Fast Break: The Nuggets Have Not Understood the Importance of the Draft and of Drafted Players for A Long, Long Time

The Nuggets have fewer players that they drafted still playing for them than do most other teams. They have only two: Carmelo Anthony and Nene. At the opposite extreme, the Los Angeles Lakers have about a half a dozen. Other top NBA franchises also have the great habit of drafting and developing young players, such as the Jazz, the Spurs, and the Cavaliers. We will be doing a Special Report here at the Quest for the Ring during the course of the current season: "How the Best NBA Franchises Make Good Use of the Draft and of Their Drafted Players."

Did you know there is another good inside player that the Nuggets have lost in recent years, besides Anthony McDyess, due to their overly aggressive and overly ambitious trading activities? It's none other than Leon Powe, backup power forward to Kevin Garnett. So he is now a World Champion with the Boston Celtics. He was undrafted, but was first considered and rejected by the Nuggets before he moved on to the Celtics.

In fact, amazingly, the present Nuggets ownership and management has shown almost no interest in retaining and developing players that they have drafted. And at the least since George Karl started with the Nuggets in January 2005, undrafted players who might turn out to be great reserves have been given very perfunctory tryouts if you know what I am saying. All of which to me is another huge warning signal that this franchise is becoming due for another visit to the cellar of the Northwest Division if not the cellar of the entire Western Conference. Drafting and using drafted players well alone is not going to win you a Championship, but I highly doubt that you can win one while mostly ignoring the draft and the development of drafted players.

I know, I am the ultimate Mr. Negative regarding the Nuggets these days, but as far as I am concerned, if you think you are going to continue on with George Karl as if nothing is wrong, give away Marcus Camby, and then trade away Allen Iverson while calling him a poor point guard when you never asked him to play the position, you deserve a whole heap load of negativity. You deserve more negatively than even I can dish out, in fact.

Incidentally, McDyess, who embarrassed the Nuggets recently by refusing to play for them because of how roughly he was traded away off the team in 2002, was a virtual draft pick of the Nuggets in 1995. He was technically drafted by the Clippers, but never played for them, because the Nuggets acquired McDyess immediately after the Clippers drafted him via a trade.

McDyess seems almost certain as we speek to return to the Pistons, from wence he came in the Iverson for Billups trade.

It seems that this pattern of the Nuggets seeing the draft and drafted players as unimportant goes back more than a decade. This would be another reason why the Nuggets have been unable to win a playoff series.

Editorial Note: Please be aware that a "Fast Break" is a short and quick preview of some of the topics that will be explored and proved in more detail in upcoming regular reports. Fast Breaks will often reappear in full reports with only minor reediting, but there will be more important details, more evidence, and more implications and explanations in the full reports. Moreover, there will be topics that never appear in any Fast Break in a full Report.

Fast Breaks are especially useful for the first few days after major news breaks. They are also very useful for people who will seldom or never have enough time to read a full Game/Team/League Report. Fast Breaks are the type of article that more typical web logs feature almost all or all of the time.