2007 NBA Denver Nuggets Playoffs
How to Improve the Denver Nuggets for the 2007 NBA Playoffs
Advice is given to each of the 30 NBA teams to improve their playoff chances. This installment: Denver Nuggets
During these last few hours leading up to the 2007 trade deadline, most of the NBA player personnel directors of teams in the upper half of the standings will have taken a look at their roster and asked “Is this the team we believe will make noise in the playoffs?” Some will be satisfied that their group is solid; some will be convinced that there are missing pieces, and then there will be those few who will be mystified at the Jekyll/Hyde nature of their NBA team. Front and center of the latter category will be Rex Chapman from the Denver Nuggets, and his uncertainty may remain until they either win or go home in May or June.
Chapman, Coach George Karl and the Denver fan base should at least be secure with the team making the tourney. The only mystery ‘til then is whether they finish parked at 6th in the west, which gets them a first-round marriage to the Spurs, or they stay at 7th and draw Phoenix. Overcoming either of these class teams is a tall order for Karl as a strategist, and recent news that sharpshooter JR Smith will have knee surgery weeks and be out for several is a blow to getting the rotations set. The third-year guy out of high school was starting to become a threat from 3-point land, the only consistent one the Nuggets had at all in fact, so this development bears watching.
For me the entire “can Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson coexist?” is such a non-issue. Both guys will do what they’ve always done, which will find them both over 30 points per game average. It’s the supporting cast that has to push their games to a higher level, and there’s no history that would suggest that Nene, Camby, Steve Blake et al, have that extra gear to shift into. Without a proven shooter to kick the ball too, both CA and AI are turning the ball over too much, a big negative in tight games.
The X factor is Reggie Evans. Karl should be run out of town if he doesn’t get him on the floor for 30+ per game from here out. At 6:8 he merely projects to over 15 boards a game if he was on the floor for starters minutes instead of the measly 19 he’s been given. The Nene project needs to be deep-sixed and this mega-productive fifth year Iowa product given the strong forward reins. There just aren’t any other good options off the bench, though Karl has obviously seen something no one else does in the slow reacting Linus Kleiza.
Blake is a very good distributor, but he and AI aren’t in sync yet. Camby is having a superb defensive year (11.8 boards and 3 blocks per contest), but he’s just a bail-out option on offense. I’m surprised they did not move Najera, who hustles his butt off but makes too many bad plays, to the Mavericks for Anthony Johnson (who instead was traded to the Hawks for a second round pick). He could have given AI some rest time down the stretch in Smith’s time out. I’m surprised that they didn’t make another move to fill the void left by K-.Mart’s absence. I’m surprised that Rex Chapman is a player personnel director (needs to be said).
With Kenyon Martin at full speed, the Denver Nuggets could have made the playoffs a scoring circus. Instead, it will be a quiet sideshow as they’ll go out in 5 to the stronger teams that they’ll get in this years post-season. Next year might be entertaining, though.
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