Fear and Trembling

The Despair arising from a losing streak stems from a place of helplessness. Kierkegaard referred to the opposite of love not being hate, but despair. He framed it as such, because with hate there is still an aspect of care and a subsequent emotional reaction. Despair is an empty nihilism. Giving up. This is exactly what I have been tempted to do as of late. With the second seed a half game’s reach away, possibly a full one after tonight, it is beginning to feel like that top shelf just inches from your grasp. It might as well be a mile high.

During the last three games, the only positive occurrence has been the return of Ty Lawson in the third quarter of the Boston game. He looked physically ready to go and his defense on Nate Robinson sparked the Nuggets to a J.R. Smith fast break dunk and a small run that culminated in a buzzer beating Swish three pointer. Besides, this small turn of momentum, it has seemed the bad habits of taking off quarters and deferring too much to Carmelo and Chauncey is finally catching up with the Nuggets at the wrong time.

Yet, despair is a harsh overreaction. There is still time to bring Denver back into the battle for the second seed. With games in Toronto, Orlando, and Dallas, respectively, there is still ample opportunity for the Nuggets to show what they are truly made of at their best. Redemption is a funny thing. At its core, there really ought to be no opportunity for it if one is performing their duties and holding themselves equally accountable. Still, making up amply for one’s mistakes can actually create an experience more valuable than never having faltered in the first place. It presents the chance to learn about one’s self and become stronger in conviction. I’ve never liked the saying, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It is not universally true. For some, a traumatic event can cause a break down and an irrevocable recovery. Losing an entire appendage won’t make it stronger, it’s just lost. It is up to the person involved to take it for what it is and react accordingly. Whatever doesn’t kill you could make you stronger.

In closing, it is entirely up to the Nuggets to do with this current situation what they will. There are plenty of excuses for them if they choose to use them. Kenyon Martin, their defensive backbone and purveyor of “bad-ass-itude”, is still suffering on the bench. George Karl, the voice of reason and concern, is still in the fight for his life. The Nuggets were given the most difficult schedule in the NBA and are ending the most precarious stretch of it. All these things may be, but no one else cares. There aren’t any pity points in National Basketball Association. Some people work very hard, but still they never get it right and I’m beginning to see the light. It’s about who wants it more. I know Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki want it. They have both been to the finals and lost. Maybe it takes multiple failures for some to reach the highest pinnacles. Nothing is deserved in sports it is taken, in the words of Charlton Heston, “from my cold, dead hands,” (not mine, maybe Larry Obrien’s). So the question is; who wants it more? I won’t begrudge the Mavericks the second seed if they play well enough to earn it. Home court advantage is only that, an advantage. If you’re willing to work hard enough for it, there’s a good chance it will pay off in the end. It is up to Denver to decide if they owe it to themselves, George Karl, and the fans to put themselves in that position. GO WINNERS!

Everyone, Just Back Off!

It seems the trend for the pundits right now, is to call out the Denver Nuggets for being their own worst enemy. They point to their tendency to seemingly throw away games they are supposed to win, not try hard enough in the first half, or give up big leads in the second half. The Nuggets are supposed to be a power house team rolling over the competition no matter the scheduling or personnel difficulties. The analysts want more consistency and point to some lost games as lost opportunities to vie for the top spot in the West. No matter what kind of run they are on, it seems the Nuggets can’t break past the fourth spot in the various power rankings, either.

Having been a fan of this team for some time now, I am willing to chalk up most of this to pure bias. Denver has always been a target for people like Charles Barkley. It’s easy to pick on a team with a small market, but high profile players. The personalities and tattoos don’t help either when it comes to negative opinions. In a still deeply racist and suspicious society masquerading as tolerant, it is easier to label a tattooed team of misfits as lacking character. Every sport needs theater and a black hat in the battle. Without antagonists, where would the drama come from? The true tale of the Nuggets season is much deeper and complicated than the mass of media might surmise.

