Jump to Comments

Although the Spurs were not predicted to be in a race for second in the West, the fact that we are is not a huge surprise. The fact that the race is primarily against the Denver Nuggets is pretty unexpected. Since the acquisition of Chauncey Billups this team has made such a startling turnaround that Billups has even begun crawling his way up some MVP ballots. I caught up with Jeremy from Roundball Mining Company to get a better sense of how this team rose to near the top of the conference and how far he thinks they can go.

When the Billups-AI trade initially went down, I was skeptical. I thought the Pistons made a deft move in terms of future cap space but I thought the Nuggets would continue to wander listlessly near the bottom of the playoff caliber pack. Needless to say, I was wrong. What was your initial reaction and now that we have seen how much a little “veteran leadership” has meant to this squad, what is the ceiling for this team this season?

In the offseason I argued that the Nuggets desperately needed to find a new point guard who could shoot, defend and help foster an environment where the half court offense consisted of more than one pass and a jumper. Billups fit the bill perfectly for what the Nuggets needed and I think most Nugget fans expected an immediate improvement upon his arrival.

After watching him play for a couple of months some fans, including myself, think that Chauncey lets his alter ego Mr. Big Shot come out a little too often as he loves to take threes at inopportune times. While we may hope for a little more leadership on the court in that regard Chauncey has made an incredible impact on how the Nuggets approach every game. Before Chauncey the Nuggets typically played down to the level of their competition and would drop several games to poor teams every season. This year Denver has only lost one game to a sub .500 team and that was at Golden State when Chauncey was in transit from Detroit to Denver.

As far as the Nuggets ceiling it is certainly higher than at any point in the last 20 years. With the right postseason matchups I could see Denver in the Western Conference Finals, but I think the most Nugget fans can realistically hope for is a first round victory and a close defeat in the second round at the hands of either the Lakers, Hornets or your San Antonio Spurs.

Nene is having an excellent year. Is his improved play also a part of the Billups trade afterglow or has he turned some corner? Are any other members of the team playing especially well but going unnoticed by the general public?

Nene is having an excellent year, but we have seen him play at this level before. From February through April of 2007 Nene put up very similar, and in some categories even better, numbers. Anyone who remembered that stretch, and it seems obvious the Denver media had no memory of it whatsoever, knew what he was capable of. The real difference between Nene now and the Nene of two years ago is his confidence level. When Denver traded Marcus Camby I think it lit a fire under Nene and he realized that this was his chance to prove himself. He was always behind Camby and Kenyon Martin on the depth chart. Coming into the season knowing he would be the starting center was a big deal for him and he has taken advantage of it.

I honestly do not think Chauncey deserves much of the credit for Nene’s play. I think Nene would be playing this well regardless of who the point guard was. In fact, I think most Nugget fans would like to see Chauncey get the ball to Nene more frequently than he currently does.

There is one other player on the team who has been a revelation and it is Chris Andersen. Denver basically pulled him off the scrap heap with a one year minimum contract. When they signed him I hoped he would be able to use his length and athleticism to play solid team defense, but really all I expected was to see him flying out of the picture as he launched himself at shot fake after shot fake. While he does leave his feet a little too often, he has certainly played the game with as much heart and passion as anyone on the team. I am afraid the Nuggets will not be able to afford to retain him after this season.

J.R. Smith has taken another small step forward this year as well. He is not piling up the scoring numbers he did over the second half of the season last year, but every now and then you see him realize he can be a force without scoring, but by setting his teammates up for easy buckets. Those games he is really fun to watch. He has also increased his effort on the defensive end, but still gets out of position too easily. There has been more progress there though and most Nugget fans are very pleased with his play this season.

Once upon a time, were you on the “fire George Karl” train? Your blog’s slogan says you will “move the earth for a title.” Even with the team’s improved play, do you believe Karl has the coaching ability to bring a championship to Denver?

I, for one, never came out and said I wanted George Karl fired. The primary reason is I did not see anyone available who could have done a better job with what he had to work with. I do think he was miserable trying to coach this team last season and while I did not say I wanted him ousted I did question why on earth he would want to come back again this year.

I think a real key to Denver’s improved play and Karl’s improved coaching was the way they were trounced by the Lakers in the playoffs last season. It was the first time where they could not rationalize their playoff defeat in one way or another. They had to look in the mirror and accept the fact that they were nowhere near the same level of the Lakers (or the Hornets, Jazz or Spurs)…(or probably even the Rockets, Suns or Mavs). In his press conference following the fourth game against the Lakers Karl claimed that he was done coddling the players and was going to coach, “his way” from there on out.

That quote was met with mocking laughter and wide spread skepticism, but we have seen a different George Karl this season. He went back to preaching defense first in training camp and he has been much more animated on the sideline this season than last when there were several occasions where he was in danger of getting a toe tag from the county coroner.

As you pointed out in your question, I am all about winning championships. I am sure that sounds pretty funny to Spurs fans coming from a Nuggets fan, but I do not take solace in 50 win seasons or in potentially advancing past the first round of the playoffs only to get stomped in the second. As you all know, championships are won by organizations. Right now I am not sold that the Nuggets organization has the ability to raise itself up to that level.

So if you want to know if George Karl can lead this team to a title, I do not know that he can, but I also do not think he has a championship roster to work with. Boston fans had been trying to run Doc Rivers out of town for years. They were convinced he was a bumbling idiot who only kept his job because the local media liked him enough that they would not out pressure on ownership to get rid of him. Well, we all know what happened. Rivers is now very well respected not only around the league, but amongst the very fans who hated the thought of his leading their team.

Most people doubt a coach can win it all until they do it. Unfortunately for Karl, he is in that boat.