How many teams would love to have an athletic 6’ 11” 270 pound power forward/center with good hands who is only 25 years old, has proven that he can perform in the postseason, shows signs of having a strong back to the basket game, can step out and hit the 16 or 17 footer, has the ability to defend almost any big man in the league, is a good passer and is locked up at a somewhat reasonable $43 million over the next four years?

There would be 30 teams lining up to get a player like that if he were available.

However, there is a catch.  This player has missed more than two seasons worth of games over the past three years.

That is a pretty big monkey wrench to throw into the gears. 

I am sure you have figured out that I am talking about Nene and the question at hand is how much value, whether it be for the Nuggets or someone else, does a player with a resume like that have?  The problem is I do not think anyone can truly produce an answer at this point, but that is not going to stop me from trying.

The primary question is how can you justify hanging on to a player who has proven to be such an injury risk? 

On the other hand, how can you possibly trade him to another team knowing what he can do when he is healthy?  We have seen impressive things from Nene, but he still has not reached his vast potential.

Just looking at the resources the Nuggets have poured into Nene, I do not think there is any way they can part with him at this point in his career.  Not only have the Nuggets spent around $30 million in salary (by my calculations) on Nene, but he was a high draft pick, the Nuggets passed on players like Caron Butler and Amare Stoudemire, and they have poured countless hours of time developing his game.  So far the payoff has been relatively small, but you never know when Nene is going to make that time and money seem like a bargain.

Just look at what he did after the All-Star break in the 2006-07 season.  He averaged almost 14 points and over eight rebounds a game on 62.4% shooting.  He also played very well in the playoffs that season frustrating Tim Duncan at both ends of the floor and finishing the five game series with averages of 15.2 points, 7.4 boards and 2.4 assists.

We all saw how well Nene played and expected even better things form him this season or at the very least at least more of the same.  However, Nene apparently went on the John Goodman 10,000 calorie a day diet and let himself go a bit in the offseason all the while planning on using the Tournament of the Americas to help play his way into shape in preparation for the NBA season.  It was a good plan until he was injured early in the tournament.  His strained calf kept him from working out until shortly before the season started.

Because of the calf injury Nene was overweight, but did produce a couple of decent games early in the season, but then he fractured his thumb during the fifth game of the season in Boston.  Nene returned a month and a half later in much better shape and played seven games, again looking to be rounding into form after a 12 point nine rebound effort at Phoenix, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.  Miraculously after surgery and chemotherapy Nene was back before the end of the regular season and making a difference though in very limited minutes.  Again, just as it looked like he was doing well his nightmare season continued as a groin injury derailed him for the remainder of the regular season.

He did play thirty minutes over the last three games of the series against the Lakers, but it was nothing other than a sad prologue on a lost season.

I fully expect Nene to show up in camp in shape and ready to perform next season.  He has made impressive strides on offense and as a rebounder despite dealing with a plethora of maladies over the previous three seasons.  He is the only Nugget willing to score with his back to the basket (sorry Melo, but letting your defender push you ten feet off the block and forcing you to turn and face from 18 feet does not count as scoring with your back to the basket) and the only Nugget with the height and strength to handle the bigger centers of the league. 

The flip side to that is the Nuggets are facing some difficult financial realities.  At this point it sounds like Stan Kronke is willing to foot the bill for this bunch again next season, but if he realizes that this team is not worth the $100 million in salary and luxury tax payments and decides that some salary needs to be cut it may be Nene and not Camby who gets shopped around.

Camby’s deal is two seasons shorter than Nene’s and, in one of Kiki Vandeweghe’s more savvy moves as GM of the Nuggets, his salary is set to decrease the last two years instead of increase as 90% of the other contracts in the league do.  Nene is not the rebounder or shot blocker that Camby is, but he may be a better all around defender with his bulk and willingness to jump the pick and roll.  Add in the massive difference as a scorer in the paint, remember how Camby would not even venture down to the block when he had Mickael Pietrus guarding him earlier in the season, and the eight and a half year age difference and even with the injury concerns I believe Nene would bring more interest from other teams than Marcus would.

I really believe the Nuggets are going to be tempted to deal Nene over the next three or four months and I hope they resist that temptation.  He may be an injury risk, but really what else is left to go wrong?  He has blown out a knee, injured his calf, his groin, his thumb and had cancer.  He is running out of body parts to injure.  Most importantly, none of the afflictions he has endured appear to have created any kind of debilitating effect.

