So the playoffs are out of reach but all hope is not lost in
Nugget Land. Last season the Washington Wizards waxed the Denver Nuggets every
time they played them. This year we
returned the favor. In order to defeat the Wizards, the Nuggets went without
the services of former Wizard Jan Vesely (yeah, I said it….Vesely), overcoming
a different kind of spell,….the injury bug.
Vesely came to Denver with instant intrigue, but got lost in
the parental controls that coach Brian Shaw had to place on the center
position. Allowing Mozgov to assert
physical presence early in games, and a
foul free JJ Hickson to come off the bench and close out games has been
brilliant, especially with Hickson actually hitting late free throws.
Hickson has always been a player of immense promise. Those who follow these things recall JJ
Hickson as the dude that replaced Lebron James when Cleveland lost Lebron to
the “Decision” to exit for Miami. Later,
Portland acquired Hickson and thought his heavy body could learn to dance
around centers, so they converted him to a nimble scorer at the post. In both scenarios, Hickson saw the ball a
lot, and was asked to do something with it. When Hickson has the room to
operate, the only way to stop him is with a foul since he is typically a poor
free throw shooter.
Correction; he was a poor free throw shooter. Hickson went down with an ACL injury recently
ending a season of redefined dominance in the paint for the Nuggets. Last
season Denver was among the league leaders in points in the paint, but most of
those were strictly from fast break points. With less fast break points, Denver
is still among the tops in this statistic and Hickson was key to that
transition.
Lots of people might see the injury bug as a negative curse,
but the reality is that the Nuggets are being designed and defined by these handicaps. Literally.
The toughness to put forth a win worthy effort every night is something
most teams struggle to do once the starters take a seat. In Denver, we never know who will play and
contribute, much less start or finish, but every time Coach Shaw digs deep, he keeps finding gold.
Timofey Mozgov is a rough edged center who makes you happy
and mad all in the same play. He does the same for his teammates and coaches,
but he is a legitimate center, and a fairly good one at times. What matters most is that Timofey Mozgov is a
developing player who will get there…..wherever his there is……..if he could
only remember to block out.
If he would only block out like Jan Vesely does. Vesely is as raw a player,
but he has freakish athletic ability, a
wingspan like a condor, and is fairly sound on basic techniques like blocking
out. He can run the floor with the best
of them and will out run the worst of them. When he plays, it looks like Chris
“Bird Man” Anderson and Javalle McGhee
gave birth to a love child.
Did I mention that Vesely got hurt too? His old team got tired of his “Bird Man” antics,
and gave him the shot fake, shoulder to the ribs trick sending him to the
injury list as well.
No worries! The Denver Nuggets proceeded to sweep the
Wizards, returning a bitter favor from the season prior when WE were in the
playoffs and the Wizards swept us as their yard marker for the future.
Oh, how things have changed.
Yet, in this situation the Nuggets are not an up and coming team gaining
in health and chemistry as the season progresses. They are an up and coming team that keeps losing
players day by day.
Did I mention that Wilson Chandler went down several games
ago too, forcing Quincy Miller and others to pick up the slack? With Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City
Thunder game following the Wizard victory, Miller would get tested quickly.
Within minutes after the start of the game, Coach Brian Shaw forced Randy
Foye to get eaten alive by Kevin Durant instead of allowing Quincy Miller to lose
10 games worth of confidence from the assignment. Before the game, Miller reminded Coach Shaw
that he started the game the last time the Nuggets defeated OKC. Shaw probably reminded “Q” later that Durant
is the likely NBA MVP this season, and was unlikely to have forgotten the previous
defeat.
In a common theme, the Nuggets couldn’t get enough scoring or defense
from the starting five to make a real game of it, but we did discover one
amazing fact.
Quincy Miller has been sitting so long, we hardly noticed
that he is as long and agile as Kevin Durant.
He is actually one inch taller than Durant and he is certainly equally
as skilled with handling the ball, but lacks the maturity and all-star pedigree
that Durant brings to bear. However, if
there ever were a player that Miller could pattern his game after, it is Kevin
Durant.
Over the past few games, Miller has taken advantage of his
minutes with aggressive defense and attacking offense along with way too many
turnovers. In this first installment of
the two game San Antonio series, Miller actually kicked off the scoring for
Denver. Early on, he was all alone as San
Antonio built a lead that appeared too large to overcome. Without much scoring again from Ty Lawson, Kenneth
Faried and Aaron Brooks stepped up late, and the Nuggets made a strong rush
down the stretch to give the Spurs a challenge, but failed to seal the deal.
Since the Nuggets are playing a home and home series against
the Spurs, Coach Shaw instantly claimed tonight’s rematch game in Denver as the
Nuggets playoffs for this season. This
is Denver’s chance to give the Spurs, and ourselves, a bit of what we gave the
Wizards; a warning shot for next season and for the future of this franchise. San Antonio is currently the hottest team in
the league with 15 victories in a row, but Faried and the fellas will do their
best to put a stop to the streaking Spurs.
As San Antonio secured victory number 15 by finishing off
the Nuggets 108-103, it was noteworthy to see Tim Duncan giving post game respect
to Kenneth ‘For Real’ Faried before they left the court. As they say….game recognizes game. The sky is
hardly the limit for this hardworking player.
Faried’s consistent growth with each game shows that he is virtually
limitless. Whatever he is missing in his
game right now will be added with time and hard work. He is short on neither.
Does the fact that Coach Shaw declared this game a playoff game make a Nugget
victory more likely?
Probably!
The signs have shown that these guys will threaten to win
even when all seems lost. If tanking the
season for a better draft slot were in the plans, they need to sketch a new
plan. These Nuggets are playing for
pride and for an identity. In Faried,
they have fortified the toughness element for a long time coming. Given the
nature of the Denver sports fan base, Faried
might be slowly prying this teams identity away from timid Ty Lawson and establishing himself
as the player you fear most whenever you play Denver. In Randy Foye they now
have a consistent outside shooting threat.
Since Faried and Foye are the only starters that have not
succumbed to injury or poor play, they must be particularly responsible for whatever success
we have had in this injury filled home stretch.
...Because it couldn’t be the coach of course.
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