Choose and click on a report and your tab will reload with that report showing about 1/10 the way down the page, below the two title listing panels just below here.

There are actually many more ways to choose and read Reports. For a complete description of all options, see this User Guide article.

REPORTS #1 TO #20, GOING BACK IN TIME

REPORTS #21 TO #40, GOING BACK IN TIME


Monday, February 9, 2009

Fast Break: Purpose, Pride, and Personnel Needed at the Same Time, on Offense and Defense

The Nuggets are about 17-2 against losing teams now, the best record against sub .500 teams in the League, which is the number one reason why their record is so spectacular. But those teams don't play in the playoffs, so big deal.

Here's another way of looking at how this franchise has fallen short. For several years, through and including last year, the Nuggets had this massively huge payroll, chock loaded with players who could come up big in the playoffs, but George Karl just sat on his behind during all the games, and he just let Allen Iverson run around and around and around to nowhere, with no and I mean absolutely no team concept.

Now fast forward to now. They have Nene coming from nowhere to be more or less a superstar. They have Billups coming from Detroit to be almost or perhaps actually a superstar. Most surprising of all, they have several obscure, low cost players, several of whom are playing just about half again as much better than they ever did before. And they have all of these assets while playing with a purpose and as a team. At least on defense, anyway.

George Karl, the ultimate "contrary indicator," the ultimate wrong place, wrong time type of guy, is up from his bench perch far more than last year, jawing the refs and much more actively coaching the team than when they had the expensive, playoff-level players. Oh well, I guess Mr Karl thinks that last year's Nuggets should have coached themselves.

Even these days, though, the Nuggets are largely one dimensional; their purpose or system, and their team concept, is really on defense only. On offense, they have the fast break concept, the drive to the hoop over and over again and make free throws concept, the Chauncey Billups directing concept, and the Nene stuffing a bunch concept, and that is about it. Unfortunately, the sum total of all of those is still too weak to set up a winning offense for the playoffs. Collectively these things are not enough. Individually, these things are more or less low return investments by nature, and/or because these things can be relatively easily countered in the playoffs.

For example, the fast break is notoriously easy to contain in the playoffs. Even more importantly, the fast break and the other offensive things the Nuggets are doing would not be very good payoff strategies even if the opponent could not contain them in the series.

The franchise continues to either not believe in or to be unable to implement any kind of real, hard to defend offensive strategy. The tactics of Chauncey Billups and the dunks and layups of Nene can only get you so far, especially when you consider that the opponent in the playoff series is going to be quite aware that all they have to do to contain the Nuggets is to hassle Nene close in and hassle Chauncey out on the perimeter.

As for the unofficial, quasi coaching of Chauncey Billups, one basketball player, even him, does not add up to a system , strategy, or a purpose. And since when is Billups qualified to coach a professional NBA team, anyway?

So the bottom line is that the Nuggets have a working, effective strategy and a purpose only on defense, while they still have a combination of insufficient strategies and anarchy on offense. And they no longer have enough playoff-experienced, talented players needed to dependably win a playoff series. So overall, they still do not have enough going for them to be able to win a playoff series.

Defensively, last year there were almost as many defensive specialists as this year, but their teammates, including Carmelo Anthony, were not playing very much defense, because their was no real team objective or team pride for that. Mr. Karl tried early on to get this but he was not able to maintain it over the course of the season. Remember Yakhouba Diawara, (now on the Heat)? Remember Eduardo Najera (Nets)? Remember Marcus Camby (Clippers)? And if they wanted to play like they are this year, they sure as hell didn't need Allen Iverson, so, remember Reggie Evans (traded to the Sixers for Iverson)? If they had Evans' heavy rebounding right now, they would be able to just about truthfully say they don't miss Camby on defense.

Another way the Nuggets could more than offset Camby would be if, god forbid, Renaldo Balkman gets more minutes and Dahntay Jones gets fewer.