Even though I said that it is impossible to truly discern Nene’s value I am going to go out on a limb, because after all, isn’t that what the Internet is for, and state that I believe 2008-09 will be the year Nene finally plays a full season and truly shows the NBA what he is capable of. 

He just better still be a Nugget.

The Marcus Camby Myth has carried the Nuggets center to another honor.  This time Camby has garnered a spot on the NBA’s all defensive team. 

Yes, Camby is a very good shot blocker.  Yes, he is a very good great defensive rebounder.  But the best defensive center in the league?

Not a chance.

Marcus Camby cannot play man to man defense in the post against any player who weighs more than 225 pounds (other than Pau Gasol).  He chooses not to play defense on the pick and roll in order to ensure he does not miss a chance to block a shot.  How about his perimeter defense?  Do not even ask.  Good luck getting him out of the paint.

In fact, there were even games where Camby was on the bench n crunch time because he was a defensive liability! 

Is that the resume of a first team all NBA defensive player?

Perhaps the voters, supposedly the 30 NBA coaches, just figured his offense is so bad, there must be some reason Marcus stays on the court. 

You may wonder why I get so upset about this.  I do not hate Marcus Camby.  He is a vital part of this team, but the issue runs deeper than just Marcus Camby.

The stars on this team have big holes in their game, but they keep getting accolades such as all-star starts and first team defense awards so they do not see the need to make changes.  They are changes to their games that are necessary for this team to go anywhere in the playoffs.

Next year, and probably forevermore, Camby is not going to step out and jump the ball handler when he comes off of a screen and he is not going to leave the paint to challenge his man.  Why should he change anything when the NBA coaches keep voting for him as the best defensive center in the league? 

Worst of all, he is going to miraculously gain 25 pounds of muscle so he can actually play man to man defense in the paint, but that is not really his fault.

Anyway, congratulations to Marcus Camby for finishing second in the defensive player of the year balloting and being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.  I just wish I could say you deserve it.

Entering the season the Nuggets had what appeared to be a strong core of Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby and Nene.  However, there were some big questions about what they had on the rest of their roster. 

Eduardo Najera was the only known quantity coming off the bench to start the season.  Kenyon Martin was recovering from his second microfracture procedure and how much or how long he could play was unknown.  Many people expected to make a mere cameo appearance before having something else go wrong.  J.R. Smith had been publicly benched in the 2007 playoffs and experienced a tragic offseason.  Most Nugget fans would have probably preferred a public execution of J.R. as opposed to seeing him on the court. 

Newly acquired Steven Hunter and Bobby Jones were question marks.  How they would fit into the Nuggets system was a mystery.  Yakhouba Diawara was a good defensive player, but offensively had not been able to translate his interior game from college to a perimeter game at the NBA level.  The point guard situation was in flux with both Chucky Atkins and Anthony Carter injured.  The only other somewhat reliable player off the bench other than Najera was Linas Kleiza, but he had not done much other than have a handful of nice games.

Fast forward to April of 2008 and Kenyon Martin started 71 games and was still ticking.  J.R. Smith was considered one of the top sixth men in the NBA over the second half of the season.  Linas Kleiza had taken another step forward and was providing a higher level of productivity than the previous season.  Eduardo Najera was not just a scrappy player, but had added a pretty consistent three point shot to his arsenal.  Nene was available for a few games and provided a good boost when he was on the floor.

On the other hand, not everyone on the bench proved to be a success story.  Kuba Diawara played frequently early in the season, but his complete lack of offense, even for a team with several scorers, was too difficult to swallow.  Steven Hunter shattered his previous career lows in both games played and minutes.  He was only given the chance to play major minutes once all season even though he played well in that game.  Chucky Atkins was hurt for much of the season and then ineffective upon his return.  Bobby Jones was cut loose only to be brought back after having four other teams kick his tires.  The already forgotten Von Wafer was abysmal as he failed to make a single three pointer for the Nuggets this season.

With all of that as prologue the question at hand is what do the Nuggets do with the players who basically added nothing to the team this season?  Someone has to fill out the bottom of your roster.  Should the Nuggets hang on to these guys or should they look to replace them for someone else.

