on everything. horrible player koufos is much better off the bench. trade him for anything at this point.

* rudy vs brewer........ i would rather have brewer on the floor. he can't shoot but he plays excellent defense with an extraordinary energy and if wilson does return than we would have no need for rudy. he is a moveable piece.

also george karl should just start kenneth faried for one game. just to see what happens.

overall: this would be the perfect nuggets lineup

lawson/miller
afflalo/brewer
gallinari/chandler
????????/harrington/faried
nene/koufos/mozgov


what do you guys think we need to do on to the next level

I think Koufos would be fine as a starter next to Nene.

As for upgrades, I'd like a better backup big than Bird and a better 2 guard off the bench (sorry Rudy).

In a perfect world, Chandler returns and plays 3 and 4 for us (Nene and Koufos rotate as the backup C), Rudy becomes a DNP player and Brewer plays backup 2 behind Afflalo.

So if it were my in March and onwards:
Lawson (33) / Miller (15)
Afflalo (27) / Miller (13) / Brewer (8)
Gallinari (33) / Chandler (15)
Nene (20) / Harrington (25) / Chandler (3)
Koufos (23) / Mozgov (15) / Nene (10)

Traditionally, Championship teams have 2-3 Superstars. The Lakers had Shaq/Kobe, Kobe/Gasol, the Bulls had MJ/Pip/Rodman, the Spurs had Duncan/Robinson/Parker, the Celtics had Pierce/Garnett/Allen, the Heat had Wade/Shaq.

2 teams in the last 10 years had just 1 superstar or none - the 2004 Pistons and the 2011 Mavericks. They were made up of great players unified with one vision - team basketball.

This 2012 Nuggets team has a chance to do something special, but it needs someone additional to take them over the hump. I believe that player could be Kevin Love. Theres no way he's gonna stick around in Minnesota - he's played 4 years of losing basketball games and hates it. He would fit in perfectly with Denver - hard worker and would have the freedom to average 25 and 15.

Gallo is close to being a 20 point scorer and Afflalo is the perfect team mate. Lawson can be an All Star in 2 years time. Theres talk that Wilson Chandler wants to go back to New York, so I cant see him committing long term to Denver.

I think Rudy will end up back in Spain where he's treated like a superstar and paid like one. I don't understand George Karl's obsession with playing him 24 mpg, when he has one decent game out of every 4. Brewer just brings so much more to the table every single minute he's on the court.

gonna be hard to land kevin love but i agree he would be the defacto piece to add to this team. he wants to win and minny is still struggling.

would you guys do this trade for kevin love

denver trades: Arron afflalo, wilson chandler, nene, 1st rd pick,

Minnesota trades: kevin love, wesley johnson, darko nilicic

youngthegiant wrote:would you guys do this trade for kevin love

denver trades: Arron afflalo, wilson chandler, nene, 1st rd pick,

Minnesota trades: kevin love, wesley johnson, darko nilicic

That trade would be horrific.

As far as your original point goes, Nene isn't big enough to handle the elite centers. Gallo is a little bit taller than him.

The Nuggets need a dominant center. It's too early to throw in the towel on Mozgov, it takes a while for big men to develop. I'm also not sure about the passing criticism since I think he had 4 assists a couple games ago. He's also got some nice elements to his game, he can hopefully build on.

I'd actually like to see more of Moz and Kofous on the floor at the same time. I think that creates serious match up problems, and K2's post game can be utilized against smaller PF's.

youngthegiant wrote:would you guys do this trade for kevin love

denver trades: Arron afflalo, wilson chandler, nene, 1st rd pick,

Minnesota trades: kevin love, wesley johnson, darko nilicic

I don't think Denver would trade 2 players they just signed to over 100 million in contracts, they are here for good.

To get Kevin Love, we would have to wait until 2012/13 and pray he doesn't sign an extension with Sota soon.

If we HAD to trade for him, I would rather ship Afflalo over Nene, as good centres are hard to find.

In a short seazon teams and players will have great up and downs. It is too soon to tell wether Denver is a contender or not. It will have many ups and downs in all terms. The only thing that is scary is the slow tempo that Denver has to find consistent plays in order to get easy baskets.

The next thing is the small line up with Gallo at the Center... or Al at the Center Position that many times has a positive effect on the floor. It may win several games but come play off time it gets you nowhere...

I would rather see Karl sacrificing some mid seazon games and develop players like KK, Mozgov and even Farried. Play off time you will need BIGS. You cannot win play off basketball unless you have a solid presence (offence/defence) in the paint area.