These defensive specialists were like lone wolves, since the rest of the team was not sold on playing good defense. Just as bad, the defensive specialists were often totally out of the flow offensively. Poor Diawara, who has a decent three, had games where he played 20 minutes or so and hardly got the ball at all, even though the Nuggets were deficient in 3-point shooting!

So the Nuggets had defensive specialists last year just as they do this year, but they never used them in a coordinated way with the other players as they are doing this year.

In the recent years, the last two anyway, the Nuggets had more than enough offensive playoff talent, but virtually no playoff game wins was the result of not tying the team together and making defense a point of pride, and of having an offense that was more or less anarchy.

So now they have changed their stripes and have the team defense but they are still mostly lost offensively. And even defensively, they are in for some rude awakenings when their defensive specialists, most of whom have little or no playoff experience, play against quality offensive teams and quality coaches, and when they face referees who have seen all the inferior, rule shaving strategies before and twice on Sundays.

If you are a good coach and you encounter a team playing like the Nuggets are, you instruct your players to get physical right back on them, both off the ball and on the ball. Not only because you don't want to end up intimidated but, more importantly, you want to force the referees to get control of the game and, more specifically, to get control of the Nuggets.

In the unlikely event that the playoff referees need some persuasion to keep control of the playoff game, this is what Adelman or Sloan or Scott or whoever will do: they will instruct their players to get as rough as necessary until the referees are forced to take control and call a tighter game.

Judging from all the changes they have made from last year to this, the Nuggets are infuriatingly inconsistent in what they do, but they are consistent insofar as they are never doing enough to set up winning in the playoffs. The Nuggets simply don't do enough. Unlike top franchises such as the Lakers and the Celtics, the Nuggets seem to not understand that there is no legal limit on how many strategies you can have, or on how powerful and hard to counter they can be.

Last year, the Nuggets had the players who could win some playoff games, which is probably the most difficult to achieve prerequisite. They squandered it, because they had almost nothing in the way of coaching, offensive strategy, offensive purpose and pride, or defensive purpose and pride. So in the April 2008 series against the Lakers, George Karl was reduced to pleading with his players to pass more since, amazingly, there really wasn't any point guard! I am not exaggerating.

This year, between Karl doing a little actual game coaching work, Chauncey directing things, the consistent fast breaking on offense, the relentless driving to the hoop and free throw shooting, and especially the high intensity, hard charging defense as a defensive system, the Nuggets overall have to some extent a team strategy and purpose going. But alas, they no longer have the players who will be able to win playoff games, and they are still coming up short in terms of the quality and power of their offensive strategy. It has been a few steps forward and a few steps back, with no real increase in the ability to win a playoff series.

Denver: you have to have several powerful strategies going at once to be able to win in the playoffs, not just rotate in and out over the years one or two powerful strategies and a bunch of weak strategies.

The playoff referees are going to slap this team down if they come in thinking they are going to milk the refs and foul and get fouled their way to winning playoff games. And no team will be a punching bag for the Nuggets' high intensity defending. Playoff teams are not going to permit either Nene or Chauncey to drop 25-30 points on them in more than a game or two. They are going to make sure that Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith remain in their boxes most of the time. So in short they are going to know how to defeat the Nuggets in the playoffs.



BallHype: hype it up!







You Can Post Your Response to Anything on Quest Here

Post your response to anything on Quest HERE

GIVE US THE JUICE TO PRODUCE REPORTS MORE QUICKLY

Although there is a guaranteed minimum rate of Report production regardless of traffic, IT IS IN YOUR POWER to help double or triple the number of and frequency of Reports. Simply take two or three minutes as often as you can to recommend Quest and post links to Quest on your favorite sports and other sites. The resulting automatic increase of traffic will in turn increase the resources that go in to producing Quest, which in turn speeds up reporting. If you want, e-mail how you helped (include the url of where you posted a link to Quest) and we will throw some Internet love back to where you tell us on the Internet. Thank you.

Here are some quick links that you can use to find a place where you might post a link to Quest and/or to Quest content.