Before we analyze the Nuggets bench to determine who should stay and who should go, I better share my thoughts on my philosophy on how to best fill the last five or so spots available on the roster so you can tell where I am coming from. 

I believe the bottom slots should go to young players with potential to develop into something.  Whether they are second round picks or undrafted free agents, there are always talented players sitting around the scrap heap.  Examples of these types of players currently on the Nuggets roster are Bobby Jones and Taurean Green.  For Denver to allocate any more than three roster spots for players like that who may not play much during the season when they have injury risks such as Kenyon Martin and Nene might be dangerous, but you would never catch me carrying a Eric Piatkowski or Kevin Ollie on my team.

That being said, let’s take a look, player by player, at the bottom of the Nuggets roster and try to figure out who should be back, and who should move on.

Chucky Atkins (24 G, 14.6 MPG, 4.7 PPG, 2 APG, 31.6 3P%)

I was very outspoken about the Nuggets addition of Chucky Atkins.  You can sum my thoughts up as basically what a waste of money as well as a roster spot.  Yes, Chucky had a nice year last season in Memphis, but it came out of nowhere at the age of 32.  Memphis was not sad to see him leave and neither were the Lakers or Wizards before that.  I have heard mention of a player option for a third season on Chucky’s contract, but as far as I can tell he signed a two year deal.  To me, that makes Chucky a $3.4 million expiring contract. 

There is no reason to waive or buy Chucky out at this point.  He will be back and George Karl will probably try to find a spot in the rotation for him as long as he can stay healthy next season. 

The only area of Chucky’s game that impressed me at all was his ability to run the pick and roll.  As long as he can set up his teammates with easy shots, he should be on the floor for a few minutes here and there.  If he can somehow regain his stroke, which I see no reason why he cannot be counted on to hit 35-37% of his threes he would be a solid back up point guard. 

Then of course, it will be interesting what that $3.4 million can help accomplish next February at the trade deadline.

Verdict:  Keep him and either trade him or enjoy the savings of his expiring contract

Yakhouba Diawara (54 G, 10.1 MPG, 2.8 PPG, 1.1 RPG, 31.8 3P%)

When Kuba was a rookie George Karl proclaimed that he had the potential to be a Bruce Bowen type lockdown defender.  Well, Kuba is a good defender, but as impotent as Bowen is offensively, Kuba is far worse. 

His offense is limited to shooting open threes and perhaps scoring on a post up once every other month.  He cannot drive, he cannot set his teammates up and he does not rebound. 

There was some hope for Kuba early in the season as he finished November shooting 45.2% from three point range.  Then he only made seven of 35 threes over the remainder of the season.  Yep, 20%. 

Needless to say that is not encouraging.

Kuba is currently not under contract and I would have no problem with Denver bringing him to training camp next season to see if he has made any progress, but I would not give him a guaranteed deal.

From what I have seen, I do not think Kuba has what it takes to make it in the NBA.

Verdict:  I have seen all I need to see, b-bye

Bobby Jones (25 G, 8.9 MPG, 3.4 PPG, 1.1 RPG, 39.1 3P%)

One of the big mistakes I thought the Nuggets made with their bench this season was casting Jones off early in the season.  Fortunately, the rectified that mistake by bringing him back at the end of the season, which makes you wonder why he was waived in the first place. 

I have gone on record of saying I like Bobby Jones.  He is a solid defender.  He is aggressive going to the basket.  It seemed that within the first minute or two that he was on the floor in every game he played he was called for a charge, but he would always settle down after that. 

Jones also improved his three point shooting this season hitting 39.1% of his threes as a Nugget though he only 34% overall for the season.

Jones is without a contract at the moment, but I would like to see the Nuggets offer him a guaranteed deal for next year as long as it is in the neighborhood of the league minimum.

Verdict: Bring him back, I am intrigued 

Steven Hunter (19 G, 6.3 MPG, 2.1 PPG, 1.0 RPG, 0.32 B, 53.6 FG%)

I mentioned that one of the problems I had with the Nuggets bench was their release of Bobby Jones, well here is the second.  Steven Hunter should have been playing at least 12 minutes a game. 

