Plus/Minus Indicative of Faried Trade?

Have you seen the plus/minus from last night's Nugget game (Denver v Phoenix)?  Box Score.

Starters = -101
Subs = + 75

Which begs the question, why are Faried and Hickson starting when Mozgov and Arthur are clearly better?

My guess is the Nuggets are trying to trade Faried so they are showcasing him as a starter.  His lack of defensive acumen has been bugging me for a month now. Pretty much every person he checks has a career night.

Part of that is not his fault. Kenneth is clearly not a power forward. He is a small forward who can rebound.  But I am beginning to think he clearly prefers playing on the offensive end to doing anything on defense. So from a cost benefit point of view, he is generally going to be a liability. No better time than now to trade him while there is still a lot of buzz about him in the NBA.

Will he be traded?  Will he stay and get moved the bench?  Or will things stay status quo? It will be interesting to see what happens.

Nuggets get Nene back, Fernandez and Brewer

The Nuggets have resigned Nene to 5 year $13 million contract. In addition, they made a trade yesterday getting Rudy Fernandez and Corey Brewer from Dallas.

The Washington Post has the only analysis of the team so far

The Nene signing is great. I think all around, he is a very underrated player. He is a good defender, he blocks out, and he really does have some offense. Expect him to get more minutes and better stats with KMart gone.

Given the brutal NBA schedule this season, depth will be paramount. And the Nuggets are already super deep. Sure they are gonna need some players to step up their scoring. But if that happens, I expect the Nuggets to be a very good team this year.

NBA Lockout: Killing the Golden Goose

Just read a few of the articles on the breakdown in talks over the NBA lockout. The players seem to be offering a sliding system where they take a 50% cut while revenues are down. However, once revenue starts to go up again, their cut increases a few percentage points. This seems like a pretty reasonable proposal.

The owners, however, are not interested. Basically, they offered a 50/50 split, take it or leave it. Pretty hard line.

Both sides need to realize they are in the entertainment business and we are facing some very serious economic hard times. They have a very expensive product in a very competitive market. I know there are a number of college basketball fans in the Denver area that would be more than happy to pick up a few fans and season ticket holders. The NBA, more than the NFL and MLB, faces the risk of a much greater loss in reputation and long term revenue by prolonged labor strife.

My advice to the players... Take the deal for the shortest amount of time you can get. If the owners profits soar, you can get your pound of flesh in a few years time. If profits aren't up, then maybe the owners had a point. The league is run by hard liners this time around and I don't think they are gonna change their position.

My fear is we are gonna lose at least this season. Maybe more. The talk of the players starting their own league has been thrown around as well. Maybe that would be a good thing. Somehow I think Billy Hunter would not be so disdainful of "profits" after trying to run his own league.

Whatever the case, it looks like both sides are gonna be losing a lot of money.  And they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Broncos: Offense Helps the Defense

So many people are misreading the Broncos win last night and their last four losses. The defense has been pretty much the same throughout the year.  When the D has looked bad, the offense has played terrible. Because of all the three and outs, time of possession has been lop sided in all the losses. In the NFL, if an opposing offense gets so many chances, they are going to score . In all the losses, the Broncos were in the game in the first half. But, offensive ineptitude lead to eventual defense collapse.

Last night, the Broncos offense were actually able to move the ball a little. The defense stayed fresh and I think, it makes all the difference. The Bronco's team success will depend on the offense playing reasonably well. Balance is the key.

Nuggets in Bejing

Roundball Mining Company has a very nice round up of the Nuggets final game in China.

Orton vs Rivers

The Bolt from the Blue blog has an interesting post comparing Kyle Orton and Philip Rivers. Did you know they have very similar stats?  If Orton keeps playing well, he will get the respect he deserves.