Here's a link to a solid Hollinger breakdown of the Nuggets, he's the only mainstream guy I know that understands the nuggets are going to give up more points given the pace they play. He predicted the Nuggets finishing 9th, which is fair imo.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingc ... 0809#moves
Every analysis of the Nuggets described them as a group of talented offensive players who lost because they didn't play any defense. And everybody who wrote that was dead wrong.
The problem, of course, is that a lot of observers don't understand pace. The Nuggets played the league's fastest pace, by far (see chart), which had two effects. First, all their games looked like glorified street-ball contests, which contributed to the notion that the team didn't play any defense. And second, the Nuggets tended to both score and give up high numbers of points, cementing the idea that they were an offensive outfit untroubled by defense.