Marcus Camby clearly lost his edge in the second half of the season and was a mere shadow of the player that some thought should have been an all-star (even though they were wrong).  Camby played 390 more minutes than he had ever played before and six hundred more minutes than his second highest minutes played total.  As I have pointed out before, that is an extra 11 or 12 games worth of minutes Camby played this season.

Does anyone else think Hunter could have helped prevent that from happening? 

Hunter is a proven rebounder and shot blocker, he also showed he is adept at running the floor and most importantly, not taking 20 foot jumpers.

I will never understand why Hunter only played double digit minutes once this season.

He is under contract and has two years left at more than $3 million a season. 

Verdict:  Let him play!  Let him play!  Let him play!

Taurean Green (9 G, 3.3 MPG, 1.1 PPG, 0.3 APG, 33.3 3P%)

Taurean Green was acquired in exchange for Von Wafer at the trading deadline.  Wafer was supposed to be the young prospect for the Nuggets heading into this season.  Now Green takes that spot. 

We really have not seen enough of Green to know what Denver has in him.  He certainly has the ability to become a very good back up point guard or perhaps even a fringe starter.  Sounds like the kind of player I would like to have rounding out my roster.

The Nuggets hold a team option on Green for $711,517 and I would be shocked if they declined it.

Verdict:  Keep him around until he proves he is no good

(Thanks to Hoops Hype for the salary information)

Before we get to the offseason analysis here are some links to put the Nuggets season into a nutshell.  Some of these articles predate Pickaxe and Roll so many of you have probably not been exposed to them. 

Contenders? That is a First for Me   

The Original Sticky Fingers Study 

Can We Draw Conclusions From Five Games?

Reassessing the Sticky Fingers Study – Is Passing Really Helpful?

Game 18:  Denver Nuggets 115 – Miami Heat 89 (Very little here about the actual game.  I included this post because I projected the Nuggets to at best win 50 games this season in the other observations section)

An Open Letter to More Optimistic Nuggets Fans Than Me

Do Not Read This Post Standing Up

Fire (Up) Karl

Chaos in the Wild, Wild West

Karl’s Thoughts on Nene

Nene’s Tumor is Benign!

Staying Up All Night Thinking of George

Today is All-Star Thursday for Melo and AI  

I’ll Have a Miller

Post All-Star Break Outlook

Getting Past the (Trade) Deadline

The Story of Bad Losses

Nene to Return Thursday?

A Beginning or an Ending?   (Post prior to the April game at Golden State)

Drunk Driving and Carmelo Anthony’s Reputation

The Frustration of a Season Without a Silver Lining

There you have the Nuggets season in a neat little, or not so little, package.

We have addressed the defensive issues the Nuggets faced in game two yesterday.  Today we will shift our gaze to the offense.  Sure Denver scored 107 points in game two, but should the offense be let off the hook for the loss?  All season long the defense has received the attention of frustrated Nugget fans, but despite the big scoring numbers, the offense has been every bit as inefficient as the defense.

Game two in LA was no different.

The primary issue remains the same. They know they need to play with greater intelligence, they just seem incapable of actually doing it.  My greatest fear for the Nuggets on offense is that AI and Melo will try to do too much.  The bleaker the outlook the more Melo and AI count on themselves to carry the offense.

Even more concerning the offense enables both of them to do so as it is designed to get one or the other the ball and simply do their thing.  The result is more forced shots, less movement, stagnant offense and frustration.

However, in game two it was not just Melo and AI responsible for the Nuggets inability to move the ball.  Unfortunately, like the Jackson family (think Michael and Tito, not Phil), there are multiple offenders.  In his brief stretch on the court Nene was surprisingly black hole-esque.  I am glad that J.R. is going to the rim, but he is at his best when he is willing to dump the ball off to a teammate from time to time.  In the first two games he has been forcing shots when he penetrates and seems to have forgotten that buckets by his teammates count for just as many points as the ones he puts in himself.

It is clearly a team wide failure, especially against a good but not great defensive team like the Lakers, to end up a game shooting 44% on 12 assists.  There are two possible reasons for having an assist total that low.  One is that they just were not hitting their shots.  That does not appear to be the reason.  Had the Nuggets made five more shots, they would have shot 50%.  Making the wild assumption that they could have earned an assist on each of those five baskets, that is still only 17 assists and still not good.

