Two years ago the Denver Nuggets were flying high as they set a franchise record for wins in a regular season with 57. That season Nuggets general manager Masia Ujiri would be named as the NBA’s Executive of the Year while head coach George Karl would be selected as the league’s Coach of the Year. But Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke simply could not leave well enough alone as he allowed both Ujiri and Karl to leave Denver. Kroenke simply didn’t want to pay Ujiri and Karl as he instead decided to run his team on the cheap. Ujiri would go on to become the general manager of the Toronto Raptors while his replacement as Nuggets general manager would be Tim Connelly. In Ujiri’s first year in Toronto, the Raptors would win the Atlantic Division for the first time since 2007. Karl would go on to become a basketball analyst for ESPN before recently agreeing to become the head coach of the Sacramento Kings. The Raptors are on the verge of their second consecutive Atlantic Division Title while the Kings are anticipating a turnaround under Karl who as a head coach has led five different NBA franchises to the postseason. Kroenke’s Nuggets on the other hand are in the process of sinking into the NBA’s abyss.
Brian Shaw
Brian Shaw is in his second season as the head coach of the Nuggets. Under Shaw, the Nuggets were 36-46 last season and this year they are on a similar pace as they are 20-33 heading into the NBA’s All-Star break and they more than likely will not make the playoffs for a second consecutive season for the first time since 2003. From 2005-2011, Shaw was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers as he was under the tutelage of head coach Phil Jackson whom he learned the ins and the outs of the triangle offense from. Shaw brought the triangle offense to Denver with him, but so far it hasn’t worked out.
In Karl’s last season in Denver, the Nuggets were the highest scoring team in the NBA as they averaged 106.1 points per game and they would consistently run teams out of the arena on a nightly basis whereas this season they are 12th in scoring this season at 100.7 per contest. The main problem currently with the Nuggets is that Shaw is unwilling to adjust some of his philosophies from the triangle and the same can be said about the players in Denver being unwilling to buy into his system which has made for losing basketball in the Rocky Mountains. This season the Nuggets haven’t been above .500 since their first game of the season when they knocked off the Detroit Pistons and they have also endured three losing streaks of at least five games. The Nuggets enter the NBA All-Star break as losers in 13 of their last 15 games with six of those losses being by double figures.
Stan Kroenke
When Kroenke decided to part with Ujiri and Karl in favor of Connelly and Shaw, he basically decided to alter the style of play that we had grown accustom to seeing from the Nuggets for a nearly a decade as they have gone from being a run and gun team to playing more of a half-court offense. But the Nuggets primarily have the same roster in place that they had when Ujiri and Karl were calling the shots and because of this Denver and Shaw are currently fighting an uphill battle. Another problem with the Nuggets is that they lack team leadership which has shown in their inability to buy into Shaw’s system.
From the outside looking in the logical thing for the Nuggets to do would appear to be parting with Shaw due to the fact that you cannot fire the players. But it really won’t matter until the Nuggets find a head coach to compliment their players or vice-versa. The Nuggets had a tremendous system in place until Kroenke developed short arms and deep pockets which resulted in his two of his biggest assets with the Nuggets in Karl and Ujiri leaving Denver. Now the Nuggets and their fans have to sit back and be frustrated as success in the NBA is passing them by.
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