RealGM

This is a great read...Probably the best article written about the Nuggets this off-season.

http://www.850koa.com/pages/krieger.htm ... e=11389137

"There's never a true, beautiful love affair between player personnel and management and coaches. There's always going to be a window of conflict. I could feel that Masai was edgy on some situations, but I didn't think it was ever a problem."
What situations?
"Situations, games. Mostly about quotes in the paper and stuff like that. I don't really want to go into detail. There are mistakes that you make when you talk to the press so many times. You make little mistakes. Sometimes it bothers the management, sometimes it doesn't. But that was the only thing.

"I said, 'And if you want me to coach next year on a one-year deal, I'll coach. But there are ramifications to that situation.'
"And I explained that to him -- my coaching staff, how I protect my coaches, the passion for the game, the anger of being on a one-year deal will fester up and then it will go back down. You're on a winning streak, it won't be a problem. You're on a losing streak, it'll be a problem.

"This stuff that I didn't play the young players. I don't remember those meetings, either. First, the quote should be that I didn't play the young players enough, because I played a lot of young players. I didn't play JaVale McGee enough. I didn't play Jordan Hamilton enough. Evan Fournier probably should have played more minutes, but even he got a good rookie year. I think he got a good rookie year and we won 57 games and he's ready for next year. He's going to be in a great place.

I mentioned the criticism of his loyalty to veteran Andre Miller, who won Game 1 of the Warriors playoff series with a last-minute shot but went downhill from there, finishing the series with a .420 shooting percentage.
"I think that's a fair assessment," he said. "I think that's a fair evaluation of the games. But Andre Miller, the year he had, he's a foundation of the team. I thought he earned that. I thought he had an incredible year. I didn't expect a year like that out of Andre Miller. And then he's basically the reason we won Game 1. By Game 6 you're bailing on a guy who just won Game 1?"

How does he view his postseason record?
"Disappointment," he said. "I don't think I have a big foundation to fight my record. It's not good. But I think my last five years is better than people think it is.

So what happened?
"A good young team got the momentum and cockiness in their head. I thought we fought hard from Game 3 on, but both series, including L.A. the year before and this year, and this is on my shoulders, we had trouble getting into the fight, understanding the playoff fight, understanding it is cutthroat, mean, dirty, ugly. We came in with our kind of regular-season attitude. It's a different world.
"That's on me, but it's on the young guys, too, to understand. You've got young guys out there trying to figure it out. In the Laker series, when you've got (Pau) Gasol, Kobe (Bryant) and (Ron) Artest going against Gallo, Corey Brewer and Ty Lawson, it's interesting.

He seemed to agree with the 3 core hang-ups most of us had about his coaching.
A. Poor youth development
B. Overplaying old players
C. Poor playoff record

As is the case with GK he takes the blame....but then immediately points the finger elsewhere or deflects the blame and comes up with an excuse.

He makes some good points about playing out the last year of his deal and how that could have affected the atmosphere, never looked at it from all the different angles he mentioned.

No I don't think that everything was his fault but the buck stops with him, he's the head coach. I give him props for that very candid interview though. If there was any large amount of animosity towards the Nuggets organization he doesn't show it. He praises the ownership and its fans at the end.

Agreed typical karl, always passing the blame while acting as if he is taking responsibility. I understand and have understood why he did not want to coach out the final year of his deal, but Josh had 3 options of either extending Karl for 3 years, let him be pissed off coaching out the last year of his deal, or firing him. I think if Karl would have went into the meeting not basically demanding an extension he would still be here, but I think he tried to bully Josh into picking up his extension now and it back fired on him.

I kind of feel like Josh wanted pressure to be on Karl to earn his 3 year extension and by him pushing for any sort of extension, he was trying to eliminate pressure on himself for next year to do well. If he had taken the team out of the first round, Josh probably would have been interested, but without that I don't see why he wouldn't want pressure on him to preform in the playoff up to the level of expectations set by the regular season.

Look if we would have gotten out of the first round we wouldn't be having this convo right now and Josh probably feels like he has to extend Karl. But all these first round exits plus Karl's BS wears thin and he's out. The playoffs are where you earn your check... Karl underachieved.

I agree with the post-mortem 99%. The one bit I have trouble with is he was beginning with a completely new roster and achieved the greatest success without an actual Billups type with Billups actual deep playoff experience.

The lack of playoff deep runs has to do directly with the performance on the hot plate. The less moment to moment pressure is on Karl, the better he's responded. That has to do directly with how his personal battles coupled with sudden lack of faith kind of makes everything implode.

Doesn't mean Nuggets don't need a head coach that withstands even greater pressure, or at least a Billups floor general who can make incremental adjustments for the head coach, it just means Karl needs a certain level of support from wherever......fans, front office, players, that just does not seem possible after X number of years with 1st round exits. It's not impossible with Karl, in fact it's quite a lot more possible than with many coaches, it's just that as a sum, as a whole, the support system grew weary of similitude.

Imagine if it was a second round exit. Then what would the argument be? Maybe same result, but....maybe there's a glimmer of hope in a variation as opposed to the same ol same ol.

I've always been for giving all 'new sets' of success two good chances. You don't make drastic or silly changes to a roster that actually worked. You make that one addition that pushes the team through. You assess everyone's ability to make a repeat performance and work to fill gaps.

Whatever the next adjustments are, they need to reinforce strengths and, if letting Karl go was the right decision, make damn sure the replacement actually cures that one weakness of not advancing past the first round. Otherwise the whole criticism is just an exercise in futility.

So, new GM, please keep this in mind. Asking for a deep playoff run is not out of the realm of possibility, but will the next moves ACTUALLY bring such a reward? If not, then fans be prepared for being underwhelmed.