The other, and more probable, reason for having so few assists was due to a massive overreliance on one on one, and one on two or one on three, basketball.

I tracked how many passes the Nuggets made in each half court set throughout the game.  This did not include fast breaks or offensive rebounds.  I also did not include outlet passes or inbounds passes from out of bounds unless it was from the side on the Nuggets offensive end of the floor and was entered to a player in a position to score. 

The Nuggets had 27 half court sets where they made zero passes.  Surprisingly these were there most successful possessions as they scored 34 points out of those sets resulting in an offensive efficiency rating of 125.9. The primary players behind that production were AI and J.R., but it was mostly AI.  He was very good at attacking the Lakers quickly and getting the shot he wanted.  I imagine that typically they do not score that many points with no passes very frequently, but because AI was hot from 14-18 feet it worked pretty well.

There were 47 sets where the Nuggets made one pass and in those 47 sets they only scored 31 points which equates to an offensive efficiency of 66.0.  These possessions were primarily entry passes and either shots or drives.  It is not good when the option you try the most is the option that performs the worst.  When something does not work, stop trying to make it work.  If that is confusing, go talk to James Dolan.  He knows all about it.

Moving on, the Nuggets had 22 sets where they made two passes resulting in 17 points.  That is an offensive efficiency of 77.3.  They are better after two passes than after one, but not much better.

If you are truly paying attention you will know that next is sets with three passes.  The Nuggets only had seven possessions where they made three passes.  Five points were scored in those seven possessions and that is good for an offensive efficiency of 71.4. 

There were three Nuggets sets where they made four passes.  Somehow they managed to not score in any of those three possessions and I imagine you can calculate what the offensive efficiency rating for those possessions is.

You would think it would not be difficult to accidentally end up with a possession where the Nuggets made more than four passes.  Imagine you make a pass or two, the player with the ball gets in trouble and has to pass out to a forward who gets it to a guard and then they rerun their set.  Heck, the Lakers have possessions where they pass four times after the pass that most of us would consider to be the extra pass.  The Nuggets did not have a possession where they passed more than four times the entire game!  They only had ten half court sets where they passed the ball more than twice!  Needless to say Norman Dale would not be very happy.  Their per school teachers who tried to teach them to share probably are pretty disappointed too.

Here is the damage. On 70% of their half court sets the Nuggets made either zero passes or only one pass.  Another 20% of their sets included only two passes.  90% of the time they had to play half court offense they made two or fewer passes.

Is that offense?  Could there be a bigger contrast between two teams and the way they attempt to score?

What may be most frustrating is the Nuggets always have four, and at times five, very good passers on the court.  All season long I have pleaded for the Nuggets to use the pass to make things easier for themselves.  That drive you make after the first pass can be much easier after you make two or three passes which will force the defense actually move around.  By employing such a strategy you will not have to work so hard on offense and you might actually have some energy left for the other end of the floor.

Hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

Other (Offensive) Observations From Game 2:

 - Can we please find a search party of the Nuggets running game?  The Lakers are doing a good job of keeping a forward up to challenge the outlet pass and they are also shadowing AI with a guard so he cannot get a long outlet pass to trigger the break.  Los Angeles is doing a good job of playing at a fast pace, but not playing at the Nuggets pace.  For some reason if a team slows Denver down a few times, they basically decide that they cannot run.  It is like divorcing after the first fight, unless that fight involves the words manage-a-trios. 

 - I have seen a lot of goofy flagrant fouls called on the Nuggets this season.  I think the play by Pau Gasol when he grabbed Linas Kleiza’s arm and pulled him out of the air was more dangerous than any of them.  There was little to no effort to go for the ball and absolutely no effort to try to cushion his fall.  To me that is a flagrant foul.

 - Staying with Linas, he did a good job of getting in the lane.  He is surprisingly quick going to his right.  If he can ever develop his left hand, look out.

 - Carmelo was very good when he made his move immediately, but the instances where he just kind of hung out and let the Lakers defense get into their help positions before he did anything, it was no good.  He also did a poor job of passing out of the double team, mostly because he rarely passed it.

