RealGM

The Nuggets talk about getting fans to the arena and the worse they do, the fewer fans they get. Seems like the worse they do, the fewer fans/posts we see on RealGM.

Well the Av's are the HOT ticket right now, fans usually do choose the best opportunity based upon wins. But what you described is called "band-wagonning" IMO. I take exception with "fans" who follow a player and call themselves fans of the team.

Denver has 8 players above the league average PER. In order they are Jokic, Lyles, Faried, Millsap, Harris, Barton, Plumlee, Murray.

Notice Lyles is 2nd but not getting enough PT. Faried is 3rd and getting no PT. Last night's game gave Craig & Beasley some PT (see below) and that's fine IMO.

Chandler is not in there, but he still gets a bundle of minutes.

IMO the seven players not named Millsap should be getting the bulk of the minutes and as I have advocated for a few years; Denver should be playing young players enough to figure out if they are going to be any good or not. That list would include: Mudiay, Hernangomez, Craig, Beasley, Lydon, Morris. (I'll accept some G-League play but even those players need NBA PT.)

The above would be called "Playing for the playoffs" and "Looking towards the future" at the same time. I am uncertain what to call Malone's rotations except "The Malone System".

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Fans of any sort want to at least see some progress. We started this season well but losing Millsap (without adjusting for that loss) has put the Nuggets in a below-500 tailspin and fans of all types are no longer interested.

RealGM fans include some bandwagon jumpers but there are a lot of RealGM fans that are have been around a while. They are losing interest in the Nuggets too. They may still care about the Nuggets, but they don't want to post about them and I can understand that.

Of course this team is losing fans, it has been a 30-37 win team for the last 4 years, and with Malone's coaching they are not likely to get much higher than that this year. I have been to 3 games this year, and the fans in attendance got lower each time, the posts on this board have seemed to fall off as the year has went along, it is not bandwagon fans, it is all fans that are losing interest. This team has given them no reason to care at this point.

We have had several long discussions on this board over the years, and most fans started during a good run of the team. For me is was the late 70s-89 seasons that drew me in, many fell in love with the team during the Mutombo years, we are even seeing fans who started following the team during the Melo years that show up occasionally. We are 5 years into a rebuild and the handful of casual fans around town watch a game here or there, the look at the standings, and they say yes some of the young guys are pretty good but it's still the same old Nuggets. They aren't watching the games, their kids are starting to follow the Nuggets, they are finding other things and/r sports to get into.

Nobody in their right mind can believe that this team as constructed with Malone as the coach is going to do anything even if they make the playoffs. Fans started losing interest in the post Melo team by the time Ujiri left and Karl was fired, why? because nobody believed they were more than a 1st round exit team. This team has become the definition of a treadmill team, they cannot seem to choose a direction, and haven't since Connelly has been hired.

Pick a way to go, give the fans something to hang onto, not this middle of the road team with a book of excuses. Hell even tonight Marlowe started off talking about how it is another back to back, so they have a built in excuse if they get killed. People are tired of the excuses, nobody wants to hear about the injuries, the travel schedule, the youth of this team, people are tired of the ****.

hey talk abut his being such a young team, but how many minutes are going to the young guys? Plumlee and Barton are both seasoned veterans in their prime right now, Millsap is past his prime, and Chandler is in his prime but doesn't even care to play here, those are 4 of the top 7 guys in MPG, take out Millsap and that is 3 of the top 6 in total minutes played. Sure young teams need veterans to stabilize young players, but the offense and systems is built more for them than our best young players or even our best player.

Jokic played well last night, so that means he goes back to playing out of position and a different style so Plumlee can go back in the starting lineup? Barton is not a PG, not a backup PG and not a starting PG, yet he is starting while Mudiay sits on the bench and Morris is stuck in the d-league. That is not a young team, that is a veteran team that happens to have young players that are better than the guys our systems are built around.

They want the playoffs this year, fine then you better upgrade your veterans, and find a system that fits them. You need to auction off some of the veterans to get a starting PG and a starting SF at least. murray and the young guys that remain will be the bench, but you are assured of the playoffs, of course they are not going past the 2n round but hey at least you choose a direction.

I would prefer they get a coach that can utilize the young guys, and actually build around the young guys. That would mean they have to actually fire Malone, they have to trade guys like Barton, Plumlee, and Chandler, and while I do not think it will mean missing the playoffs, they might miss the playoffs but at least it will fill like there is a long term plan. At least they have a team that people can start to care about again. Right now they have excuses and those are past worn out.