I won’t pretend the Nuggets don’t have their lapses of concentration, but the same could be said for almost every other team out there. Where is the criticism for the Hawks or the Jazz when they lose to teams they’re supposed to beat? Only a few teams have better records than the Nuggets, but do they deserve all the praise they get? The Cavaliers have done the best job of playing winning basketball this season. Having the best player in the world doesn’t hurt, but they also play exceptional defense, have dealt well with injury problems (Shaq, Mo Williams, DeLonte West), and dominate both at home and on the road. They probably do deserve most of their accolades. The second best team in the league, the LA Lakers, has similar qualities, but lacks real team solidarity. Phil Jackson resents Pau Gasol, everyone dislikes Kobe, and Ron Artest has been mostly a distraction. Most of the media is loathe to point out these facets. Now most in the sports world would rank Orlando ahead of the Nuggets in terms of their league prowess, but not so fast. Has everyone forgotten they play in the East? When you get to go up against teams like Miami, Charlotte, Toronto, and Chicago and they are some of your stiffest competition, it would make sense your win total would be a bit inflated. Couple this with a struggling Boston team giving away victories here and there and even the Cavaliers are probably enjoying a status not so much earned but inherited.

Then you have the Nuggets. Last year everyone’s beef with them was their inability to beat the GOOD teams. They had the best record against sub .500 teams, but struggled to put away teams like the Cavs and Lakers. This year it is the complete opposite. They are 7-1 against the top tier teams, by far the best record, and own the series versus the Cavs and are one game up on the Lakers. Combine this with their overall record against teams above .500 and they look really, really good on paper. Yet again, it is their ability to let games slip away from them against the bad teams everyone focuses on.

Let’s take a moment to review some of these losses. For example, after starting the season on a five game winning streak, The Nuggets rolled into Miami and were beaten by eight points and the next night were throttled by a motivated and rested Hawks team. This brings me to my most important point. The Nuggets’ schedule has included a league high twenty two back-to-back games. Twenty two! That is more than half their games. While the Lakers are getting preferential treatment with a schedule including over ninety percent home games for their first twenty five, the Nuggets are getting the shaft. Pundits have made a big deal lately out of a similar loss in Washington D.C. to the Wizards. I guess no one remembered the epic overtime win by the Nuggets the previous night against the Cavs for a season series sweep. This was another example of fatigue and lack of emotional investment rearing its head again. Not to mention the inability of the Nuggets’ staff to game plan for a totally different Washington squad with Josh Howard and Andray Blatche providing threats previously unseen. Of the Nuggets’ twenty two losses, eleven of them happened during back-to-back games. Half of their losses! Only one of those was against a quality opponent, the Mavericks. You might be saying, “Well, that means they weren’t focused enough to put those teams away and this means they are worse than you are letting on.” On the contrary, I am saying the only reason they lost those games was because of these conditions.

The analysts have also been ignoring all of the Nuggets’ various injury problems. Besides the poor Portland Trailblazers, I dare anyone to bring my attention to a team with more key players with time consuming injuries than the Nuggets have had. From Billups, to Anthony, to Andersen, to Lawson, to Martin the Nuggets have had to persevere despite this adversity. Not to mention J.R. Smith’s seven games suspension to start the season. Oh, and I mustn’t forget the little ordeal of George Karl’s throat cancer.

Considering all of these factors, it is a wonder the Nuggets have done as well as they have. Currently, they are three games better than any other Nuggets season at this point. They are playing in the stacked Western Conference and in the ultra competitive Northwest Division.

So back off pundits! The Nuggets are awesome and play harder and better than almost every team out there. The only inexcusable loss I could come up with was the loss at home to the Timberwolves. Even in this loss however, Minnesota was due after having lost fifteen straight after their opening win against the Nets. Look for the Nuggets to only be stronger in the playoffs after enduring the insane amount of back-to-backs thus far. Having at least one day off between games must seem like a vacation by now. GO NUGGETS!!!!

