2008-09 Game 21: Wolves @ Nugs

<SBG>Fresh off of a tough loss last night in which the club played with some actual intensity but still managed to fritter away a victory in the final minutes, the Wolves head to Denver (damn, that airport is so far from the city, right, Mr. McHale?) for a matchup with the rejuvenated Denver Nuggets.

Denver:
SRS: 5.23 (4th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 94.6 (7th of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 107.8 (13th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 102.6 (6th of 30)
Minnesota:
SRS: -6.84 (28th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 91.3 (19th of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 102.8 (25th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 109.3 (24th of 30)

Last year's Denver club was characterized as a run and gun, no defense outfit that couldn't win because, you know, they didn't play defense. Well, that wasn't really true. They were a run and gun outfit (first in Pace Factor, the average number of possessions per game), but they were just 11th in offensive efficiency and tenth in defensive efficiency. That lead to an SRS (the so-called "Simple" Ranking System, which creates a factor to rank teams based on scoring margin) that was tenth best in the league. In other words, they weren't good enough on either end of the court.

The problem, though, is that they were paid like an elite team. Check out the salaries of their top five most highly paid players last year:
Rk Player Salary
1 Allen Iverson $19,012,500
2 Kenyon Martin $13,250,000
3 Carmelo Anthony $13,041,250
4 Marcus Camby $11,250,000
5 Nene Hilario $8,840,000

That's $65 million to five guys. Ouch. The Nuggets won 50 games, but they didn't bring in Allen Iverson to win 50 games and get swept in the first round of the playoffs. They brought him in to make a run at the title.

I love Alley-I, but his game has some baggage. For example, he can dominate the ball offensively and he plays a risk taking type of defense that results in a lot of steals and a lot of open shots for the guy he's guarding. With Marcus Camby, their human eraser gone to the Clip shack, things looked bleak for the Nuggets on the defensive end. Then, they pulled off a trade with the Detroit Pistons that has worked out in spades (even though they could have used Antonio McDyess, too).

Chauncey Billups is a little younger than Iverson, has a lot more tread on the tires, is bigger, a better defender, and just as good offensively. He doesn't dominate the ball and with Carmelo Anthony on the team, having someone else who dominates the ball isn't a good idea. Plus, he's making a lot less, but he's also signed for several more years. Iverson's contract is up after this year and he would have provided some salary cap relief, but it isn't like Denver was going to be a player in the free agent market, anyway, unless they could have unloaded Kenyon Martin's deal (The Sports Guy has called his the worst contract in the NBA, with good reason.). The Nuggets are over the cap for next year, so this is the team that they will have. So far, they've been pretty good -- SRS says that they are the best "B" team out there (you know, the teams that aren't LAL, BOS, or CLE). They have the second best record in the West right now, which means home court in two rounds of the playoffs. Plus, Billups helps with the LAL matchup a little more, although I still think they don't match up well with Los Angeles (and really didn't last year).

Below is the salary chart for the Nuggets. Like I said, this is the team they are going to dance with for a while.

I would imagine that Kevin McHale won't be sending Anthony Carter any kisses tonight, what with Carter painting a picture of McHale as a clueless spectator the last time he coached. I might talk a little more about this later, but I'm not convinced that in the short term, at least, having someone who is nothing more than a goofy onlooker isn't the worst thing that could happen to this club right now.

Look for a Denver victory tonight. This is a good club.</SBG>

<GreekHouse>The Wolves looked pretty sharp last night. In fact, if it hadn't been for Love going 0-4 from the stripe in the final minutes of the game, the Wolves would have won. I think a change in coach gave the Wolves a bit of a morale boost, because they played with a lot more energy than they did on Saturday. I expect them to continue to give good effort at least for a little while. We'll see what happens after the temporary morale boost goes away and they lose a few games in a row. McHale is allegedly a players coach, so maybe he'll be good at keeping them up while the rest of the staff does the actual coaching.

As for Love, I hope this one night of bad free throwing doesn't get into his head. After he missed the first three, it was clear on the 4th one that it was getting to him. It looked like he pushed the ball towards the rim and really tried to aim it. It was completely unnatural. Other than the missed FTs though, he played quite well. He grabbed 15 board, tying his career high which he set in the previous game. He was all over the place on the boards and Utah had no idea how to stop him. He still has some problems with jump shooting and finishing around the rim, but that should come with time and practice. He was supposed to be a really good shooter coming into the league, but he hasn't really shown it yet. But if he has the skills, he should get there eventually. What he does do really well is use his body and his good footwork to get him into the right spot on the floor, and that kind of instinct is much harder to teach.</GreekHouse>