If you're seeing less posts on the board, it's because whatever needs to be said has already been said.
Change isn't coming to fix those things.

U hova wrote:If you're seeing less posts on the board, it's because whatever needs to be said has already been said.
Change isn't coming to fix those things.

Interesting perspective and I get your point. The Nugget FO is very slow and less than reactive than teams like GSW and HOU but what about SA, they are successful yet have very little change IMO ?

SA has very little reason to change.

U hova wrote:If you're seeing less posts on the board, it's because whatever needs to be said has already been said.
Change isn't coming to fix those things.

When it comes to online forums, there definitely has been a growth, it's just on other boards.

and these responses are about what we might have expected.

Is the problem that ownership won't spend the money to get the right GM and then keep them? Each GM tends to want to remake a team and that leads to bad seasons during the make over.

Is the problem that ownership won't spend the money to get the right coach and then keep them? Each coach tends to want to remake a team and that leads to bad season during the make over.

Is the problem that ownership won't spend the money to get the right players and then keep them? That gets extremely expensive and difficult to do (but we haven't had to worry about that too much).

Sure, spending big bucks might get you the right GM-coach-players but it's still a gamble. If ownership doesn't gripe about fans in the seats and doesn't jack the prices and allows the GM and coach some time and latitude - perhaps Denver can develop a perennial winner.

It just seems to me that Nuggets' ownership is all about the dollars and that is clearly shown by having the 10th highest ticket price in the NBA. For the teams they are putting together, especially over the last five years, that is ridiculous.

They certainly spent the money to bring in Millsap.

That's not to say I don't have questions about what they are doing. Lyles is a player but that trade looks bad. Barton is a likely a free agent, so why play him big minutes at point guard while Mudiay has been chained to the bench? Beasley looks like a player, why not use him more.

There has been some progress (Murray and Harris) but it has been slow. I sill think they will make the playoffs but they lack some pieces.

I don't know that it is a money problem, I think what it really comes down to is a few things.

To start Josh has been convinced by some of his buddies including LeBron that being nice and taking care of the players is more important than anything, but reality is that is wrong. Morey is a dick that makes no secret of the fact that players are only assets, yet he signed the biggest free agent on the market. Gilbert was hated a few years ago, now he has had a contender for years. Pop is a hardass. The Warriors didn't even want to give Curry the max. Kissing ass is not going to lead to wins and wins are what lead to free agents.

Connelly is a good drafter, average at signing free agents, and below average at trading, he seems to struggle to be a cohesive roster, but the worst thing he does is fall in love with his players.Chandler, Gallo, and Faried should have been traded a year ago. Barton, Mudiay, and Plumlee should be on the block right now. Yet they seem to be happy basically standing pat. He though isn't the biggest issue, unless he is the one that choose to pick up Malone's option and keep him here.

This teams 2nd biggest problem is Malone, he wants to win, but he wants to do it his way and only his way. He cannot see obvious things in front of his face and it is hurting both the youth and the win column.

The biggest issue with this team is that they still haven't really picked a direction, and it is the whole front office and head coach. Either you are building for the future which means not signing guys like Millsap and trading veterans for better fits and future assets, while playing and developing the young guys. Or you want to win now which means trading the you talent for stars and upgrades. Right now this team is in year 8 of limbo, without a clear direction, and that is from the top down.

Stan being cheap does not help but it is far from the biggest problem.

I think we are too cruel to Nuggets franchise. If Knicks, Bulls, Lakers... have all these players, including coach Malone and same FO, instead of this deep silence, there would be big attention and hype around same this team!

Denver is a small market city where also NFL is much more popular (even NHL), and our team is very young, without established big stars to bring national attention to this team like during Mello-Iverson era.

I will give now one concrete proposal to this Nuggets subforum mods how eventually to bring more people here. My suggestion is to create a special (sticky?) thread with the title "TEAM CANADA", or something like that. I'm from Serbia, a country with big basketball tradition and many NBA players, and there was never any NBA team even close that popular like Sacramento Kings was at beginning of this century when TWO our notable players, Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic played for them. I guess the same fan synergy effect was in France when Parker and Diaw played for San Antonio, in Spain when Gasol and Navarro played for Memphis... etc...

Call me biased, but I'm sure that right now Jamal Murray and Trey Lyles duo is best international players from the same country which playing for the same NBA team, so why not to use it here? And according to the popularity of Toronto Raptors subforum here, seems that Canada is in love with basketball right now... and Murray and Lyles are TOP5 players of their National Team, if not TOP3 both already (together with Wiggins).