So just how much are the Nuggets missing Kenyon Martin and Anthony Carter, anyway? In Carter’s case, if I were to make that decision on the emails I receive, that answer would be: They’re not missing him at all.
But we know better than that.
Don’t we?
You won't know better than that if you ask Mr. George Karl about this, laugh out loud. But why do I suspect that is exactly what is going to happen next...
“People forget we have two of our best defenders sitting on the bench,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “We didn’t defend and we didn’t pass. Having another point guard on the court would help that. And I think Kenyon and AC are, by far, people know, our best defenders.”
Damn, I knew it, George Karl was going to be asked! How did I know? laugh out loud.
Umm, do people really know that Kenyon Martin and Anthony Carter are the best defenders on the Nuggets?
DENVER NUGGETS
DEFENDING SUB RATING
All tracked and hidden defending
2008-09 REGULAR SEASON
As of February 20 2009
Nene Hilario 0.493
Chris Andersen 0.431
Kenyon Martin 0.415
J.R. Smith 0.409
Renaldo Balkman 0.379
Carmelo Anthony 0.362
Anthony Carter 0.329
Chauncey Billups† 0.293
Linas Kleiza 0.201
Dahntay Jones 0.195
Well, Kenyon Martin is near to but not at the top of the list, so there you go again, Mr. Karl, being biased toward the more veteran player (in this case, Martin) over the younger, inexperienced player (Nene). Kenyon Martin is one of your best defenders, but he is not the best.
I don't usually publish the hidden defending component that is part of the overall defending I just reported above, but I certainly stand by the accuracy of it, as long as the statistics at NBA.com / Lenovo are correct...
DENVER NUGGETS
HIDDEN DEFENDING
Based on Points Allowed Per Minute, this is a very close estimate of untracked defending
2008-09 REGULAR SEASN
Through February 20 2009
Nene Hilario 0.174
J.R. Smith 0.157
Kenyon Martin 0.121
Renaldo Balkman 0.117
Anthony Carter 0.108
Carmelo Anthony 0.104
Chauncey Billups† 0.096
Chris Andersen 0.071
Dahntay Jones 0.069
Linas Kleiza 0.036
This is as close as anyone will ever get to rating man to man defending and defensive recognition, reaction, and rotation. (The three defensive r's.). But there are no style points here. Mr. Karl is, like many others, forgetting that "the best style" does not necessarily translate into the best results. You may agree with Mr. Karl that Kenyon Martin has the best defensive style on the Nuggets, but I don't care who has the best defensive style; all I care about is who has the best defensive results, and I just reported to you who does have the best defensive results.
J.R. Smith's defending style may often appear to be kind of awkward, kind of reckless, kind of inconsistent, sometimes kind of pathetic. His style doesn't seem to generate a lot of confidence among many people who watch basketball games. But does it really matter "how much confidence his style generates"? No, it doesn't matter, and the results speak for themselves. As you can see looking at the two listings above, the Nuggets are as good defensively this year when J.R. Smith is out there as when Kenyon Martin is out there.
As for Anthony Carter, he is not one of your best defenders at all. While he is above average in the hidden defending actions (the ones that generate the most style points) he is overall not a great defender, and is not as good this year as is Nene, Chris Andersen, Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith, Renaldo Balkman, and even Carmelo Anthony. And isn't this the same Anthony Carter who you wouldn't start in the Lakers playoff series because, gasp, he isn't a great defender? Or did you forget?
I’m not saying the duo would cure all of the Nuggets’ ills, because, as we all know, that team was losing games with both players in the lineup. But let’s take the Sacramento debacle on Sunday night. Kenyon Martin is the Nuggets’ best defender. That’s a fact.
