2009-2010 Denver Nuggets Preview

2008 Record: 54-28, Tied for 1st in Western Conf. Northwest Division, lost in Conf. Finals
Head Coach: George Karl, 6th season
Key Additions: F Malik Allen
Key Losses: F-C Steven Hunter, G-F Dahntay Jones, F Linas Kleiza
1st Round Draft Picks: G Ty Lawson
2nd Round Draft Picks: None

2008-'09 Nuggets Review:

Bad news first: The Nuggets had every chance to knock off the Los Angeles Lakers and advance to the franchise's first-ever NBA Finals, only to lose their composure in the latter stages of multiple ballgames. Shaky ballhandling and untimely lapses by stars Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, plus inconsistent displays from reserves J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen, prevented Denver from taking the proverbial next step against the Lake Show. With the Western Conference being as cutthroat as it is, there's no guarantee the Nugs will have as good a chance of getting to the Finals in future seasons.

With all that having been said, however, here's the obvious good news: The past year of basketball in the Rocky Mountains proved to be an uplifting, exhilarating, reputation-changing time for this largely moribund franchise. The arrival of Billups from Detroit, in exchange for Allen Iverson, transformed the locker room and made everyone on the team better... enough to reach the conference finals for the first time in 24 years. Nobody profited from Billups's arrival more than Anthony, who played dynamic, equation-transforming basketball in the first two rounds of the playoffs and then soared in the first two games of the West Finals against the Lakers before petering out in the final four contests of that series. Melo acted the part of an MVP for a few weeks in May; if he can sustain that high-level form just a bit longer in future seasons, Denver hoops fans will remember 2008-'09 as the beginning of something even more special, and not a one-year aberration that cruelly teased a community that hungers for a place in the Finals.

2009-'10 Nuggets Preview:

It was hinted at above in the review of last season, but it bears repeating: Anthony needs to play a full season the way he played in the 2009 playoffs, particularly the Dallas series and the first two games of the Laker series. If Melo becomes an A-list superstar, the Nugs will rise in the Western Conference pecking order.

The other big key for Denver is to act like a team that expects to win, not a team that hopes to win. One of the biggest and most revealing snapshots of last year's generally tremendous season came when J.R. Smith--an athletic and at times devastating offensive force--was seen exulting like a madman and wailing like a banshee after hitting a decisive late jumper in Game 4 of the West Finals against the Lakers... right in front of Phil Jackson and the L.A. bench. Full-tilt celebration is justified (usually, though not always) when a player or team wins a playoff series, particularly a significant one in the life of a franchise. Smith, however, was gleeful at a time when the Nuggets had merely stayed alive against the eventual world champions, tying the series at 2-2. If Smith pulled his celebratory stunt at the end of a series-clinching Game 6 victory, the act would have been acceptable; the fact that it came in a 2-2 series raised alarm bells, and sure enough, the veteran Lakers proceeded to thump the Nuggets in the next two games to roll to the NBA Finals and eventually take home the world championship. Coach George Karl has, for some odd reason (perhaps it's coincidence, perhaps not), inherited a lot of oddballs in his lengthy NBA career. This year, the Nuggets need to be all-business professionals on the court. If they take their jobs seriously from the opening tip of Game 1 until the final horn of their last playoff game (whenever that game may be), they might finally reach the Finals for the first time in franchise history.

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By Matthew Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

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