OT: Daily Thoughts

[The Rebel]

This season will painful unless a game changing save is on the way.

I know some are banking on McGee and Gallinari returning, but truthfully, I don't expect much from McGee anymore and only consider his return an upgrade if he eats into Hickson's minutes (not Mozgov's). As for Gallo, most ACL guys suck for a year when they return from that injury and he will be on limited minutes, a wobbled 15-20 mpg Gallo can only do so much.

I guess the only thing to look forward to is the draft as the Knicks failure is more important than the Nuggets success this year. I really hope Faried is not extended with a $10M contract, I don't think TC can make anymore bad moves for this roster.

McGee is a guy that would actually help, specifically if he leads to Hickson not playing as many minutes, just having a known shotblocker in the game for 18-20 minutes may stop the layup line so much. I agree he should not be getting Mozgov's minutes, but than Mozgov is not exactly getting anything close to a set number of minutes, but with the 2 of them in there he should be a help.

I also fully understand that Gallo is not going to be himself the rest of this year, if he ever comes back, but even having him at 70% of the way he is normally would make him a top 5 player on this team this year.

This team needs to make a trade, my problem is that I do not trust Connelly to make a good trade at this point. the Koufos deal is marginal at best, but his signings have not really worked out. I do not like Robinson's fit as he is a ball pounder that like to play hero ball that reminds me of Boykins, foye has been terrible, and Hickson while putting up decent stats is terrible on defense and was not needed considering the Nuggets already had 4 PFs on the roster. Also due to his signings and not picking up Hamilton's option, many of the players have had their trade value drop considerably, Faried, Hamilton, Q. Miller, A. Miller, and fournier, have lost considerable value, with his injury McGee went from looking overpaid to being thought of as a regressing nightmare. foye, Robinson, and Hickson are all stealing minutes from the young guys that the Nuggets supposedly wanted developed, and now we are all left to wonder if those guys are even worth anything.

[The Rebel]

James Dolan telling the team he is not going to make any changes, yet believes they will win the division. Has he been watching the same team I have?

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_ ... ch-firings

[Powder Blue]

How often do the Nuggets play a game in which they have the best player in the match-up? I'd say at least 75% of the league has a better player than our best (Which is a slumping Ty)


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[The Rebel]

The Nuggets have been in that situation since they traded Melo, the difference is that the team used to have 5 good starters, now it is debatable if they have more then 3 guys on the court who would start around the league. add that to no longer believing in ball movement and effort and this team is going to struggle to win more than half their games until Gallinari gets back.

[eathb_au]

It doesn't help that the coach is constantly playing players out of position (Dre at 2, Foye at 3, Fournier at 3 when he plays, Hickson at 5). It's not all Shaw though, Connelly put up a roster that was jammed at one position and lacking in others.

[Powder Blue]

The Nuggets have been in that situation since they traded Melo, the difference is that the team used to have 5 good starters, now it is debatable if they have more then 3 guys on the court who would start around the league. add that to no longer believing in ball movement and effort and this team is going to struggle to win more than half their games until Gallinari gets back.

Last year you could at least argue Iggy but your overall comment on the staters is correct. Sucks we traded our first round pick to rent Iggy for a year, had we not I think this roster would have been blown up by now.


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[The Rebel]

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_248 ... ue-its-own

Unnamed nuggets player in 2010 had to be removed from practice due to being too stoned, it could have been just about anybody on that team, but just shows how unprofessional that team got. I could less if people smoke, hell I do occasionally, but letting it affect your job and play is a problem.

[The Rebel]

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/201 ... reak/9885/

Nuggets know their effort is a problem, so why are they not changing things?

[nomansland]

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_24809768/athletes-and-pot-legalized-marijuana-league-its-own

Unnamed nuggets player in 2010 had to be removed from practice due to being too stoned, it could have been just about anybody on that team, but just shows how unprofessional that team got. I could less if people smoke, hell I do occasionally, but letting it affect your job and play is a problem.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DEN/2010.html

Balkman? JR? Maybe Bird but after his severe suspension I don't think he'd risk his career in that way again.

[nomansland]

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2013/12/29/attitude-effort-top-the-issues-ailing-the-denver-nuggets-during-losing-streak/9885/

Nuggets know their effort is a problem, so why are they not changing things?

