(Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports)
In basketball locales like San Antonio, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City and Chicago, fans can dream about winning a NBA championship this season.
Then, there’s basketball locales like Denver that know the score. Nuggets fans know their team is not good enough to win a championship anytime soon. This year won’t be any different.
Nuggets fans can look at the bright side. Their team is not the Lakers, who not only stink, but they likely lost Julius Randle for the season after he broke his leg in last night’s Lakers’ season opener against the Rockets.
The Nuggets should be a decent team. In the Eastern Conference, that’s good enough to make the playoffs. In the Western Conference, that’s good enough to be a lottery team. In other words, there are so many Western Conference teams that are better than the Nuggets in terms of talent.
Second-year Nuggets coach Brian Shaw did a good job of getting a lot out of his team last year, which is remarkable since he lost Nate Robinson and Danilo Gallinari for most of the season, not to mention Ty Lawson was playing hurt. The team did not quit or tank. They somehow managed to finish the season at 36-46.
Shaw gets credit for having his team not mail it in, and he also played a role in the development of Kenneth Faried and Timofey Mozgov.
If the team is healthy, Shaw has a chance to have a winning record with his team. What does winning record mean? If the Nuggets win 43 games, that’s good enough for the 12th seed at best. It’s hard to wonder if this helps the Nuggets long-term.
The Nuggets are stuck in never land. They are not an elite team, but they are not awful like the 76ers. They are a mediocre team at best.
Let’s face it. Mediocrity is the worst thing for a NBA team. Either a team is a championship contender or they are terrible enough where they can go nowhere but up. They can draft high and get a star player.
For a team like the Nuggets, they are always going to have a hard time recruiting free agents or getting stars to play in Denver. These players would rather play for a NBA title contender or play for a city like New York, Chicago, Miami or Los Angeles. It’s one of many reasons Carmelo Anthony left Denver since he knew he couldn’t get another star to play with him unless the Nuggets made a trade.
Common sense says the Nuggets should tank and be bad enough to get a top pick. That’s all well and good, but it does not work.
First off, it’s hard to believe Shaw, Tim Connelly and Josh Kroenke would tolerate tanking. They are guys who want to win. Losing is not in their vernacular. They don’t want to have their reputation take a hit if the Nuggets go through losing seasons.
Second of all, tanking does not guarantee a top pick. Ask the Nets and 76ers. They tried tanking, and they never had the #1 pick in the draft.
The Nuggets have to focus on drafting well late in the round and develop these guys. That’s the best they can do, and that’s the goal under this administration.
The Nuggets have to hope Gary Harris can develop into a good NBA player. If he can be that great shooter he was at Michigan State, they have something. That’s the best the Nuggets can do when it comes to building a team.
For the Nuggets, it’s about entertaining the fans. That’s all they can do.
It’s frustrating for the Nuggets fans. They like to be optimistic. They want a reason to watch. They want to feel good about their team. They want to have championship aspirations. Same can be said to the players, coaches and all.
Winning season is the best the Nuggets can do. It won’t change anytime soon for this organization.
It’s something Nuggets fans have learned to accept even if they don’t like it. They know there’s nothing the Nuggets can do about it.
While certain towns can have championship dreams, Denver is stuck with rooting for a hard-working team.
It won’t change anytime soon, either.
Not with the way the Nuggets are constructed. Not with the way the NBA climate is.
No wonder there is not much buzz about the Nuggets in town.
Contact or Follow Leslie Monteiro: @LightRodWriter
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Leslie Monteiro
Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.
