Weekend Update 11/02/2008

Well two games in the books this weekend against LA teams. One game shows how good the Nuggets can be, the other how bad.

The good was against the Clippers. The Nuggets played a swarming defense, shared the ball and pretty much owned the second half as they came back from a big halftime deficit to win. It was a real team effort with special kudos to Dantay Jones who had a great game. If they play this kind of team ball all year, they are gonna win a lot of games.

The bad, the final minutes vs the LA Lakers. I tuned into the game in the late 3rd quarter and the Nuggets were keeping a steady lead. As it got to crunch time the Lakers went to Kobe Bryant. He played good but the Nuggets did get a few good stops along the way.

However, the problem was not their defense, it was their offense. The same old 1 on 5 isolation crap from last year. Throw Mello the ball, run to the opposite side of the court and stand there. Mello takes on 2 or 3 guys, then the ball is passed around the perimeter and a desparation 3 goes up late in the shot clock. When are they gonna learn? As the game wore on, Kobe settled for fewer and fewer jumpers and took the ball to the hole. Did the Nuggets go inside to Mello? To Nene? Nope. Just long difficult outside jumpers. Totally different than the Clipper game.

A New Season and the Trade

Well the new season quickly approaches and I have not posted in a long time.

The Camby Trade

From a team happiness perspective, I think this will help a lot. Not that Camby is a bad guy or anything like that. No, things should be better because of clearly defined roles. Nene is the starting center and KMart is the starting PF. No more time sharing, no more discussions about which of the three should be the starter. Both will get all the minutes they want. The team should also be much better defensively. Camby is a great weakside defender, but always seemed to struggle when he had to guard good big men like Tim Duncan or Amare Stoudemire.

The only potential problem is Nene and KMart have not had the best health records in the league.

Why didn't the Nuggets get anything in Return?

It is a misconception that the Nuggets didn't get anything for Camby. They did not get a player back in the trade, they got a $10M salary cap exception. What does that mean you may ask? It means that if the Nuggets were to trade say .... Allen Iversion who is making $20M this season, they would only take $10M in salary coming back to the Nuggets. The net result is, if the Nuggets trade Iverson in addition to Camby, they will drop $20m from their salary cap for the season. This should give them cap room to sign Klieza and JR Smith next year.

Iverson's departure would seem inevitable to me. That is sad because the guy plays his heart out every night. And there is a lot to like about the guy. But if you are building the team around Mello, a 6' scoring point guard does not fit. They need a good play making point with an outside shot.

Spurs v Suns

As the Spurs and Sun are about to play their second game, I wanted to say something about the first game. That was one of the best played basketball games I have seen in a log time. Back and forth with the Champs making the Suns take the title from them.
It was just a joy to watch the game offensively and defensively.

In my opinion, the winner of this series will me the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. I'll take the Spurs or Suns to make it to the finals if there aren't any major injuries.

Nuggets Lost at Lakers

Well the media gets the Nuggets need to play better defense. The bloggers get the Nuggets need to play better defense. The coaches get the Nuggets need to play better defense.

But the Nuggets don't seem to understand they need to play better defense.

Playing much of the game in a zone, the Laker simply reversed the ball and made that extra pass which often resulted in Gasol dunks. The rotations by Camby and Anthony were terrible.

The offense was not much better. Throw the ball to Melo or AI. Let me pound the ball for 20 seconds and throw up a shot. The 2nd team looked great in the second quarter. They played defense, moved on office, and attacked the rim. But Melo has forgotten how to play on the block and how to attack the rim. It's all tough jumpers.

In the end, we can not play for them. The team needs to figure it out. Does Melo want to talk about winning? Or does he want to win? Its up to him.

Wrong About Newcastle's Players

I gotta say I was wrong about Newcastle to a degree. The initial group Keegan was playing was just not very good. Given the results of the last few weeks, he just had to find the best 11 for his team and he did.

A good coach, adjusts his system for the players he has. Putting Michael Owen in midfield so you have your best 11 on the field was a great move. At club level, Keegan is a very good manager.

With a new owner, it will be interesting to see if the club can build a team that will last. The ManU's, Arsenal's, and Liverpool's, all tend to buy great players when they are young and keep them through their prime. Newcastle has tended to buy older players usually past their prime. Can they change? We will see.

Nuggets Weekend

Wow. Looks like the Nuggets have played themselves right out of the playoffs. This team just can't seem to give a consistent effort on the defensive end.

There is no way you can continue to pay the luxury tax for a team that at best will make the 8th spot or more likely won't even make the playoffs. I don't think they need to blow up the team, but I expect some changes are coming.