Return of Nuggets 1: Forum Comments From Late April 2008, Part 4

Forum commentary I did from March 2008 through July 2008, when I didn't have enough time for the detailed and extensive reports I like to do, is being posted in early October, 2008. The primary themes are how the Nuggets are blowing a great (and expensive!) opportunity to play the game of basketball in such a way that respects the sport and that takes as much advantage as possible of who they have on the roster. The 2006-09 Nuggets have turned out to be an excellent case study of how not to run a basketball team; many things you should not do if you are a basketball manager or coach can be identified from what the Nuggets actually did during these years.

In these comments, do not look for the usual huge amount of detail and proof that you see in the ordinary releases here at Nuggets 1. Some of this is more like everyday conversation than like top quality sports writing. On the other hand, some of the comments do include some detailed reasoning and proof that I pride myself on in the primary reports I release.
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LATE APRIL 2008 FORUM COMMENTARY ON THE NUGGETS, ESPECIALLY ABOUT THEIR MISTAKES
Since I couldn't sell you on AI at PG, could I interest you in JR at PG? Just kidding.
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Nene.....DNP.....AIB

If you see this in a box score, it means simply that Nene did not play because he is an always injured bastard.
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Good observation for trying to determine why Melo does what he does and why he says what he says. With Anthony it's all for one and one for all. This year's Olympics coach, Jim Boeheim, who was his Coach at Syracuse, thought that this was one of his most outstanding traits.

But there are those who think that this trait will end up costing him a great career yet in the ruthless NBA, as he gets outmaneuvered by more ruthless and less competent characters. Certainly he is at a big public relations disadvantage at the very least being that way, versus those such as GK and AI who by nature automatically look out for #1 (themselves) before anything else.

Melo inevitably lost the official public relations battle in the media to GK/AI as this season came to a grinding end. But who was really most correct about things, and who was really the best team player among those three?
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True, some players need to be steered in the direction best for the team more than others do. Bryant is one of those who can frequently steer himself in the right direction with little advice needed. His mix between scoring and distributing frequently seems to be just about perfect. At least it seems that way, though who knows what is said behind closed doors at Lakers headquarters.
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Finally, the cows came home.

(But AI used to be and could most likely be again a passer and a scorer at the same time.)
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The real question at this time, when all is said and done, is do the Nuggets work for Karl and the "great traditions" of basketball, or does Karl work for the Nuggets? To full time Nuggets watchers, it is mostly the latter, but to way too many others, it is the former.
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GK could have found out whether you are right or wrong about AI-2008 version had he simply not pretended for most of the season that AC was adequate for the Nuggets at PG, designated AI as the PG, and told him to get as close to 10 assists per game as he could, and maybe even more. But GK was too timid, too uncreative, and too devoted to the great traditions of basketball, one of which was started by Karl's friend Larry Brown when he changed Iverson's position from PG to SG in 1997.

The fact is we don't know whether you are right or wrong about Iverson as of 2008, so the fans and players of the Nuggets were cheated badly this year. Also cheated was Iverson himself, who obviously will never win a Championship here or anywhere else playing his roughly 60/40 blend of SG/PG.
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I wish you were completely right, because if you were, he would not have listened to Larry Brown when Brown told him to dribble and score more and to pass less. And either by default, or literally, Karl told him the same thing.

There is no law against having a PG who likes to score a lot, but who also takes his passing responsibilities seriously. Just ask Coach of the Year Byron Scott and the Hornets if you doubt that.
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Even now, after many years of playing the wrong positon, AI is alot more like CP3 than Marcus Camby is like Dwight Howard, so don't twist things. Start by looking at the heights and weights and proceed to check the present playing patterns and the histories of the root playing styles to see that.

The Nuggets only real chance this year was to try to get AI to be more like CP3 and less like a circus act. They didn't take that chance and lost out as a result.

Why don't you argue that bad basketball habits acquired over many years are almost impossible to break, so the Nuggets were correct in forfeiting the season? I don't agree, but at least that argument would be logically constructed.
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And if you argue that, you had damn well better argue that the trade of Dre for AI was asinine.