Nuggets Getting Better All the Time...Hopefully

The Nuggets are starting to show improvement in three key areas that they struggled in earlier in the season: winning on the road, winning when key players are injured, and beating inferior teams such as Indiana, Minnesota, New Orleans, and Memphis. This is a very encouraging sign for Nuggets fans, and could point to success in the playoffs against teams like the Lakers as well as the lower quality playoff teams (such as Phoenix, Portland, or Memphis, three teams they have beaten on the six-game win streak).

If the Nuggets can gain more confidence on the road, they could cement their place as one of the few teams that has a realistic chance at an NBA Championship. Up until recently, Denver has struggled on the road and failed to give the rest of the league the intimidating “we can beat you anywhere, anytime” presence necessary for a contender. For much of the season, the Nuggets have looked about as comfortable in someone else’s house as Seinfeld did after he mentioned that he hated anyone who ever had a pony and the elderly owner of the house angrily said, “I had a pony.” Even if the Nuggets have home-court advantage in a series, they are not invincible at home (like when they got worked over by the Timberwolves for their first home loss of the season). Having confidence to consistently beat opponents on the road will give the Nuggets a distinct advantage in the playoffs.

Earlier in the season, the Nuggets couldn’t buy a win (even if Tim Donaghy was still a ref) when they were missing Kenyon Martin. Lately, the Nuggets have faired well without K-Mart, who gives them a gritty defensive presence as well as an awesome lipstick smooch tattoo on his neck that is undoubtedly intimidating to opposing players. The Nuggets have begun to win without him due in part to contributions from guys who barely played early on in the season such as Johan Petro, Malik Allen, and Joey Graham. Ty Lawson has also been injured lately, but Anthony Carter has stepped up in his place with a pass-first mentality, a defensive intensity, and a shot that looks like it might hit the overhead scoreboard before it sadly clanks off the rim. While many of the aforementioned players have been relegated to bench-warming duties for much of the year (and Petro can warm a lot of bench with his large posterior), their real game experience could come in handy in the playoffs.

Of the question marks that plagued Denver earlier on in the year, possibly the most deplorable and glaring issue has been their unfortunate inclination to play down to squads that have no business beating them. While injuries and exhaustion have been excuses, there will be no excuses come playoff time (although the Nuggets will inevitably be playing a better team than Sacramento come playoff time). The Nuggets have recently begun to get in a groove against sub par teams, and this points to heightened intensity and focus as the season begins to wind down and they fight for a better playoff seed.

The Nuggets need to keep on winning in all situations in order to keep the number two seed in the Western Conference. If they continue to win on the road and win at home with the same consistency, they even have a shot at taking over the number one seed in the West over the Lakers.

Strange Days in Denver

The Nuggets are in a tight spot right now. With George Karl going through cancer treatments, Kenyon Martin poised to receive Platelet-Rich therapy and Ty Lawson out with a shoulder contusion things seem to be getting bad at the wrong time of the season.

Yet, I can’t help but see silver linings everywhere. After a mini-slump, Carmelo Anthony has stepped his game up and over the last three averaged over thirty points per. Chauncey Billups has continued his exemplary play and has been a stalwart leader despite the recent setbacks. In Ty Lawson’s absence, Anthony Carter has filled in beautifully averaging 8.3 assists over the last three contests. Having a veteran point guard waiting in the wings with the ability to make plays is no small luxury. I’m personally glad A.C. has gotten some well deserved playing time before the playoffs. If Lawson is still feeling pain by then or isn’t fully readjusted to the NBA game, Carter may have to continue to be a spark off the bench for the Nuggets.

Out of all the turmoil may come a blessing in disguise. With Kenyon Martin’s absence continuing through until the playoffs, the fear is the inability of anyone on the roster to take his place defensively, especially in the category of rebounding. The Nuggets have already auditioned a few big men in the hopes of filling that gap a little. It’s looking like Brian Cook will be signed to the Nuggets in the next few days, but he hardly fits the description of an inside, defensive presence. I am not worried, though. I have believed the Nuggets already have an answer to their ongoing big man dilemma sitting on their bench.