The only thing the players can do is improve their effort, since they don't make personnel decisions. But to me, the real problem is that the roster is full of b and c level players whose strengths do not match what the coach wants to do on offense.

[ReaLiez]

When in the world is McGee back? Any new news at all ?? is he out the whole year?

[josh_nuggets]

When in the world is McGee back? Any new news at all ?? is he out the whole year?

Mcgee has same injury that tyson chandler had.

If I can remember I think chandler got injured maybe a week or so before mcgee and came back last week.

[pickaxe]

When the roster was good enough to earn 57 wins.....there's a confidence that each game is a battle.

Now the roster is neither good enough to earn 48 wins under the old Karl system or the new Shaw system. We may not have reached the summit during the Karl years, but we made it to the parking lot right below the summit.

The new additions to the roster are neither good enough for the old Karl system or the new Shaw system. Being caught in the middle is the most vulnerable position to be in....other teams capitalize on the waffling.

Call me crazy but I'd rather have Afflalo back and come out as saying the Iggy rental was a failed idea or had limited value since it was just a rental. Plug Afflalo back in the mix I feel we get a much better picture of what we do next.

[Powder Blue]

When the roster was good enough to earn 57 wins.....there's a confidence that each game is a battle.

Now the roster is neither good enough to earn 48 wins under the old Karl system or the new Shaw system. We may not have reached the summit during the Karl years, but we made it to the parking lot right below the summit.

The new additions to the roster are neither good enough for the old Karl system or the new Shaw system. Being caught in the middle is the most vulnerable position to be in....other teams capitalize on the waffling.

Call me crazy but I'd rather have Afflalo back and come out as saying the Iggy rental was a failed idea or had limited value since it was just a rental. Plug Afflalo back in the mix I feel we get a much better picture of what we do next.

Hindsight is 20/20 my friend...I think we'd all love to have AAA back. We gotta do something to get out of the middle. Either right the ship, get healthy and move up...or trade for youth and go down. Just about everyone is on the books for more money next year which doesn't help the situation.

[eathb_au]

Just going to do some fantasy GM:

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/23 ... pen-Market

If that's the market for Lance, I assume Indy will need to move Hill, so a proposal like Hill and Copeland for the TE and Foye.

Re-sign Hamilton for 9M/3years

Let Dre, Nate, Arthur walk

Now assume the Knicks pick get us Parker, that means trading for a SG. Gallo S&T for Hayward - is that possible?

Gives us:
Mozgov / McGee
Faried / Hickson
Parker / Chandler
Hayward / Hamilton
Lawson / Hill

[The Rebel]

When the roster was good enough to earn 57 wins.....there's a confidence that each game is a battle.

Now the roster is neither good enough to earn 48 wins under the old Karl system or the new Shaw system. We may not have reached the summit during the Karl years, but we made it to the parking lot right below the summit.

I have seen teams just as bad win 48 games with Karl as the coach, as for Shaw's system what system would that be? From what I see when the low post offense did not work Shaw or the players decided to go to an isolation system, the problem is that the Nuggets do not have iso players at all, they have team players that are good at passing the ball and hitting open looks, but when you are asking guys like Lawson, Chandler, Foye, Hickson, or Randolph to go one on one or in Lawson's case 1 on 1 with the paint stacked against him, than the team is going to lose, and lose badly.

also maybe you can explain to me why Fournier has regressed, sometimes I think I am the only one who watched last season when Fournier was killing it, yet now he cannot get on the floor because he is not a spot up shooter? Yet Foye cannot hit the broad side of a barn, and is a terrible defender, it took over a month for Shaw to bench him.

Faried is the 2nd best healthy player for the Nuggets, yet shaw is cutting his minutes all the time? why because he is not an iso player? It is not due to defense, otherwise how do you explain Randolph and Hickson getting so many minutes?

Q. Miller in his limited minutes has shown to be a better player in summer league and preseason than Randolph has shown and is a true combo forward. Yet Miller is inconsistent, but most players with less then 80 minutes of regular season game time will be. So Miller has to wait for weeks to get a chance, meanwhile randolph keeps costing this team games.

The new additions to the roster are neither good enough for the old Karl system or the new Shaw system. Being caught in the middle is the most vulnerable position to be in....other teams capitalize on the waffling.

