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.

Box Score

Well, I guess I got what I asked for.  The Nuggets played hard for 48 minutes.  They tried to run for good portions of the game, but they were felled again by defensive lapses and inconsistent offense.

In my mind the final result boiled down to two things.  First, the Lakers are just better and second I believe the Nuggets expected to lose.  They knew in the back of their head, no matter how well they played, that they would not beat the Lakers.

Being the last game of the season, there really is nothing to build on for the next game so I am not going to detail anything specific that transpired on the floor.  We have all seen this team play enough to know when they are performing at their best and when they are not and I thought last night was one of the better all around games they have played this season against a very good team.

The disappointment I felt last night was not just from getting swept, but from seeing a talented team play hard only when they feel they have to.  No matter how you feel about Georg Karl, it is clear that this group of players only plays hard on both ends of the floor when they feel like they absolutely have to.  A coach can only do so much with a group of players like that.  If you are looking for a difference between Denver and the other Western Conference playoff teams it is the lack of desire to be a great team and play hard every night. 

Even down two games to none and coming home with a chance to get back in the series, they did not see the need to play hard and that fact is saddening and infuriating at the same time.

Ultimately the truly frustrating aspect of this loss is there is no silver lining.  There are no excuses to help alleviate the drastic difference in skill between the Nuggets and the Lakers.

Five years ago Denver was making their first playoff appearance in ten years.  They were the number eight seed playing the top seeded Minnesota Timberwolves.  The fact that they were more competitive in that series than this one is disturbing.  It was their first time in the playoffs and even though we hoped for better it was a good showing.

The next season was the year of the amazing second half run under George Karl.  Denver was the "team no one wanted to play" entering the playoffs.  They won the first game at San Antonio and lost the next four in very hard fought, physical contests.  At that time the Nuggets were seen as up and comers who were destined for a great year the next season.  That great year never materialized as they managed to win a watered down Northwest Division with the sixth best record in the conference.  They drew the Los Angeles Clippers and were quickly embarrassed by the perennial Western Conference doormats complete with the banishing of Kenyon Martin. 

We were not really sure what we had heading into last season after the dismantling at the hands of the Clippers.  We soon realized that Melo looked to be an absolute offensive force to start the season.  However, his season was derailed abruptly with an embarrassing slap punch directed at Mardy Collins.  Then of course there was the AI trade and a nice closing stretch to once again be the "team no one wants to play."  The script was the same as 2005.  First game victory, four games to one loss. 

This season it was all supposed to be different.  They had the all important training camp with AI.  They were saying all the right things about how badly they needed to earn home court advantage.  How they would only go so far as their defense would take them.  They seemed like a team poised to take a step forward.

Now, fast forward to last night and think about how sad it is that I am content with just seeing a strong effort in a first round closeout game.

Everyone likes to talk about how the Mavericks have been completely destroyed mentally with their playoff failings of the past two, and now most likely three, seasons, but what about the Nuggets?  They have experienced five consecutive first round losses.  They are 4-20 in the playoffs over the previous five seasons.  That is only two more wins than the 37-45 Atlanta Hawks have against the team with the best record in the NBA!

It is clear to me that this team just does not have what it takes mentally to be a true contender. 

I was listening to the post game press conference last night and AI was on the platform talking about how they need to play defense next season and how leadership starts with himself and Melo.  I do not think he realizes how pathetic that sounds.  We all knew that heading into this season.  The coaches knew it, the players knew it and the fans knew it.  What will it take to stop talking about it and just freaking do it?

There is no silver lining there.  There is no reason to feel good about 50 wins this season and no reason to feel good about this team’s prospects for next year.

Yes, there were some good stories this season.  The development of J.R. Smith.  Anthony Carter went from a journeyman to a solid point guard after years of hard work.  Kenyon Martin has come back from two microfracture surgeries to become a very good contributor once again.  Most of all, Nene was able to overcome his prostate cancer to play again.  The problem with those nice stories is, apart from J.R., they are basically human interest tales.

While we share in each individual’s happiness, we are still left to deal with the ramifications of a four game sweep and judging by quotes from the prominent individuals with the power to make changes in the offseason, from Allen Iverson to George Karl to Stan Kronke, we are going to see more of the same next season.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all of the great bloggers and media members who I had the honor to work with during this series.  Kurt at Forum Blue and Gold does a great job and is a very intelligent commentator on the NBA.  The Kamenetzky brothers are great commentators and do a great job with the LA Times Lakers Blog and with covering other LA teams.  Dave McMenamin did a very good job of collecting info and covering the series for NBA.com.  Lastly, I appreciate Steve Mason having me on his radio show on AM 710 ESPN Radio to talk about the series.  He is entertaining and knows his stuff.  I can see why LA fans enjoy his show.

Most of all, thanks to all of you who have read and commented throughout the season.  You guys make this whole blog work.  I am very happy to have the chance to share my insights with such good fans.  When I look back at where I started at the beginning of the season with my little Wordpress blog garnering just a few visitors every day to being a part of the SB Nation network of incredible NBA blogs I am truly blessed. 

I promise to keep doing my best to bring interesting and entertaining thoughts to the table and I think we are in for a lot of debate over the next few weeks.

The self destruction we have seen on the court is rushing like a wall of water from a burst dam to the bench and into the locker room.  The question of who quit when is spreading like a flesh eating virus through this already fatally infected team.

Carmelo believes they all quit.  Some players think the coaches quit.  Others think no one quit.  The crowd clearly quit in response to what they were witnessing (the Nugg Doctor wrote that he left a Nuggets game early for the first time ever).  And to top it all off, AI thinks he was benched for the fourth quarter.

I guess all there is left to find out from this team is will they un-quit some time before game four and if they do, will it matter?

It will be obvious from the start if Denver has any fight left.  George Karl has one last chance to show that he has some heart by making the adjustment of having someone other than Kenyon guard Kobe.  Yes, it worked reasonably well in game one because Kobe refused to be aggressive or to set up his teammates, a mistake we all knew he would not make twice.  All that has been accomplished over the last two games is limiting Kenyon’s minutes due to foul trouble, forcing Eduardo Najera to guard Kobe from time to time, which is its own special brand of torture for both Najera and Nuggets fans alike, and weakening the interior defense because Kenyon is floating around the perimeter or on the bench.

Karl has one last chance to challenge Melo.  Make Melo show us that he is not going to quit again and have him guard Kobe whenever they are on the floor together.  Give Melo the chance to prove that he can be a franchise player, at least for one night, in an important game.

Short of that happening, I have no desire to watch this group of players any longer.  I wrote as early as game four this season that there was no change in this team from years past and sadly that appears to have been accurate.

Take a look around the league at the various playoff series.  Which one stands out as being different than the others?  It is the Denver/LA series.  Denver is the only team yet to win a playoff game.  Even the freakin’ Hawks beat the Celtics complete with trash talk and Al Horford demonstrably yelling and gesturing at Paul Pierce after hitting a jumper to ice the game.

Right now I would trade all of these guys for one Al Horford.

Of course, that would be silly, but I have been beaten down buy this team.  I just want this season to end.  So yes, just like the players, I have quit on this team too.

After all of this doom and gloom that I have been preaching about this team for months let’s wrap this up on a positive note.  The Nuggets have one last chance this season to get back at the Utah Jazz.  They can get swept and allow the Lakers as much rest as possible before they move on to face Utah in the semifinals.

How is that for positive?

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.