| Wednesday, December 8
By Mike Monroe
Special to ESPN.com |
|
Look, it's only the second week of December, and they are only one game
over .500, but I feel compelled to tell you about the Denver Nuggets.
After all, as they prepared for a Wednesday night game against the
Celtics in Boston, they were one game above .500, and if the season
ended today, they could be tied for the final playoff berth in the
Western Conference.
|  | | Nuggets guard Nick Van Exel pulls up for a jumper against guard Jason Williams. |
(No, I'm not going to figure the tiebreaker.)
So I believe it is time you began to take a little notice of the
Nuggets and, if nothing else, stop giggling when you talk about them.
See, in my full-time job I cover the NBA for The Denver Post, but this
season I have been covering the Nuggets while awaiting the arrival of a
new Denver Post hire (who, blessedly, finally has arrived in time to
keep me from going loony before the end of the millennium.) Regular
Insiders may observe that I seldom write about the Nuggets. That is
mainly because I don't want anyone to think I am biased, but also
because the Nuggets have been terrible for so long the only reason to
mention them was as the punch line to a bad NBA joke.
But this season's Nuggets, it appears, are different, and it has been
interesting over the last few days to see the veins on Dan Issel's
forehead begin to show as he has fielded question after question from
East Coast writers asking just how bad a road team the Nuggets have been
for lo, these many years.
"Let me tell you something," Issel said Monday night in Philadelphia,
where his young club had just thumped the 76ers for Denver's second road
win in two nights, those telltale veins beginning to throb, ever so
slightly.
"We don't even talk about last year and the year before. This
is not the same team. This is a completely different basketball team.
This is a much better basketball team; a much more talented basketball
team.
"So what we do on the road this year compared to what we did the last
couple of years really is insignificant, because it's a completely
different team."
It was, in essence, the same speech Issel gave 24 hours earlier, after
his squad came from 16 points down in the third quarter to beat the
Knicks in Madison Square Garden. On that occasion, Issel went so far as
to predict his team would be in the hunt for the final playoff berth in
the Western Conference in the final weeks of the season.
His point, though, is that these aren't the Nuggets of recent years.
Understand, that is a good thing. The Nuggets two seasons ago
threatened the 1972-73 76ers' all-time NBA worst record of 9-73, finally
finishing 11-71.
Issel took over as general manager midway through that 11-71 season,
and he subsequently has fired two coaches, now working the bench
himself. Before he took the job himself, though, he completely revamped
Denver's roster, the point he keeps trying to make to reporters who
continue to want to paint this year's Nuggets with the brush that swiped
the previous two squads with such an ugly color.
It is hard to second-guess Issel's moves at this point. Ron Mercer,
before missing three games with a nasty flu bug, averaged 20 points.
Nick Van Exel, with that $10-million-a-year contract Issel gave him this
summer, has rewarded his boss with play that has been demonstrably
tougher and more consistent and occasionally brilliant, such as Monday, when he scored 19 in the fourth quarter en route to his second 34-point game of the season.
Raef LaFrentz continues to make a pretty remarkable
comeback from his ACL tear, slowly regaining the confidence to do
naturally the things he once took for granted but now must attempt as an
act of athletic faith. James Posey, the rookie Issel snagged with the
18th pick in the June draft, might be the best defender in the entire
draft class, which is why he has started nearly every game.
Oh, and then there is Antonio McDyess. McDyess has yet to have a
breakout game, even a mildly dominating one. He has gotten off to a
terribly slow start after playing only 23 minutes in the exhibition
season.
Make no mistake, though. McDyess remains Denver's best player. And when he does break out, the Nuggets could be dangerous.
The Nuggets aren't yet part of the Western Conference elite. Not by a
three-point shot, which they take plenty of, by the way. But you had better
stop thinking of them in terms of their laughable teams of the past few
seasons.
Unless, of course, you want to see that vein pop out in the middle of
Issel's forehead.
Wandering the West
Another reason Minnesota's Kevin Garnett has to be an MVP candidate:
Toughness. Instead of sitting out after spraining his left forefoot Nov.
26 against the Nuggets, Garnett suited up against Vancouver. Why,
against a team the T-Wolves likely could have beaten easily without him?
"I kept telling myself, kept visualizing myself sitting on the bench
tonight, on the bench during the game, knowing we had lost three
(straight, which a loss to Vancouver would have been), knowing I could
have made a difference," Garnett said. "And that's what I didn't want
to go to bed tonight thinking. I know if Sam Mitchell can run up and
down the court on one knee, I know I can run up and down on a sore
foot."
If the Grizzlies could just play the Rockets every night, they would at
least get the kind of effort Brian Hill could live with, even if he does
get the ax soon. Of course, they might not get any more wins, either. As
hard, and as well, as they have played against Houston in two games over
the last 10 days, they still weren't able to snap their losing streak,
which reached 11 games before Vancouver beat the Mavs on Tuesday.
So the calls for Hill's head continue to come, though mostly from radio
talk show callers.
Hill has never been held accountable for the Grizzlies record because
it was understood just how young and dreadful his team was. This year,
however, was supposed to be different. The Steve Francis trade, plus
free-agent signings, were going to give Hill more to work with. But then the Grizzlies' consecutive road-loss tally reached 30 and after their last road loss,
a week ago, Hill was so angry night he didn't take any questions from
reporters.
"I can't even think straight," said Hill. "I don't want to say
something stupid. I'm just in a rage right now."
Wonder if he has a vein that pops out in the middle of his forehead,
too?
And in Golden State? After Tuesday's loss at Madison
Square Garden against the Knicks, the Warriors are 2-14, with three more Eastern Conference road games to follow. They then return home for games against Miami and Detroit. Can you say 2-20? It's hard to imagine P.J. Carlesimo can survive such a start, regardless of injuries that have decimated the team.
Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a Western Conference column for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at monroe128@go.com |  |
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