This I agree with, the new additions are basically worthless, they do not fit the rest of the roster, but being that TC brought them in, more than likely they are the ones staying. Unfortunately the team has went away from what made them good, and the signings seemed to be the 1st signs of that, but i am starting to expect things to get worse before they get better.

Call me crazy but I'd rather have Afflalo back and come out as saying the Iggy rental was a failed idea or had limited value since it was just a rental. Plug Afflalo back in the mix I feel we get a much better picture of what we do next.

Sure afflalo would be nice, so would having that pick, but both are gone, but you want to know what we do next? Considering the system Shaw seems to want to run, this team gets blown up, not a single player outside of Mozgov that is on the roster from this time last year is a fit for an iso or low post offense.

If the team is wanting to do what Shaw seems to want, we have to blow this team to pieces, and rebuild through the draft, as they are not getting Iso players nor good low post players on each end through free agency.

If they are not wanting to do what Shaw wants, then Shaw needs to figure out there is no Shaq/ Gasol/Bynum/ or even Hibbert on this team, nor is there a Kobe on this team. They need a real offense not 1 pass and iso ball, not throwing the ball into the post with Hickson, Randolph, or McGee and letting them create the offense. To have a shot at winning this team needs ball movement and an offense to help create open shots, if he cannot do that, then he needs to be fired.

[Powder Blue]

Since trading Carmelo, the buzzword in and around this team has been “talent.” The roster may not contain a prototypical star, but it remains chock-full of “talented” players. That now appears to be an outdated conceit; the whole no longer seems greater than the sum of its parts.

Ty Lawson certainly has rare ability, but he has yet to achieve the consistency that usually defines stars. The rest of the roster is made up of role players. Some have been so for their entire careers while others have yet to display enough to shake off that label, and perhaps never will.

The result: A team attempting to surge out of the middle of the conference has quickly fallen toward the back of the pack.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... to-nowhere

[Powder Blue]

Rebel I think Shaw should be given players that can create and hit open shots before he gets fired. Transitioning from Karl's great regular season offense to a system Shaw would like to use takes time and the right players. I don't think Karl would take this hodge-podge of players any further than Shaw will.

Would you honestly prefer a Karl style offense this season, knowing it doesn't produce in the playoffs?

Is being .500 this year that much worse than being bounced easily in the first round?

[pickaxe]

Well, see the iso thing confuses me. We may have grown tired of Carmelo, but he was all about iso. I don't get how we as a city can get up in arms about seeing too much iso, trade our best iso player in a generation, and then somehow let it slowly creep back into the mix. I call bs on this one.

Now, as for getting more effective in the half court when teams like SA slow us down, or GS kills us with jumpers..I am all for players adding versatility.

I don't think I can be a fan of the Nuggies so long as Foye is in the long term plans.......just because Shaw is new doesn't mean the city of Denver needs to re-commit all the mistakes Karl made over his tenure. The team needs to be smart, improve upon past successes, learn from mistakes, .....

Ultimately, I have no idea what Shaw is trying to build, if he will end up destroying any momentum the team had built up, and what exactly the final form will look like. Foye did not help Minnesota and is not helping us.....and I'm disgusted by the idea that we basically swapped effectiveness with Minnesota. They are rid of Foye, and their competition is burdened with him in the division. If Iggy was a sabotaging waste of time, so is Foye.

Please forgive me, but I feel the GM TC has made a blundering step in the wrong direction and still is unwilling to accept his mistake and correct it before too long.

And if we are building from scratch and hoping on the NY pick, maybe this is just an exercise in patience.....but at this rate players we want to trade post draft will have minimized their value.

[pickaxe]

Rebel I think Shaw should be given players that can create and hit open shots before he gets fired. Transitioning from Karl's great regular season offense to a system Shaw would like to use takes time and the right players. I don't think Karl would take this hodge-podge of players any further than Shaw will.

Would you honestly prefer a Karl style offense this season, knowing it doesn't produce in the playoffs?

Is being .500 this year that much worse than being bounced easily in the first round?

Powder, I'm with you on jump shooters. At least it's addressing a weakness that booted us from the playoffs. Also, making shots is a cure-all for whatever ails you. Bricks just weaken the resolve of the team. If we are being asked to be patient, at least give us some shiny net movement to distract us.