See the additional editorial notes at the end for more details about late postings and how they are not going to be a problem any longer.
FROM APRIL 19, 2209
George Karl refuses to start J.R. Smith unless he is out of warm bodies for 2-guard, but he always has him in at the end of razor close games, when any mistake or impulsive shot can cost you a game. Thanks to Mr. Karl, Smith will indeed probably cost the Nuggets at least one game in this series.
FROM APRIL 19, 2009
[Posted by geaux hornets]
I'm a hornet fan no matter what and will enjoy us being in the playoffs. not to be negative but we don't match with denver all that well. the way we ended the season has been bad.
-When denver start to trap paul, who will create or step up?
CP3 himself, silly; he's too good to be shut down. The more you slow down his scoring, the more assists he'll come up with.
-Our shooters are cold and struggle to separate and create space
Have more faith, especially in Peja and West.
-Our perimeter d is horrible
Denver had the worst perimenter d in the NBA last year and they are better this year, but average at best. Chauncey Billups could not hardly buy a three in the closing weeks of the season, JR Smith has been mostly unsuccessful with threes in playoff games, Linas Kleiza is a total bust this year. Kenyon Martin and Dante Jones made a few threes in the regular season, amazingly, but I'll upchuck my lunch if they hit more than a tiny number of threes in the series.
-Peja and Posey will be sticking carmelo
What do you mean by "sticking," fouling? It's fairly well known that Anthony has almost never gotten much good treatment from the refs in the playoffs.
-Our lack of rebounding and their depth in the frontcourt
With Camby gone, the Nuggets are no longer a good offensive rebounding team. Chris Andersen is a good offensive rebounder, and Melo cleans up some of his point blank misses, but no one else is all that great at creating 2nd chances. Nene is not such a good rebounder on either end.
-Denver's options off the bench as far as scoring
Linas Kleiza is bad this year, but G Karl has been giving him minutes based on prior years, lol. Smith is the real starter, Dante Jones is the real bench player, and Dante Jones is lightweight on offense. Anthony Carter never seems to get the ball much. Chris Andersen and Renaldo Balkman can not hit much of anything beyond point blank range. In summary, the Nuggets' bench, although remarkably good on defense in the regular season, are unpro ven as of yet defensively in the playoffs, and are really bad offensively. Unless the Nuggets have a magic wand, their bench will be lightweight offensively in this series.
You get what you pay for, and most of the above named Nuggets players are playing for very small salaries that are typical for one dimensional, defensive specialist type players.
-Our reluctance even more to rely on cp3 and dwest
I am not an expert on the Hornets, but isn't it almost inevitable that you rely on them more in the playoffs than in the regular?
-We also lack lateral footspeed on d
The Nuggets do not have a polished passing game, they are a fast breaking, pressing, over aggressive type of offense.
-Denver has a athleticism edge
Maybe by a small margin, and they are faster, but neither of these things precludes a Hornets win. Generally, speed teams are not as successful in the playoffs as they are in the regular season. In recent years, every single playoff opponent of the Nuggets have succeeded in slowing down the Nuggets to one extent or another and they have therefore limited further an already limited advantage you get from fast breaking.
And don't forget, the best athlete by far in this series is CP3.
FROM APRIL 19 2009
How is denver defense, is it the same as last year?
It's a completely different type of defense, yet the final result is that the regular season defense was about as good this year as it was last year. Both the defensive efficiency and the raw points allowed is little different from last year to this year.
Last year it was a defense based first and foremost on Marcus Camby's blocking and rebounding, and secondarily on the quality defending of Kenyon Martin, Eduardo Najera, Yakhouba Diawara, The other Nuggets were relatively lazy on defense.
This year, the entire Nuggets' organization from the general manager on down wisely decided to make defending an equal responsibility, to in other words balance out the defense personnel wise. So JR Smith and Carmelo Anthony are better defensively than in prior years.
The Nuggets hit the jackpot defensively with two summer 2008 acquisitions they made on the cheap, Chris Andersen and Renaldo Balkman. These players have been absolutely phenominal defensively, and have by themselves earned the Nuggets at least half a dozen wins they would not have gotten otherwise. Granted they have played well on defense before, but neither of them have ever played as well as they did on defense this year ever before.
At least as amazing has been that both of them, but particularly Andersen, have played better on offense than ever before as well. It was like a spillover effect: they were so outstanding on defense, that some offense was created out of thin air for them. Neither of them quite rose to the level of a typical quality, multi-dimensional bench player offensively, but they actually helped win a small number of games on offense and defense at the same time, which is truly astounding.
As a result, the Hornets should not defensively totally ignore either Andersen or Balkman.
Kenyon Martin is a good but not a great man to man defender; Karl overrelies on him these days. Nene is about as good as Martin man to man, although Nene fouls more. Neither Nene nor Kenyon Martin are great rebounders. They are average at best, which created opportunities for Carmelo Anthony to increase is rebounding rate after Camby was gone.
But the overall result of all these big changes in players and in approach is that the Nuggets defensively are about as good this year as they were last year. Camby, although not a really good or great man to man defender, is still a towering player defensively, because of his defensive intelligence and his massive blocking and rebounding. The funny thing, most Nuggets fans and much of the public at large thinks that the Nuggets are much better defensively this year than last, and this is plain wrong.
The Nuggets are good but not great defensively; they are about the 8th best team defensively this year when you look at the most important thing, which is efficiency. The Hornets were about 9th.
========== Editorial Notes ==========
--The above was written in late April, 2009.
--As promised, we are finally posting material written and posted on forums in the spring. Obviously, if you have your own site, you should be posting at least simultaneously on your own site when you for whatever reason post elsewhere. But there has been a bad habit of not doing so, a bad habit that is being beaten down due to new content sharing regulations that have teeth.
========== VIDEO PLAYERS ==========
NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 2009 MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER
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DENVER NUGGETS 2009 MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER
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