The Denver Nuggets are 11-3 in the month of January, which has put them in the top-5 in just about every national basketball poll out there. Despite questionable losses to Minnesota and Washington during this month, they now sit at 28-18, which is good for 6th in the western conference as of Tuesday. Ever since the addition of Iggy to the back-court before the start of the season, the expectations have been pretty high for fans here in Denver, and across the nation. A little more than half-way through this season, Are the Nuggets coming into their own and becoming one of the better teams in the NBA?
All signs point to yes. This team is exactly what George Karl has wanted all along. Karl doesn’t want the egos of Carmelo or JR Smith.. No no. He wants this fast-paced, talented team that is now currently constructed. On February 22nd, it will be 2 years since the trade of Carmelo to the Big Apple, where Gallo, Chandler, Mozgov, Koufos, and Felton (Now back with the Knicks) came to Denver, along with draft picks and compensation.
Now that it’s been nearly two years since that deal, I get the feeling that these Denver Nuggets are finally living up to the expectations that were put upon this Nuggets franchise when Iguodala came to Denver in a trade prior to this season.
Just look at the statistics. The Nuggets are 1st overall in rebounding with 45.6 per game. They’ve been 1st overall in scoring in recent years, but scoring is definitely coming around with this 2012-13 squad. They are scoring 103.5 PPG, which is 4th in the league.
The most impressive thing about this Nuggets team, is that there’s not one all-star on this roster. Why is that impressive? Because as a collective, this is an all-star calibur TEAM. Ty Lawson was a little off at the beginning of this season, but his mid-range jumper is making his fast-break that much more dangerous with defenses having to guess with Ty. Kenneth Faried has been a solid rebounding-machine in his first season as the starter from the start of the season. Gallo is cleaning his slate clean of the clutch gene questions. Every Nugget has some worthy mention, and even if none of them will be playing for the All-Star team, they are an All-Star team as a collective. You might be wondering how that’s possible if none of our players are actually headed to the All-Star game, but c’mon now. There’s a huge gap between the star players and the rest of the league. We all know that. This team has no star players, but the Nuggets are one of the teams trying to prove that you don’t need a star guy. But how many teams in the NBA can say they have an all-star calibur TEAM. That means all around. Every team has a weak link on their roster, but the Nuggets really don’t have that. Sure, there’s aspects of the game that the Nuggets could improve on, but in terms of personnel.. this team is pretty darn talented at every position.
Of course there’s always better players you could have at certain positions, but the fact that these Nuggets don’t necessarily have a “weak link” on their roster, is something to be ecstatic about.
The only area in terms of personnel that this Nuggets team could most certainly improve on, is in the leader category. Some could make a case for Ty, Andre, or Iggy.. but we really don’t have that go-to leader. Whether that be a lead-by-example type of guy like the Broncos’ Peyton Manning, or a Ra-Ra guy like the Ravens’ Ray Lewis. The Nuggets could use an improvement with either type of leader. Mile High Sports Radio host Eric Goodman proposed the idea of trying to trade for Celtics’ Power Forward Kevin Garnett. While that would definitely fill the void of a leader, I don’t think I’d approve of a trade where we’d have to give up some good young pieces to get a KG short team for a year or two. But the Nuggets should definitely entertain the idea and see what kind of deal the Celtics would be looking for.
Outside of a leader on and off the court, this Nuggets team is pretty well set to make a run in the playoffs. This Western Conference is pretty wide open this year. Let’s not forget that we all knew it would take some time for this team to gel with Ty and Iggy in the back court, let alone having Chandler back healthy and ready to go. This Nuggets team will just keep getting better. Stay tuned.
Anthony Rodriguez
Anthony is the Founder, Administrator, Editor and Publisher of Lightning Rod Sports. Originally from California, Anthony has been raised in the Rocky Mountains and Denver area for most of his life. Anthony works with the Emmy-winning student-run T.V. newscast at MSU Denver, The Met Report, as the Assistant General Manager, formerly the Sports Producer, as well as Lead Anchor and Production Assistant. He is currently the Play-by-Play Announcer, Color Commentator, and Production Assistant for the Metro State Broadcast Network, and calls games for Metro State soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball as a “Voice of the Roadrunners.” In addition to that work with the Metro State Broadcast Network, Anthony also hosts the monthly 30-minute magazine show called "The Roadrunner Review" which airs on Altitude Sports and Entertainment. He hosts the bi-weekly "KMet Sports Show" on KMET Radio at MyMetMedia.com/KMETSportsShow. He is also the Founder, Administrator, Editor, and Columnist for his own Denver Sports website, LightningRodSports.com. Anthony is also part of the Social Media team at Examiner.com, and has worked with the Altitude Radio Network for the Avalanche and Nuggets. Anthony is a former Producer for Mile High Sports Radio, as well as a former Sports-Talk show host on the LightningRod Radio Network.