Wrong, Mr. Karl! That is not a fact. Kenyon Martin is not the best defender on the Nuggets, Nene is. If there was a vote on who has the best defensive style, I'm sure that Kenyon Martin would trounce Nene. But any vote on style would not change the fact that Nene is the best defender on the Nuggets, nor the fact that Marcus Camby was the best defender on the Nuggets in 2007-08:
DENVER NUGGETS
DEFENDING SUB RATING
All tracked and hidden defending
2007-08 REGULAR SEASON
Marcus Camby 0.583
Nene Hilario 0.508
Eduardo Najera 0.461
Yakhouba Diawara 0.374
Kenyon Martin 0.348
Allen Iverson 0.300
Linas Kleiza 0.274
J.R. Smith 0.263
Carmelo Anthony 0.259
Anthony Carter 0.203
Chucky Atkins 0.168
Last year Kenyon Martin was not the best defender on the Nuggets either, Mr. Karl, I hate to break it to you and your fooled fans. Kenyon Martin is a good or very good defender (your choice) but not a great defender, sorry to break it to you.
Martin, with fast hands and fast feet, giving him the ability to guard out on the perimeter, could have been placed on Spencer Hawes, rather than the reluctant-to-leave-the-paint Nene, who was late out to the Kings center time and again, allowing Hawes to have target practice from the 3-point line.
Mr. Karl, why is it that you and some of your fooled fans insist on blaming every perimeter problem you have on whoever is playing center? Why can't anyone else bear any blame when your perimeter defense goes to hell? Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups deserve some of the blame if blame is going to be thrown around in public.
More broadly, why do you not play zone defense more than you do? Is it because you don't like the styles that emerge when zone defense is used?
Those shots went in. Contested? Maybe they don’t. And if that’s the case, the Kings don’t get off to the same hot start and the Nuggets don’t get buried early, allowing them a chance to get on track offensively and win the game.
The thing you don't understand about three-point shooting, Mr. Karl is that you can not lock down defend against the three no matter what you do and no matter who you have doing it. That is the whole point of why good franchises like the Spurs always without fail have a "crew" of good three point shooters. In the playoffs especially, the Spurs roll out their three point game in order to overcome any defense that is overweighted on the inside and is attempting to shut down the paint. Even if you do partly shut down the paint, a good three-point team can still beat you, Mr. Karl. Just as a good 2-point jump shooter needs to be able to and can make some mid-range jumpers even if they are constested, a good 3-point shooter can make threes whether they are contested or not. (Whereas, by the way, not good 3-point shooters can not make many threes whether they are contested or not.)
If you had what you are dreaming of in the Sacramento game, Mr. Karl, maybe the Kings are 12/29 instead of 14/29 on threes. 12/29 would be about normal for a good three-point team on a good night. You still lose the game, Mr. Karl, because you lost by 8, and since your team, by your own admission, was bad offensively. At least you are honest and not wrong about that.
Offensively, the Nuggets have returned to individual basketball. In their loss at Utah, the Nuggets had just three assists on their first 12 made field goals. At Sacramento they had five assists in the first half. Carter, who has no need to look for his own shot, would help that. He knows his assists are down and turnovers are up over the last month, but says that’s due to a bad hip, which has caused him to miss the last two games. I’ll take him at his word on that. He could return tonight.
In the Sac-Town game, you, Mr. Karl, were afraid to play the very young but extremely tall Johan Petro, which left you too small inside. You are playing Sacremento, Mr. Karl, one of the worst teams in the League! Why were you afraid to play Johan Petro? It was for games like this that Johan Petro was made available to you.
Also, either Chris Andersen, Renaldo Balkman, or both had to get more playing time if you were going to win the game.
It's your fault, Mr. Karl, that J.R. Smith is more inconsistent than ever, so that it is hopeless that he will help you in too many games. It is you who told him that he isn't good enough to start, and that there is something wrong with how he thinks, and with his personality. So it's your fault that Smith believed some or all of what you said and that his natural reaction has been to press too much. And everyone knows that all basketball players become more inconsistent than they were before when they press too much.
On the one hand, J.R. Smith is rebounding to beat the band for a 2-guard, and is defending and fouling with the best of this year's Nuggets. But on the other hand, his 3-point shooting has arguably never been less reliable than it is right now. So what have you gained with all your tinkering with J.R. Smith, Mr. Karl? Have you really made any net gains? I don't believe so.
But more than anything, Martin and Carter bring toughness – particularly mentally – and the Nuggets have lacked that in large amounts lately.
