Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl has paced up and down the sidelines of The National Basketball Association for nearly three decades. Karl’s 1127 wins as a head coach have him in sixth place all-time for most wins in The NBA. Karl led The Seattle Supersonics to The NBA Finals in 1996 and he led The Milwaukee Bucks to The Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. Karl became the head coach of The Nuggets in 2005 as he inherited a team that was led by All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony. Karl and Anthony teamed to lead The Nuggets to The Western Conference Finals in 2009 for the first time since 1985. In 2011, a disgruntled Anthony was traded to The New York Knicks, but Karl and The Nuggets haven’t skipped a beat as they have made the playoffs in each season since while we might be watching his best coaching job in The NBA this season.
Currently with 53 wins, The Nuggets need two more victories this year to mark their single-season franchise high in victories since joining The NBA in 1976.
Unlike the other teams that have won 50 or more games this season, The Nuggets don’t have a superstar-type player to carry the load. What The Nuggets do have is a team that is unselfish and they display a workman like attitude.
Led by point guard Ty Lawson, Denver has six players who are averaging in double-digits for points with a seventh in backup point guard Andre Miller who currently checks in at 9.7 points per game. The Nuggets are currently holding down third place in The Western Conference and they have been nip and tuck with The Oklahoma City Thunder for first place in The Northwest Division. So far The Nuggets season has been highlighted by a 15-game winning streak which propelled them into the upper echelon of The Western Conference, but Karl and his team are not looking to rest on regular-season accolades.
With perennial title contenders such as The Thunder and The San Antonio Spurs lurking, The Nuggets will have to be up to the task of advancing in the playoffs. A tough task just got a bit tougher now that forward Danilo Gallinari is out for the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL. At 16.2 points per game, Gallinari was the team’s second leading scorer, but now the onus will have to be on other players. Karl himself has stared down adversity before and won as he was diagnosed with cancer on multiple occasions, but he has never given up and that attitude has rubbed off on his team.
Lawson and Miller split the point guard duties as they provide an effective “fire and ice” combo as Lawson can move up and down the court like a blur while Miller is slow and methodical, but he knows how to find his teammates which is evident by his 7,935 career assists. As a team The Nuggets are averaging 24.4 assists per game which is currently third in The NBA. At 44.7 rebounds per game The Nuggets are second in the league in the category as they are paced by forward Kenneth Faried who is averaging 9.3 boards per game. Faried resembles that workman like attitude to a tee as he will scrap and claw on a nightly basis to help The Nuggets win. Forwards Corey Brewer and Andre Iguodala should see more shots attempts in Gallinari’s absence for the postseason as the two have combined to average 24.7 points per game this season.
Since 2009 The Nuggets have not been able to get out of the first round which has to be weighing heavily on Karl. If the playoffs began today The Nuggets would face The Golden State Warriors in the first round. The Warriors are a splitting image of The Nuggets which would make it an exciting opening round series in The Western Conference. At 35-3, The Nuggets own the best home record in The NBA as opponents have found it tough to navigate through the thin Rocky Mountain air this season.
When Karl was with The Sonics, he had All-Star players in Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. With Milwaukee it was all about Ray Allen. Karl doesn’t have that kind of player on this team, but he still has a squad that will be a force to be reckoned with in the postseason.
Source:Basketball-reference.com
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