Kenneth Faried Giving Nuggets Everything He's Got. Is He A Future All-Star?

Is Faried auditioning for another team or to be a future all-star.(C. Harris)

In all of the hoopla of figuring out who these Nuggets are, and who they can become, I missed out on the reemergence of Kenneth Faried.

Faried is called The Manimal for reason's that he has earned.  Unfortunately, animals can be wild at times and the struggle to tame this beast has been a sincere challenge for Brian Shaw.  George Karl played with a style that allowed for more running and less thinking by Faried.  Shaw flipped the script early on, and Faried suffered the most.


The new and improved Manimal is figuring some things out. Namely, how to foul smart and not foul out.  Early on in a game, not only is a foul valuable, a firm intentional foul can be the equivalent of establishing a stiff jab early in a boxing match.  It makes a statement that you can later reinforce.

Thanks to the mass and the knowledge of his post partner, JJ Hickson, Faried is becoming a better defensive rebounder.  He is blocking out and staying on his feet more and more.  What has become the greatest element of the Hickson and Faried combination is what we are gaining on the offensive boards.  That awful feeling you get after a really good defensive possession  continues when the offense gets the rebound, is a feeling that we are giving to other teams more and more thanks to Faried and Hickson.

Brian Shaw is old school through and through. He makes it clear to every player on his team that you have to attack a scorer with scoring. Every time Denver takes on a player of immense offensive talent, they typically go right at that player on the other side of the court. Blake Griffin of the Clippers might have scored 36 points against the Nuggets, but he watch Faried counter with 28 of his own, and some impressive work on the glass all night long.

He is still a player that makes you squint when he is shooting any shot except a dunk, but now that he is believing in himself, his coach and the system, we can keep our eyes wide open.  Kenneth Faried may not always have success given the quality of players he has to outplay each night but,  Kenneth "the Manimal" Faried will never play a game with anything less the everything he's got