Share/Bookmark


HOLD MOUSE HERE TO EXPAND THIS MENU OF PLACES ON WHICH YOU CAN POST A LINK TO QUEST:



BASKETBALL SITES THAT ARE OPEN FOR CONTENT FROM ANYONE
Note: Beware of "layered" sites. None of the following are layered sites, which are sites that allow contributions from the public only in hard to find, low traffic areas, while the main areas are off limits for public input and are only for a chosen few. All of the following have at least some notable traffic, and all of them allow relatively equal and open participation. The order is from most recommended to least recommended, based on about half a dozen factors.

Bleacher Report Open Posting Site
Inside Hoops NBA Forum
Real GM NBA and Team Forums
Pro Sports Daily NBA Forum
Basketball Forum NBA Forum
Sporting News NBA Forum
Hoops Hype NBA Forum
Armchair GM Open Posting Site
SportsTwo NBA Forum
NBA Dimensions NBA Forum
OTR Basketball Forums NBA Forum
NBA Boards NBA Forum
NBA Wire NBA Forum
KFFL NBA Forum

Note: there are other forums, but they are all very low traffic and activity compared to the ones above.

MESSAGE BOARDS AT HUGE COROPORATIONS
The Fox NBA board is very low traffic, and the MSNBC NBA board doesn't exist anymore. The CBS Sports NBA Message Board is a layered site; you can NOT post topics nor expect to be considered seriously there until you have spent a few years posting there. We do not recommend CBS Sports. So the only real, fully open NBA forum hosted by a big corporation is the ESPN message board. Be forewarned though that the ESPN board is dominated by very young fans who make very short comments. On the other hand, it is a high traffic site, so we won't stop you from posting a Quest link at ESPN if you want to.

ESPN NBA Message Board

>>>I WANT TO STICK WITH THE WAY OTHER SITES PRESENT POSTS
Due to the number of, uniqueness of, and importance of the many other home page features we have, only one Report loads at a time, currently the one just above. To see the next Report (which would be the one that came out just before the one above) on this home page, click "Older Posts" that is at the very bottom of the Report showing above, just above the section header "Your Ball: Take Your Best Shot".

>>ALTERNATIVE HOME PAGES
There are three home pages, all of which have all of the Reports but which have completely different features appearing on the sidebar and below the one Report that is shown at a time. These pages have been designed so that they fully load in about 10 seconds (no more super long load times we used to be known for.)

HOME PAGE A: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE B: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE C: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES

>>REPORT READERS: Complete freedom to rapidly choose and read what you need or want to read. The latest 40 Reports are found near the top of all three of the primary home pages (linked to just above) while Reports #41-#100 are found in three separate readers placed at various points down the page on all three primary home pages.

>>EXPRESS VERSION: Every Single Report but no Features: a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>FAST BREAK VERSION: The Latest 100 Reports via Report Readers Only; no Features, a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>QUEST ARCHIVE HOME PAGES--REPORT ARCHIVES AND A SMALL NUMBER OF CLASSIC FEATURES THAT WON'T FIT ON OTHER HOME PAGES
QUEST 4: REPORTS 101-200
QUEST 5: REPORTS 201-300
QUEST 6: REPORTS 301-400
QUEST 7: REPORTS 401-500
QUEST 8: REPORTS 501-600
QUEST 9: REPORTS 601-700
QUEST 10: REPORTS 701-800

>>FEATURES ONLY HOME PAGES: NO REPORTS, JUST FEATURES THAT WE CAN'T FIT ANYWHERE ELSE
QUEST OVERTIME
QUEST CLASSIC

>>COMPLETE TITLE INDEX: : A Complete Report Title Index, with Express Version Links to all Reports

>>LATEST 25 Reports: Direct links to the latest 25 Reports (with no truncated titles as you find with the poorly designed Google archive). This is located near the very bottom of this page.

>>GOOGLE ARCHIVE you will find this, with Reports shown by week not very far below.