 - Iverson nearly had a great offensive game.  He started out the first and fourth quarters being aggressive and attacking the defense.  It was during those stretches where he was at his best.  Unfortunately between those segments he took six catch and shoot threes.  Take his 1-6 performance on threes out of the equation and AI would have scored 28 points on 9-15 shooting.  I have to wonder if AI is a little hesitant to try to take over the game because of his 51 point game that resulted in a disappointing loss earlier this season.

 - Marcus Camby took two bad shots in the fourth quarter, including a challenged baseline pull up jumper.  Both missed the rim by a fair margin.  Immediately after the second air ball he was soon seated on a padded folding chair with a front row view.

 - Maybe coming back to Denver will help Eddie Najera find his stroke from long range.  It is always a nice boost to the team and the fans when Ed knocks a long bomb down.

Box Score

Is there anything positive to take out of game two?  I think there is. Denver was within six points of the Lakers with under seven minutes left.  At that point, they at least still had a chance.  I thought the Nuggets were better defensively in the second contest.  They clearly held Gasol and Odom in check and Luke Walton had a nice game, but he did not kill them.  The addition of Kleiza to the starting lineup clearly made a difference on both ends of the floor.

If you wanted to argue that had Kobe had merely an average game the Nuggets would have had a great shot to win, I would listen.  I may not agree, but I would listen.

I am going to address the defensive end of the game today and then tomorrow focus on the offensive side of things for the Nuggets (which was really pretty poor).

There has been a great deal of discussion regarding what type of defense the Nuggets should try to play.  Many people almost completely dismiss the idea of playing zone at all, even if it just to change things up here and there.  I charted all of the Lakers half court possessions to see how much the Nuggets played zone as well as how effective it was.

The number of possessions and points will not add up to the total number of possessions and points from the game because I removed possessions where the Lakers either scored in transition or in their early offense.  That fact may reduce the accuracy of what I compiled, but I wanted to take a look at how the Nuggets did in half court situations when they were able to set up and implement their plan.  Of course, that is assuming they had a plan and all five players remembered what that plan was. 

Over the course of the game the Nuggets played man to man 71 times in half court situations and the Lakers scored 83 points on those possessions equaling a defensive efficiency of 116.9.  Not good.  There were 21 possessions where the Nuggets played a 2-3 zone during which the Lakers scored 19 points.  That translates to a defensive efficiency rating of 90.5.  That is pretty good.

There was also one possession where I was pretty sure the Nuggets were playing a 1-3-1 zone until I realized there was no other possession in the game where they played a 1-3-1.  I then went back and watched the possession again, and again, and again and again.  After that I really had no idea what defense they were in.  The Lakers scored two points on that possession giving the hybrid zone/man/chaos defense a defensive efficiency rating of 200.  I hope they do not play that defensive scheme again.

Granted this was far too small of a sample size to draw any concrete conclusions, but it is pretty obvious the Lakers have little problem scoring on the Nuggets man to man defense.  I may go back and check the man and zone splits for game one, but it all depends on how perilous spending that kind of time with my head buried in my laptop would be to my marriage.  I am already in dutch for watching Cloverfield on Tuesday night at midnight without Mrs. Pickaxe.

It is clear that the Nuggets man to man defense has some deficiencies.  When the Nuggets play man to man I understand having Kenyon Martin guard Kobe.  He has the strength, size and quickness to potentially make life hard on 24.  However, in the fourth quarter the Nuggets actually had Eduardo Najera checking Kobe for a few possessions.  Eduardo Najera guard Kobe?  Is that what really what the Nuggets want?  Eduardo on Kobe? 

I have really grown to love Eduardo, but he has no chance on Kobe.  That is almost cruel.

The Nuggets quickly realized that was a poor idea and Linas Kleiza took over after a couple of minutes.  Unfortunately that did not help.  Kobe had a grand total of zero points in the fourth quarter before the Nuggets switched from zone back to man to man and decided to have Najera and soon after Kleiza attempt to check the Mamba.  During the next four and an half minutes Kobe pumped in 19 and sent the Nuggets to the showers.

When Kobe gets hot like he did there is really nothing anyone can do other than have Bruce Bowen come in and give him the same treatment the Sisters gave Andy Dufresne.  Another thing that has to concern the Nuggets is there were five Lakers other than Kobe who scored at least eight points.  They are so balanced with players ready to make shots when they are called on.  You almost get the feeling that the Lakers do not have off nights on offense.  The only reason why a guy like Fisher or Odom does not score 20 points is simply because the team did not need him to.

