You just might get it.

For those "doom & gloomers who were laughed off and are now about to say I told you so" this posting is for you...

Forget the "coulda woulda shoulda"... last year. The reality was the Nuggets barely got the 2nd seed (3way tie breaker), had a great emotional run but then...

The Nuggets lost to the Lakers last year because:

* They weren't talented enough

* They weren't deep enough

* They weren't big enough

In the offseason the Nuggets chose to ignore their issues; though yes you could make the argument that they addressed the first bullet a little bit with Lawson and maybe with Afflalo (though they let Dahntay & Kleiza walk in the process).

The other legit NBA contenders all made deals to improve (News Flash!!! that was not Trevor Ariza who shut down Melo the other day... the Artest pickup was huge!!!). Yes the Mavs picked up Butler & Haywood at the deadline; BUT do not forget about picking up Marion, the Mavs picked him up for one primary reason... to shut down Melo in the playoffs.

The Nuggets made no deals during the season to build up depth, size nor skill. They stuck with the "we want to see what happens with everybody healthy" rhetoric. I'm not talking about the trading deadline "excusefest" why they couldn't make a deal; they had all season up to the deadline to pull the trigger (sorry Wizards fans... bad term).

Coach Karl steadfastly stuck to primarily an 8 man rotation all season long, not at the end of the season to prepare for the playoffs, but all season.

So what has happened?

They have a group of players that when they play well together can beat anybody...

Also:

* The team is tired and has no depth to help

* The team is hurt and has no depth to help

* The team is still too small and at crunch time they can't get a key rebound or defensive stop

* The team struggling and does not have enough skill to prevent the opponent from ganging up on Melo

* The team may not have enough gas to hold off Dallas & Utah. Denver could just as easily finish 2nd or 5th.

Is there a solution for the local cagers?