While I hate to be the bearer of bad news during such an injury-plagued time for this Nuggets squad, I thought I would present an analysis of Arron Afflalo's game this season so we could see the numbers behind what many of us suspect: that something is wrong with Arron Augustin Afflalo. Afflalo has not looked like the same energetic, hard-nosed defender that could shoot the 3 like an AAAssassin that we loved the last two seasons. Let's take a look at the numbers after the break. All numbers are drawn from the excellent website basketball-reference.com.

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http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/07/nuggets-danilo-gallinari-out-with-chip-fracture-in-ankle/

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Every time Kosta plays I wonder what he would do with consistent playing time. Here is what I have dug up from his limited time and while projecting out 12.6 mpg is always a bit of a stretch that’s what hopeful arm chair GM’s do!

First off in his limited time Kosta has shown a PER of 14.67, just a shade off the league average of 15. The issue is that there are 27 centers in the league who are posting a better PER than Kosta. Now, out of those centers, only three are younger than Kosta’s 22 (four if you count Cousins) and one is the same age. Yes, that leaves Kosta in the top five centers of guys his age or younger. Centers simply take longer to develop and 22 is just young for a center.

Nene is pulling down a 16.34 PER for 22nd, and Moz a 12.4 PER for 37th among centers.

Kosta is 12th in the NBA in rebounds per minute of all players averaging more than 10 mpg. Nene is 62 and Moz is 60th. Out of all centers, only Cousins and Kanter are younger than Kouf and outrebounding him per minute. Hawes and Vucevic are close behind. For his age Kosta is the third best rebounder per minute out of all NBA centers.

Onto the intangible metric. Out of Moz, Bird, Nene and Kosta, Kosta is the most aggressive as I have observed and I just appreciate it. Kosta does foul at a rate of 5.4 fouls per48 but I’d rather have an aggressive Kouf in than a Nene who allows layups because he doesn’t want another foul.

For the record the one thing Kosta does not do well is block shots.

I like Nene and I like Moz. Moz is more mobile and after that foul on Griffin, maybe he is coming around. Nene has regressed from his stats last year and I hate seeing that in a guy who just got a new contract. Out of the three only Kosta has clearly proved he deserves more playing time and I think he should get it.

This is the first of a three-part series that will examine the differences between this season and the past few seasons, the empirical impact of the compressed NBA schedule, and finally examining which teams understand the schedule and what their adjustments have been.

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Watching the Nuggets post Melo trade has been fun, exciting, and frustrating at times. We are finally playing team ball, but we were once again unable to make a deep playoff push last year, and I fear the same for this year.

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The Nuggets are said to be fuming that the league's new labor agreement wouldn't allow them to sign-and-trade Kenyon Martin to his new team -- thereby positioning Martin to make a little more money in the deal and score an asset for Denver in the process -- but the Clippers' offer of $2.5 million for the rest of the season trumped all other suitors because of the role they can offer with it.

Word is that Martin prefers to play in the West because the proliferation of quality power forwards throughout the conference should translate to more playing time. That's especially true with the Clippers, who desperately need another big man to join Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Evans.

Miami ranked as the most attractive situation in the East for the 34-year-old, but the Heat could only offer him a prorated contract at the veteran minimum.

Sources close to the situation say that the Clippers initially wanted to make a run at shooting guard J.R. Smith as well but conceded that frontcourt depth is the bigger priority and have focused on Martin. It's the opposite approach to that taken by the Knicks, who also had interest in both ex-Nuggets but have a greater need for Smith's perimeter shooting than Martin's defensive know-how and are thus focused on trying to land Smith when he returns from China in the next month.

legs looked dead. moz was playing well till he sprained his ankle. nene struggled against length like usual + usually struggles the most on our team on 2nd nights of b2b. dunno wat is up w gallo's up and down game. dre, ty and big al played well. last the but not least, the 1 consistent of this team. GEORGE KARL SUCKS. we aint gettin out the first round w him as our coach. thoughts on the game?

SI.com's Sam Amick had this interesting tweet earlier today, "@SamAmick On Wilson Chandler front, he's optimistic Denver will offer a long-term deal when he returns from China. He is Nugs' restricted free agent."

Whoa what?!? In my opinion locking up Wilson for a few years would be GREAT! Gives us even more depth and as long as it doesn't affect the team re-signing Ty next season I'm all for it!! What are your thoughts?

via answers.bettor.com

I was getting frustrated by Karl's rotation and the perceived lack of using our depth so I decided to look at the stats. Listed below is the top 9 teams in the Western Conference and the % of minutes the player has played in. I only included players who have played in more than 10% (No one else on Denver is >3 while most have few guys >5 but <10)

What are your opinions on the info?

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No, this is no spam. Metro State College of Denver Department of Health Professions is selling Nuggets tickets to raise money for a scholarship. I took a look at what was available and there are some nice ones in the corner sections and end court areas. Lower level tickets that are regularly $80 are $40. They only list three games but say that if you have other requests to email them.

You do not have to be a Metro student to get this discount. The link ultimately takes you to Flash seats.

Here is the link.

http://www.pepsicenter.com/groups/landing.aspx?lpid=xLzRNfVF81k=&lpo