The other observation I will make regarding Denver’s game two defense is I think they overacted to what happened in game one and played Pau Gasol a little too conservatively.  Camby was right about one thing in his discussion of game one.  Pau did not just take Marcus down into the post and manhandle him.  Almost all of his points came from situations where Camby had to help off of him.  Ten of Gasol’s 14 baskets were assisted in game one.  If Marcus can be allowed to deal with Pau one on one Denver will be much better off.  Gasol is one of the few centers in the league that Camby can handle by himself on the block.  In game two Denver kept blitzing Pau when he had the ball in the post unnecessarily opening up gaps for the other Lakers to take advantage of.

I was not impressed or even really encouraged by Denver’s defense in game two, but they did show enough growth where I can see the potential for them to actually keep a game close for 48 minutes at some point in this series.  The main problem is I just do not see what other adjustments the Nuggets can make that would really make a difference.  I will say this.  I would like to see what would happen if George Karl puts Melo on Kobe and basically tells him that Kobe is his responsibility.  On offense, just be a decoy and a facilitator.  Put forth your energy on defense, make smart passes on the other end of the floor and let’s see what happens. 

The problem is I believe Melo does not see the benefit of giving it his all to make things hard on Kobe and having a 15 point, eight rebound, eight assist game.  I am sure Melo would agree with Bono To quote Bono from Bullet the Blue Sky on the Rattle and Hum live action movie, “Where’s the glory in that?” 

If only Melo, and the other Nuggets for that matter, would realize that is where the true glory lies. 

Other (Defensive) Observations From Game 2:

 - The Nuggets also did a little too much switching on screens, and even just cutters, when they were playing man to man.  There were situations where Melo would get stuck guarding Gasol or AI was on Luke Walton.  There are absolutely instances where a switch is the best thing to do, but the Nuggets seem to switch because of their desire to exert the least amount of effort possible.

 - I expressed concern before the series that the Lakers take care of the ball well enough that the Nuggets would not get the turnovers they need to jumpstart the fast break.  So far that has been accurate.  Denver forced 15.6 turnovers per game including garnering over nine steals a game.  Against LA Denver has forced 11.5 turnovers a game while averaging seven steals a game.  Kobe has talked about playing a fast pace without playing the Nuggets style.  That seems kind of odd, but looking at the way they have protected the ball, you get a sense of what he is talking about.

 -  Marcus Camby was playing very well and had 15 rebounds when the Nuggets went ahead for the first time in the second half with six minutes left in the third quarter.  Marcus played another 12 minutes, but only totaled two more rebounds.  When Marcus left the game for good with just under three minutes left in the game the Lakers were up by 18.  I am not saying the Lakers rally was Camby's fault, but he certainly did not do much to alleviate it.

Make sure you head over to Forum Blue and Gold and the LA Times Lakers Blog for more superb coverage.

The Nuggets have some adjustments to make and I thought I would put together some film to help them out. 

In this segment I look at the Nuggets poorly executed scheme when Camby’s man sets a ball screen.  Camby goes opposite of the screen to play the baseline.  The on the ball defender plays soft to prevent penetration away from the screen and they bring a third defender to cover the screen side incase the ball handler takes the screen. 

The biggest problem with that defense is Camby always allows the ball handler to just dribble past him through the paint and leaves Camby defending no one.  Meanwhile, whoever was set to cover the ball handler on the high side is stuck covering Camby’s man and leaves the Nuggets perimeter D lacking, even more so than usual. The other weakness this defense presents is with Camby roaming after the ball handler someone is left to defend the lane in front of the rim alone, which resulted in some of the easy buckets that were so frequently scored by the Lakers.

I recognize that this scheme is designed to allow Camby to stay closer to the rim, but it is just so poorly executed the Nuggets really have little chance to consistently make stops with this strategy.

The other really interesting thing I documented was the way the Nuggets pushed the pace and were aggressive with the ball during their run in the second quarter.  They looked completely different than the way they played the rest of the game.  They were not necessarily scoring on the break, but they were attacking from the start of the possession.

I also threw in a couple of other interesting clips as well so take a gander to get ready for game 2.

You can check other game videos in the Pickaxe and Roll Denver Nuggets Film Room.