Oh, here we go again. Yes, we know Mr. Karl. Anthony Carter, Kenyon Martin, and so on and so forth have better personalities than J.R. Smith, mostly or totally because J.R. Smith is less mature, which is not his fault, and has little to do with basketball. And Nene is, well, he's a... a foreigner! His native language is Portuguese! He talks funny, so how can he have a good personality and be mentally tough? How could he have a personality which meets the full approval of Mr. Karl? He couldn't, on account of the language thing and his other funny, foreign mannerisms.
Laugh out loud, Mr. Karl!
You know, it's not just me and so many of the "common people" who don't like you anymore. It's also that the referees don't like the defending that you put out on the court much anymore, and this is one of your biggest problems right now. The refs have more and more concluded that your defending is too heavy on aggressiveness and fouling and too light on skills, and they are starting to throw the rule book at you. Your team is being buried in personal fouls, Mr. Karl!
And oh, it's getting kind of pathetic again in Nuggets Land. On the one hand there are all these people on Nuggets blogs and forums starting to post things like "Karl is the problem," and "Karl must go," and "Karl will definitely go if the Nuggets don't win a playoff series this year" and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, other, more "credentialed" people, such as reporters, are still trying to find out why the Nuggets are losing now from who? You guessed it, George Karl. It seems that when it comes to the Nuggets, it doesn't matter how many common people think he is a lousy coach. The royalty is faithful to him and looks for answers from him no matter what.
I hate to break it to those of you who realize that Mr. Karl needs to go, but George Karl, unless he voluntarily retires, which is extremely unlikely, because the Nuggets will have won too many regular season games for that, and because there is one final year left on his contract, will almost certainly be back again next year, no matter how badly the Nuggets tank the rest of this season, and no matter how bad they are in the playoffs.
If the Nuggets franchise really and truly cared about winning in the playoffs, George Karl would not be around right now.
Can you see it coming in the distance yet, Mr. Karl? That train coming down the tracks, which comes every year? You and your lame philosophies are going to lose in the playoffs again.
But oh, that's right, you don't really care much about the playoffs, and you have a lock on making your regular season quota this year already, which was 45 wins at a minimum, so you are all set and all comfy for the year regardless of how many people want you to be fired this year, and regardless of what happens the rest of the way.
======================================================
Here are the actual comments that have been posted under the Post article at the Denver Post site as of this writing. Despite the premise of the reporter, that George Karl will know the real reasons the Nuggets are losing, every one of the comments 5 out of 5, blame Mr. Karl himself, first and foremost!
5 Comments »
I think George Karl is the problem.
Comment by nicole — March 9, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
Missing Kenyon is HUGE to our team–not so much AC.
I am really amazed that we did not attempt to pick up a big post man for the second half of the season–instead we picked up a point guard.
We really don’t need a point guard, we need some big presence inside. Bird is good and Nene has great hands, but he is getting beat up and we don’t have an enforcer in the line-up without Kenyon.
Comment by T — March 9, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
Carter has mental toughness?? One of the teams best defenders? Only in Coach Karl’s eyes. His turnovers are ridiculous, and whomever he guards lately scores AT WILL. If he has a bad hip at this age, its only going to get worse. Plus, he should NEVER be on the court the same time as Chauncey.
Comment by JD — March 9, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Toughness? I haven’t seen it since the Laker game. Karl needs to go..it’s obvious he has given up…you don;t think players pick up on that..as he sits there sucking on throat lozenges..and buries his head in his hands after another forced shot by JR..the man has given up. It;s time to make some personnel moves Rex…someone the players can relate to. Even 70 year old Jerry Sloan still gets out of his seat yelling at the refs, getting his players fired up. It’s called passion George!
Comment by JimRam — March 10, 2009 @ 9:02 am
JimRam and Nicole—I certainly agree with you! I had hoped to have a new coach this year, but acquiring Chauncey got everyone’s attention off of the coach. Just suffering thru his substitutions from the bench is painful. And, the energy of the team has been horrendous–two guys crashing the boards for a rebound and the others watching. If this team has the talent to move into first place, then they have the talent to remain in first place. Something or someone is sapping the energy and enthusiasm from this team and it is most likely the coach!
Comment by T — March 10, 2009 @ 10:42 am
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