Beware what you ask for...
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?
Write respectfully of your SB Nation community and yourself.
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you r over reacting...
i hope… but i agree, the 8 man rotation is causing most of these injuries…. but its not like we dont have the players… i think balkman (when hes healthy), graham or petro could all be the 9th player for 10/15 minutes a night
Even if the entire bench was hurt
Karl wouldn’t play Balkman. Let’s face it, the guy’s not going to see another minute this season.
WE SUCK, WE ARE THE WORST TEAM IN LEAGUE HISTORY
LET’S ALL BOYCOTT THIS CRAP RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 14, 2010: The great one returns!
Balkman sighting during garbage time tonight, amazing!
In response to the word…We should have been developing the bigs we already have. Petro is just a kid, 23. He needs to be given real game time to develop. I don’t think theres much hope for improvement with Allen. Graham is solid. I just wish it didn’t come to injury for them to get more minutes.
And word, I don’t agree that the Nugs lost last years wcf due to lack of talent or depth. Our benchWe lost because of lack or loss of focus, and AC, with a little Karlism to spice it up. We do need size, I’ll give you that.
And AA is better than Dahntay (sp?) Jones; despite less height, he plays clean, hard nosed D, and has been a reliable offensive contributor. And Kleiza was only capable of chucking 3’s at a low percentage and occasional dunks, but nothing, and I mean nothing, else. Don’t miss him at all. And Lawson, the steal of the draft, is freakin awesome. How did we not improve on the personnel front? We did, we just didn’t spend a lot of money.
The major focus of the offseason was to sign Chris Anderson. Think what you’d be saying if they hadn’t done that.
"Woohoo Denver, Yeah... All right Denver justify my love!" ...Homer Simpson

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