Return of Nuggets 1: Forum #2 Comments From April, 2008

Forum commentary I did from March 2008 through July 2008, when I didn't have time to do the detailed and extensive reports that I like to do, is being posted in early October, 2008. The primary themes are how the Nuggets are blowing a great (and expensive!) opportunity to play the game of basketball in such a way that respects the sport and that takes as much advantage as possible of who they have on the roster. The 2006-09 Nuggets have turned out to be an excellent case study of how not to run a basketball team; many things you should not do if you are a basketball manager or coach can be identified from what the Nuggets actually did during these years.

In these comments, do not look for the usual huge amount of detail and proof that you see in the ordinary releases here at Nuggets 1. Some of this is more like everyday conversation than like top quality sports writing. On the other hand, some of the comments do include some detailed reasoning and proof that I pride myself on in the primary reports I release.
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APRIL 2008 FORUM COMMENTARY ON THE NUGGETS, ESPECIALLY ABOUT THEIR MISTAKES

It turns out this forum, compared with other forums, is higher ranked in terms of real activity and real interest in the Denver Nuggets than I thought. There are some forums out there where this poll is getting views but very few votes or responses, but I'm getting a decent number of votes here so far. So thanks for voting in this poll.

To all those who think this poll is not important: it could not be more important than it is. Whether the Nuggets will go forward toward the West finals next year or start dropping back to being a 20-62 team, and whether the Andre Miller for Allen Iverson trade was a good trade or not, are just two of the many important things that are tied in with the question in this poll.
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The Allen Iverson at PG and J.R. Smith at SG backcourt has been grossly outperforming the Anthony Carter at PG and Allen Iverson at SG backcourt.

Wow, I would have thought that somebody would have claimed by now that the plus-minus performance measure can not be used to measure performance, with little or no evidence to back it up, and despite the fact that the League itself adopted it into their permanent record keeping recently after studying it to make sure it was valid and useful.

Which leads me to believe that when he and some others said that A.I. can not play the point, they meant it in some combination of the political, the religious, the traditional, and the historical senses of that phrase.

They didn't actually mean that A.I. is poor at playing point guard, did they? I still don't know absolutely for sure, because the arguments that were made were so vague and limited that you still can't say for sure. But if I had to bet, I'd say at least 1/3 of them mean that A.I. can't play PG because that would be spoiling the historical flow of basketball. Or it would be cheating the historical value of basketball. Or something like that. They're too nervous to put it like that, so I had to do it for them.

If anyone has a serious criticism of the plus-minus, please comment.
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Thanks for all the votes and all the comments, I continue to think this is huge for the Nuggets. I have to go back to those AI/Yak November games and take a close look at those; I forgot about those.

After 1 1/2 days of voting around the internet, the total vote is:

29 Votes for A) Anthony Carter PG and Allen Iverson SG
51 Votes for B ) Allen Iverson PG and J.R. Smith SG
10 Votes for C) Allen Iverson PG and Yakhouba Diawara SG

I want at least 300 votes, but am not sure I'm going to get much past 250 though. As of now, I am going to keep counting until I get at least 250 votes, or until the end of April, whichever comes last.

Anyone who hasn't voted yet, please vote if you know enough about the subject. There are many more votes to come, so the margins and the rankings of the choices can change a lot in the days ahead.
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Ok, I probably overreacted to your phrases because you have the uncanny ability to make it sound like you are speaking for millions of people all at once. At least it seems that way to me. So I am amending the previous post, and you can use anything you want other than obvious ad hominem attacks. I'll follow the same rule: no ad hominems.

When you use a phrase that makes it seem like much of the sports world is speaking at once, I'll just note the particular phrase and make sure everyone understands it's just you speaking and not thousands or millions. But as I say, I probably underestimated the ability of readers to tell that.