>>I'M NEW AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WANT TO GO: Welcome to the Real Zone. Simply browse the page and see for yourself what is here. You will not be disappointed.

>>OR YOU CAN DO A CUSTOM GOOGLE SEARCH OF THE 13 BOOKS AND COUNTING CONTAINED ON THIS SITE>>>>>

SEARCH THE QUEST FOR THE RING--THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN 13 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 13 BOOKS / 1.3 MILLION WORDS

REPORTS #41 TO #60, GOING BACK IN TIME

OFFICIAL SONG OF THE QUEST FOR THE RING


THE NUGGETS THEME SONG: "LIKE A ROLLING STONE": BOB DYLAN


THE GEORGE KARL THEME SONG: RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME: DR. JOHN


REPORTS # 61 TO #80, GOING BACK IN TIME

CARMELO ANTHONY WON THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY


FREE ADVERTISING PROGRAM

FREE ADVERTISING PROGRAM
The depression, or recession, or great heist, or whatever it is, means that we should work together, or else we will sink together. Therefore, the Quest is offerring free display advertising on this site until at least June 30, 2010. The program is for anyone who has a basketball related product or service. If the free program is not extended beyond that date, we will be offerring advertising at extremely low rates. The free display ad program is currently limited to four advertisers, on a first come first serve basis. Each advertiser gets 6 months free though if we think your product or service is especially important we will extend that indefinitely.

This program is not for large corporations; it is intended for small enterprises, especially newer ones. Nor is this program for those already affiliated with a major internet commercial site, such as ebay.

To advertise for free, email a request giving your web address and some basic information about your product or service. If you get approved, we will email you back. You will be approved unless you don't really have a basketball product or service, or unless you are a big company, or unless you are already getting a large amount of traffic. After you are approved, you can email your ad. Your ad should be sized to fit either in the User Guide or the right column. For User Guide ads, the width should be close to but nor more than 675px. The height should be 100px maximum. For sidebar ads, the maximum size is 240px by 240 px. We will even make a simple but nice looking ad for you if you want.

The email address to use is nuggets1nuggets@gmail

REPORTS #81 TO #100, GOING BACK IN TIME

ALLEN IVERSON AND PISTONS COACH MICHAEL CURRY

ALLEN IVERSON AND PISTONS COACH MICHAEL CURRY

NBA BREAKING NEWS, RUMORS, AND RECENT NEWS

WHY NOT EXCHANGE LINKS WITH THE QUEST?

You can link to the Quest site with no permission needed. To link to this site, copy and paste the code below into your site. Thanks, and you can email nuggetsone@gmail.com with your site address, and we will link back if you have a basketball site. Your link will go in the right column in the same area where the other already existing such links are. You may wish to, for convenience, use the following code when you construct the link.





LARRY FITZGERALD--A GREAT ATHLETE WHO UNDERSTANDS HOW TO WIN THE QUEST

2008 SITE NEWS: THE NOT SO GOOD

NOT SO GOOD SITE NEWS:
--The Nuggets most likely will not make the playoffs this year, so we are no longer going to even pledge game report sets for every game; our plan is to produce 25 game report sets, with a set consisting of three separate reports: two breakdowns and one article. Keep in mind that game report sets are not far from 10,000 words each in length in total, so 25 report sets are in total at least as much real content for a single team as exists anywhere else.
--Special Report frequency is being cut to 8 reports a year. Look for special reports at the very end of all months except for April, May, June, and November. Special Reports are not going to be combined into Game Reports anymore. Special Reports and all other content is posted on the main site, but they are posted by themselves for easy retrieval on the Special Reports page.
--There may possibly be another disruption during the season, due to another unavoidable pain in the neck project that needs doing. Any such disruption will not exceed 1 month.

DON'T LOSE OUT: BOOKMARK NUGGETS 1 NOW--CLICK HERE

CARMELO ANTHONY AND HIS DOG

CARMELO ANTHONY AND HIS DOG