Fast Break: The Nuggets Are For Real--Well, Sort Of

Yes, I am aware that my early November prediction that the Nuggets would not make the playoffs looks goofy right now. And flat out wrong. The lesson is to never make any predictions in early November! I fell right into that big hole in the ground. The Warriors and the Clippers are both wretched compared to what people were thinking.

It now appears obvious that it is unlikely that the Warriors are going to make the playoffs with Baron Davis gone and with Monta Ellis missing for 1/3 of the season. So scratch them out. The Clippers, despite having a great mix of dependable veterans and great young players, are turning out to be an incredible disaster. (Could this possibly be largely Mike Dunleavy's fault?).

But that still leaves nine teams going for eight positions: Lakers, Rockets, Hornets, Nuggets, Mavericks, Spurs, Suns, Jazz, Trailblazers. So there is still hope for folks who can't stand the Nuggets for their fronting and for their massive wastage of money: there is still a chance they will not make the playoffs. If Oden and company can upgrade the currently terrible Trailblazers defense, they might eventually overtake the Nuggets for the last spot.

Of course, I am jumping way ahead since currently the Nuggets are the third best team in the West! But come on, is there anyone besides a couple of Nuggets bloggers who think that the Nuggets can possibly keep their "we built this team from scrap iron, good fastening wire, and some glue and we are winning in some previously undiscovered way" act up when we get into the coming months, each of which is more intense than the month before on the hardwood?

The Nuggets are definitely for real right now. They have so far made the best of a very bad situation they put themselves in. But on the other hand, we are not even very far into December yet. So as someone who has predicted the Nuggets to be a .500 team at best, I am not yet really worried that my prediction will be completely wrong. But I do admit that it seems as of now that the Nuggets will probably get at least the 8th seed in a downscaled West. Unless Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge and Nate McMillan can get together and figure out post defense and start to zone up when.....
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Editorial Notes: 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.