As for the criticism itself, fire away, because I get motivated to make my arguments and evidence even stronger when I get criticism. Remember though, the more clear and detailed your points, and the more evidence you might have, the better for your side. If your points are indirect or incomplete, you have already seen what I might do: flesh them out for you. If you don't want me to do that, then make your point direct, clear and complete, so that I can't do that.
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No matter what happens to the Nuggets, it's been great watching J.R. Smith exceed anyone's expectations. And it's been great watching AI play BOTH guard positions extremely well.

Also, it's been great watching K-Mart return and play well. These are the top 3 highlights that come to mind. Melo has been great but no greater than expected really, and everyone suspects he could be better, especially on defense.
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Hello SportsTwo writers, and happy March Madness.

Thanks for all the votes and all the comments, I continue to think this is huge for the Nuggets.

Anyone who hasn't voted, please vote if you know enough about the subject.

After almost 4 1/2 days of voting around the internet, the total vote is:

38 Votes or 33% for A) Anthony Carter PG and Allen Iverson SG
66 Votes or 57% for B ) Allen Iverson PG and J.R. Smith SG
11 Votes or 10% for C) Allen Iverson PG and Yakhouba Diawara SG

I want at least 300 votes, but am not sure I'm going to get much past 250 though. As of now, I am going to keep counting until I get at least 250 votes, or until the end of April, whichever comes last. Even though I go to all the forums, my vote counted as 1 vote only.
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You have the Raptors explained very well.

The Nuggets have problems that are very similar. I called the Raptors and the Nuggets two peas in the same pod in the report, because each team is missing one critical ingredient. Neither team has a dominant playmaker, which is a killer for both of them, because if either team had one, either offense would be about the best in the NBA. The Raptors have an out in the open "quarterback controversy," because they have not decided between Calderon and Ford as their true, main PG. So then you had Bosh in this game trying to make up for the lack of a dominant playmaker by making more assists than you want a power forward to make for an efficient offense.

The Nuggets also have a quarterback controversy, but it is one that the coaching staff hopes no one knows about, but that I have been writing about since about the beginning of 2008. As I like to say, there are no secrets on the internet!
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Yeah, that's who it is supposed to be, but he can't be truly dominant when Anthony Carter is playing 22 or more minutes a game, when Carter is considered to be the starting point guard, and when Carter occasionally actually does make a lot of plays in a game. That's precisely the big problem: Carter is interfering with Iverson's potential to be the dominant playmaker for the Nuggets. The Nuggets offense is not only lacking set plays, it is also lacking a consistent playmaking pattern from one game to the next. Games are ranging from mostly Carter being the playmaker to both equally to mostly Iverson. You can win more games if you keep that about the same from game to game, as most of the playoff teams do.
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This comment was made when Carmelo Anthony was arrested for driving under the influence in the middle of April, 2008:

Doesn't surprise me in the least. This is the best Nuggets team yet but they came within a sliver of missing the playoffs. Had the Nuggets missed the playoffs, the average Joe Blow would have been blaming Melo even though he had nothing to do with how the team was managed. The stress of that is huge; even I got stressed out about it and I am only a fan and a writer. Having an extra drink is a well known reaction to heavy stress.

Melo is not dumb, he knows this team is not managed as well as it could be. He has played under several other coaches, such as Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, who would not have the team in as "wild" a state as this one is. A wild type of team and just barely making the playoffs is enough to cause anyone to have an extra drink or two. I saw a YouTube video not long ago where Melo looked like he was under the influence, and he remarked to a friend of his who was just sitting in a car that the Nuggets had good players who few knew about, because they were not even getting playing time to speak of.

And I would only be a little surprised if it was really DWI instead of DUI, but there was a backroom deal to make it DUI, since Melo might have been out for the playoffs if it had been DWI.
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Dallas will almost certainly beat the Hornets because for the Hornets that game is a back to back road game. The Nuggets are most likely to play the Lakers in the best of 7.

ROUGH ODDS
4-3 Lakers 0.2% chance (1/500)
4-2 Lakers 30% chance
4-1 Lakers 45% chance
4-0 Lakers 25% chance