Johan Petro is a twenty three year old, seven foot project who has wanted to get in games for the past two seasons. In the few instances in which he has garnered playing time he hasn’t disappointed. Though it’s usually been in garbage time, he has demonstrated good, offensive post moves, a nose for rebounds, and active feet on defense. In last Sunday’s game against Portland, Petro grabbed a game high ten rebounds and made a few open jumpers, looking mostly to set up other people on offense. Look for him to defer a less and less as his confidence grows. Back to the blessing in disguise thing, I think this could be exactly what the Nuggets needed in terms of filling in that fourth big man spot in the rotation. Petro is by far our largest player. If he can continue to improve in game situations, he could become quite a force to deal with for any defense or offense in the coming playoffs. Is there anyone else out there to really bang with Bynum in the West? Throwing a lineup of Petro, Nene, and possibly Martin/Andersen against the Lakers or Dallas could really throw them for a tailspin (imagine what Billups, Anthony, Nene, Martin, and Petro would look like out there, it would be the largest lineup in the NBA).

The only way Petro was going to get this kind of opportunity was for either Nene or Martin to be out for an extended period of time. Hopefully it isn’t more than a month for Martin, but that should be enough time for Petro to get his NBA legs under him. You can practice and condition until your nauseous, but the only thing that makes an NBA player is game experience. It is my whole-hearted belief, we will see a star being born over the next month. Petro has intelligence, good instincts, superior athletic ability, and the drive to make himself better and a contributing member of the team.

It is usually a good sign when someone takes on nicknames. In the last few days I have heard Melo call Petro Frenchy and Hochman dub him the French Resistance. I prefer the nickname my roommate, Tomas Trujillo, gave him: The French Elevator. He bestowed this moniker a few weeks ago, simply in relation to his height. I see it now as a possible precursor for things to come. If Petro can become the player we yearn for him to be, he could truly elevate the Nuggets performance and playoff standing. BON CHANCE JOHAN!!!!!!!!!

The All-Time Nuggets Starting Five

The Denver Nuggets have had some of the most exciting and skilled players throughout their existence in the NBA and ABA. Compiling the all-time Nuggets starting five is a task that requires the ability to analyze a player’s skills combined with their overall contributions to the Nuggets while donning their powder blue, gold, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple uniforms throughout their tenure with the coolest team in sports history.

Point guard is the deepest position in Nuggets history. Floor generals who have suited up for the Nuggets (or their predecessor, the Denver Rockets) include Larry Brown, Michael Adams, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Mark Jackson, Nick van Exel, and Andre Miller among others. While those are some impressive names for the honorable mention list, two Nuggets have stood out at the position over the rest. Both led the Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals.

Chauncey Billups has been credited with changing the culture and fortune of the recent Nuggets teams, and certainly deserves consideration as the starting point guard on the all-time Nuggets starting five. While Billups’ statistics and contributions in the last couple years have been extraordinary, I am going to give the first backcourt spot to Lafayette “Fat” Lever. Lever averaged 17 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 2.5 steals in six seasons with the Nuggets from 1984 to 1990. He racked up 46 triple-doubles in a Nugget uniform, three of which came in the playoffs. He is one of only six players to accumulate more than 40 triple-doubles in a career, joining Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Jason Kidd, Wilt Chamberlain, and Larry Bird. One of the key players in Doug Moe’s run-and-gun offense of the 80’s, Lever brought his stellar all-around game and a winning attitude to the table with stunning consistency—all in order to claim a starting spot on this team I just created!

