(Ron Chenoy, USA Today Sports
Brian Shaw has to be surprised at how bad his first year as Nuggets coach is going. He didn’t figure his team would be destroyed with injuries, and he did not think he would be accumulating many losses at a growing rate. He took the Nuggets head coaching job with the idea he could make them a successful playoff team.
Instead, the Nuggets are going to participate in the draft lottery for all intents and purposes. They are not a very good basketball team, and these losses speak for itself.
With so many losses, the spotlight is on Shaw. He has received criticism from the Nuggets fans with the team quitting on him. He knows that’s part of the territory when a head coach is losing whether it’s fair or not.
Everything fell apart for the Nuggets when Andre Miller screamed at the rookie head coach on New Year’s Day after he received a DNP-CD. That took place during the game against the 76ers at the Pepsi Center. It was no secret the former disgruntled Nuggets point guard was not happy about his playing time when the season started, and it reached the boiling point when he did not play.
Miller was exiled after his incident with Shaw, and it was going to remain that way until he was traded. The ex-Nuggets point guard is no longer the Nuggets head coach’s problem since he was traded to the Wizards last week.
Since the incident, the losses snowballed. The guys haven’t brought into Shaw’s message, either.
No one has called for the Nuggets head coach to be fired, but most Nuggets fans are losing faith in their new head coach each passing day.
It’s hard to blame all this on Shaw. This roster is not good, and his best players are hurt. Danilo Gallinari, JaVale McGee and Nate Robinson are out for the year, and it won’t be long until Ty Lawson joins them at this rate. Wilson Chandler is on the injured list after suffering a hyperextended knee against the Blazers Tuesday night.
This is not an excuse. This is reality. When his best players go down, it’s going to be hard to win games.
For anyone that cites Tom Thibodeau’s success with his best players being injured for the Bulls, remember they have good players in Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah, Kirk Hinrich and Carlos Boozer. As great as the Bulls coach is, it’s not like he is winning with a little engine that could.
The Nuggets do not have the depth that can compensate for their losses. That’s something Shaw has no control. He can only do so much with what he has to work with,
J.J. HIckson, Timofey Mozgov, Kenneth Faried, Aaron Brooks and Randy Foye are not going to have other coaches awake at night.
Anyone can quibble about the lack of effort and lack of development by some of their young players. That’s on Shaw, but the Nuggets would still be bad even if both did not happen. What difference does it make if the Nuggets lose by five or six every night?
The only thing Shaw should be criticized is running a halfcourt offense that is not suited well for his roster. Lawson and Miller had a hard time running it. He is going to need the players to execute it.
Shaw should be judged by what he does next year with a healthy roster and how the draft pick develops. Until then, this year is an incomplete for the neophyte.
This hasn’t been fun for the Nuggets head coach. These losses go on his record, and he will have little margin for error next season. If he struggles next season, he may be losing his job as a head coach. Shaw knows coaches are hired to be fired if they don’t meet what the organization wants. He is already at strike one with the fanbase, and there are some players such as Faried that is skeptical with Shaw.
Shaw is going to have to adapt to the players’ skillset or he will never have a chance to succeed.
For all the issues about Shaw, the question should be about the new Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly. He is an unknown, and he was an uninspiring hire when better general managers such as Jeff Bower and Chris Mullin were available. No one knows if he is capable of drafting well or making trades that can make the roster better.
If Connelly can’t draft or make moves, Shaw is never going to have a chance to do well.
Blaming the head coach for what’s going on with the Nuggets is nothing more than irrationality at best. Shaw can only do so much in making chicken salad out of chicken dump with this roster.
There are more problems with the Nuggets than the head coach.
Contact or follow Leslie Monteiro at @LightRodWriter.
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.
