Then too there is the Laugh Out Loud that Dahntay Jones is Going to Start in the Playoffs Report.
And don't forget this posting reporting that the world's highest volume basketball writer David Friedman, who in fact is very rarely wrong about anything, agrees with me that the Nuggets can most likely not win a playoff series. Unlike Friedman and I, most NBA basketball writers are confused about the Nuggets, and trying to ignore the Nuggets and are not making predictions one way or the other.
And there is also this report on how Carmelo Anthony is no where near as good as he was in recent years, and that as a result the Nuggets, unlike the teams that will win playoff series, have no real power offensive, go to guy anymore.
And there are many other reports, including the January report that really annoys Nuggets fans even though I was just reporting in a very frank way, and was not intending to nor wanting to annoy, titled Rose Colored Glasses.
There are only two known ways the Nuggets could win a series. They could be lucky enough to play a team with a key player or two not available due to injuries. The only other way is if they play a team that is just as clueless and/or as inexperienced as they are regarding the playoffs, and there really are not any, although I have a few doubts about Dallas since, for one thing, they as number one seed lost to the 8th seed Golden State Warriors a few years ago..
I'm as stupidly optimistic as the next guy about this, that, and the other thing in life, but when it comes to basketball, I decided I was going to turn over a new leaf and not be stupidly optimistic with my reports. And I don't regret it, and I won't regret it even if somehow the Nuggets do win a playoff series. In my basketball reports, I'm never going to be looking like this:
What's interesting also about this strange Nuggets winning is that I think, generally, that a different group of fans thinks the Nuggets can win a playoff series this year than were thinking that last year. The Nuggets have co-opted a whole new group of soon to be frustrated believers with their clever but ultimately limited basketball strategies and tactics.
Last year, those who know that a critical mass of superstar and star players are necessary to win in the playoffs were thinking that the Nuggets could possibly win a playoff series, despite their, to put it nicely, questionable methods of playing the game. Because the Nuggets. despite their disorganized offense and lacking defense, did in fact have that critical mass of superstars and stars. When the Lakers utterly decimated the Nuggets in the playoff series, we were rudely but through no fault of our own shown to be fools, mostly due to George Karl's coaching in general and to his inability to understand that you can not win a playoff series without a position-based guard strategy in particular.
Even I for a while last year underestimated just how lacking George Karl's way of managing a basketball offense is with respect to the NBA playoffs. For me, seeing how Anthony Carter was no longer the point guard in the playoffs was the ultimate slam in the face realization that George Karl is not qualified to be an NBA playoff coach.
This year, it's those who think defensive priority and pride is very important who are thinking the Nuggets could win a playoff series. I think it's largely a different group of people, not only because those who place a heavy emphasis on defense are generally a different group from those who simply consider the number of star players to be most important. Also, you could not have fully absorbed how the Nuggets were totally destroyed by the Lakers last April, and then how Marcus Camby was given away for just about nothing, and be confident right now that the Nuggets could win a series this year. So the people who think the Nuggets can win a series this year were more or less not around last year; with the kind of defending the Nuggets were doing last year, it would have been next to impossible for those who think that defending is crucial to think that they could ever win a series last year. Probably, the believers in defense were only light fans who were not closely following the team last year.
But what about the really hardcore Nuggets fans? Among those who were real fans both last year and this year, there have been claims that the fact that Marcus Camby has a defending style that does not feature lock down man to man defending makes giving him away for nothing alright. Which in turn means that the Nuggets might actually be better this year than last. There is a fundamental disagreement here in Nuggets Land, because both that Camby is not really a great defender and that the Nuggets are better defensively and better overall this year than last year are regarded as absurd by me and by those who think like I do. For the record, the defensive efficiency statistics have been showing that the Nuggets are no better and no worse defensively this year compared with last year.
Yes, there have been a lot of changes in the Nuggets from last year to this, many for the better, with the defensive changes being the most outstanding, more outstanding in fact than the change from Anthony Carter to Chauncey Billups at point guard. Because if the Nuggets had not become aggressive and proficient at defending, they would have been a losing team this year without any doubt.
But some things are a little worse, such as Carmelo Anthony and Linas Kleiza, and some problems are the same, such as the extreme inconsistency of J.R. Smith. The biggest thing that is worse is that the Nuggets do not have the star power they had last year anymore. True, Chris Andersen, Renaldo Balkman, and Nene are all stars this year, and are all much better than expected. This has been a big surprise to just about everyone who follows basketball.
But first time ever stars are not the same thing as veteran stars. In a soon to be posted "Denver Nuggets 2007-08 Real Player Ratings Revised With the Improved System" report, you will see quite plainly that the Nuggets disposed of their two highest quality players from last year to this: Marcus Camby and Allen Iverson. If you compare the 2007-08 ratings to the latest 2008-09 ratings, you will see that both Iverson and Camby last year played at a higher level than the three Nuggets stars are playing at this year (Nene, Billups, and Carmelo Anthony).
Unfortunately, the way I see it, both last year's and this year's group thinking the Nuggets might win a playoff series were and are going to be wrong the way I see it. Both groups have made use of the rose colored glasses that are distributed for free by the Nuggets' coaches and managers before and during every season.
Oh well, nobody and nothing is hurt if you believe in your team even if in actuality there is almost no chance they can win. You have to believe in something.
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