Over the next couple of weeks, to get ready for the NBA season (which opened yesterday!) Kris and Dan are going answer a bunch of questions. One question and two responses per post. Pretty straight forward.
This question comes from our esteemed colleague Martin:
Question 4: Can the Denver Nuggets, with a healthy foursome of Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin, shock one of the big three (Spurs, Suns, Mavs) in the Western Conference playoffs?
Kris says:
Hummm.....how much do I love the Nuggets? Let's say it in just a few words, not much. Now I will qualify that by saying this, though being a huge NBA fan, I always think every team stinks every year. What don't I like about the Nuggets, everything. If we were playing down at the park this would be the first NBA team I would take, the same goes for the NBA regular season which doesn't mean Diddly-poo. But, as for playoff basketball I am not on the Nuggets bandwagon.
In the short here are a few reasons why; JR Smith, Mike Wilks, Yakhouba Diawara, Eduardo Najera and Steven Hunter. These are some of the complementary players on this beautiful Nuggets roster. Listen, my life revolves mainly around the sport of basketball and I don't know who Wilks and Diawara are, never heard of them. So when Iverson misses a few games this year George Karl is going to turn to Mike Wilks to fill in, thank you, no. Here is what is worse, apparently Mike Wilks has played 214 NBA games over the past 5 NBA seasons. Okay besides not being in love with their bench I have plenty of problems with their starting lineup as well.
Everyone is in love with the fact that Kenyon Martin is back and healthy and that is why the Nuggets are a chic pick. Let me get this straight this starting lineup includes Iverson, Melo, Camby and Martin right? That lineup has the mental stability of a Jenga game aboard a cruise ship in the North Atlantic on an April evening in 1912 (that is when the Titanic sunk). Are you kidding me, a whole season with these nutbags is going to drive George Karl back into the bottle.
No I don't believe this team can keep it together all year, and the explosion is going to be fun. "Man we talking bout practice man." That is the same guy who is on this Nuggets team right? This is sucker-punch Melo right? This is crazy Kenyon right? And coke head Camby right? And you think they can unseat a team of solid veterans like the San Antonio Spurs? Good luck with all that.
No way, no how. I know Martin you love AI but his time is up.
Dan says:
The Nuggets have two of the best scorers in the league in Iverson and Carmelo. They have All Star level players in Camby and Martin. They have some nice other pieces, in Nene, Najera, and Kleiza. They have Chucky Atkins for some reason.
So of course they can shock one of the top teams in the West in the Playoffs.
If the playoffs have shown us anything, it's that a top team can lose to a hot team that gets hot at the right time. Like Golden State beating Dallas last year. Or Cleveland beating Detroit last year. Or the entire 1999 Knicks playoffs run. Or even the Denver Nuggets beating the George Karl-coached Sonics back in the mid 90s, the famous shot of Mutombo on the ground clutching the ball in joy.
If those teams can pull off upsets, or semi-upsets, then so can this one.
Now, this doesn't mean that it's likely to happen, or that it is in fact going to happen. But if it's June and we're watching the Nuggets beat Dallas or Phoenix in a game 7, I'm not going to say that I'd be totally shocked. There's certainly enough talent here to get it done.
If Camby, Martin, Iverson, and Carmelo actually play 50 games together as a team during the regular season? THEN I'd be completely and utterly shocked.
1 comment:
i think kris is a bit unfair, i mean AI has been to the finals and melo won an ncaa championship. Kmart has been to the finals and so has camby so it's not like it's a team with a bunch of guys that have never made it deep into the playoffs.
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