The shooting guard position was a much easier decision on the all-time Nuggets team ballot given to the executive committee (me). David “Skywalker” Thompson was clearly the greatest shooting guard in Nuggets history. His gravity-defying midair artistry made it okay for guards to play above the rim, and paved the way for athletic two-guards like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and Michael Jordan; His Airness honored Skywalker as his presenter and spoke of his influence when he was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Thompson led the Nuggets to an ABA Finals appearance and an NBA Western Conference finals appearance, and was known as a team-first player despite his ability to put up big numbers, including a Nuggets record 73 points in a game. Skywalker could have gone down as one of the greatest players in the history of the game if not for a drug problem and a history of injuries that cut his career short. Nevertheless, fans will always remember his overwhelming first step and his incredible leaping and dunking ability. He was honored as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996. Honorable mention for the shooting guard position goes to T.R. Dunn, Bryant Stith, and Allen Iverson.

The small forward position is the toughest position to pick, and since there is no definitive answer between two of the NBA’s most prolific scorers, the executive committee has taken the liberty to go with a smaller lineup and having two small forwards on the starting team. Some may say this is cheating. The only thing I have to say to them is that they’re right. And I don’t care.

A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Alex English scored more points than any NBA player in the 1980’s. He is currently 12th on the list for most career points scored in NBA history (Kobe Bryant will pass him soon). English was the preeminent scorer on Doug Moe’s Nuggets in the 80’s. His style was smooth and sleek; he relied on a game of finesse rather than using brute strength or power. He appeared in eight straight All-Star games representing the coolest sports team in history, won a scoring title in 1983, and led the up-tempo Nuggets to nine straight playoff appearances. His humble approach to the game and non-flashy style may have contributed to lack of knowledge about his status as one of the great players in the game, but true NBA aficionados recognize English as one of the great scorers of all time as well as one of the classiest individuals on and off the court. Honorable mentions for the small forward spot include: Kiki Vandeweghe, Bobby Jones, and Carmelo Anthony...

But wait. Carmelo Anthony is one of the top players in the NBA and has reached the playoffs every year of his career, including leading the Nuggets to the Western Finals in 2009. As president, founder, vice president, accountant, and janitor of the executive committee, I have made the not-so-tough decision to include Melo on the team. Besides, it’s not like any power forward deserves to knock Carmelo out of the starting five. After leading Syracuse to a national championship in his freshman year of college, everyone knew Melo was destined to have a great career in the NBA, and teams would have been fools to not pick him as an almost sure thing after LeBron James in the NBA draft. . .um, right. Melo has improved every year of his career, and he has added passing, leadership, and defensive skills to his repertoire. Nuggets fans know we have only scratched the surface of Melo’s talent and potential as an all-around basketball studmuffin (please disregard my use of this word on the count of it being extremely ridiculous). Honorable mention for the power forward spot includes Antonio McDyess, LaPhonso Ellis, Calvin Natt, and Kenyon Martin (sorry Nikoloz Tskitishvili). I also just want to give a shout out to Rodney Rogers, who was my favorite player as a kid and who was recently in a life-altering accident that paralyzed him from the shoulders down. Nuggets fans are keeping Rodney and his family in their hearts as he rehabilitates.

The final spot on the all-time Nuggets starting five goes to another Hall-of-Famer, Dan Issel. “The Horse” got his nickname for his proven durability over the course of an ABA/NBA season and throughout his career. Issel was the second leading scorer in ABA history. While not necessarily the most athletic or defensive-minded player, Issel was a fantastic offensive player who had an accurate shot and was known for his hustle despite not having great speed. In other words, he made the most of what he had. His adept shooting also opened the door for effectiveness with his head fake and lumbering drive to the basket. He also coached the Nuggets to an unbelievable upset over George Karl and the top-seeded Seattle Supersonics in the first round of the 1994 playoffs. Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo gets the honorable mention nod at the center position. So there. I think I need a nap now.

All-Time Nuggets Starting Five:
G Lafayette “Fat” Lever
G David Thompson
F Alex English
F Carmelo Anthony
C Dan Issel