These days George Karl is 54 going on 15.
With prostate surgery behind him and his first NBA training camp in three years starting Tuesday, it doesn’t take much to make the Nuggets’ coach giddy.
“He has anticipated training camp like a kid at Cherry Creek High School as a sophomore waiting for varsity practice,” said former University of Utah coach Rick Majerus, one of Karl’s best friends. “He won’t be able to sleep Monday night.”
As Karl drove the Nuggets to a 32-8 record last season, from six games out of the playoffs to the Western Conference’s seventh seed, one question lingered: What could the Nuggets have done with Karl running the team from the start? After his July surgery for prostate cancer, he had plenty of time to cook up new plans.
“He doesn’t go in the bathroom and read the paper,” Majerus said. “He goes in the bathroom to contemplate a play or a drill.”
While Karl has more ideas than he’ll ever get to use, he suggests the key to Denver’s improvement this season will be leaving room for players’ intuition.
“I think they play much better when you give them the structure and they create the action,” Karl said. “I don’t think you can create all of the action. You’ve got to leave the window open. We were the best lob team I’ve ever coached. I don’t think I ever drew one (lob) play up. Maybe one.”
Most coaches cringe at failed alley-oops, but Karl let it slide. In fact, he told point guard Andre Miller he didn’t mind a couple of botched lobs since it was such a high-percentage play.
More bits of Karl’s odd-angle thinking should surface this season. The idea of putting 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins on the floor with 6-1 Earl Watson would terrify most coaches. Not Karl.
Watson, the only new Nugget among players with guaranteed contracts, is looking forward to what defensive tricks Karl has up his sleeve.
“I’ve watched Gary Payton since I was young and tried to steal everything I could when I played with him,” said Watson, who teamed with Payton in Seattle. “I’m looking forward to learning a lot of the things that I’m assuming he taught Gary.”
Karl certainly has his stubborn side, which prompted a bit of playful skepticism from his best player, small forward Carmelo Anthony. When told Karl hopes to leave room for the players’ spontaneity, Anthony replied: “I’ll believe it when I see it. Tuesday’s going to say it all.”
Strategy aside, Karl hopes to strike the proper balance between hard, thorough work and making that work something the players enjoy. He called his current approach to coaching quite different from his old style.
Center Marcus Camby will never be mistaken for a fan of training camp, but he feels that under Karl the preseason will not be totally unbearable. He had heard stories about how the coach was too hard on his players and never gave them enough time to rest or recover.
“I didn’t see none of that stuff,” Camby said. “I just saw a guy who was happy to be back in coaching, a guy who also knew how to pull back the reins when things were getting a little bit hairy.
“He developed a little into a players’ coach. The guys really wanted to go and play for him. He just made our whole environment fun and loose, which is rare nowadays, where teams are so uptight and worrying about all the little things instead of worrying about basketball.”
Karl admits he used to ride players too hard. Now he foresees giving the Nuggets an occasional off day this month.
“In my younger days, if we were losing I yelled and screamed,” he said. “I didn’t use it as a teacher. Training camp, there had to be a day of George Karl, where he had to be the guy on the pedestal. I think I’m over most of those ego trips. … We’re all going to have to sacrifice. I’m going to have to sacrifice my ego.”
If Karl keeps his word and the Nuggets keep their egos in check, too – easier said than done on a team with at least 12 veteran rotation players and limited minutes to go around – the team could surge past its 49 victories from a year ago and contend for the Northwest Division.
Still, the mellower Karl said: “I could be OK without winning it. But I’m not going to tell them that. I think we can win it. But are we head and shoulders above Seattle and Minnesota? I don’t think so. I think it’s going to be a good race.”
If the coach is sweating the small stuff too much, he is doing a good job of hiding it. Majerus has no doubt Karl’s surgery changed him.
“All of a sudden you go in that tunnel, you come out of it and your perspective on everything is a little bit better,” Majerus said. “You appreciate a cup of coffee as much as you would a playoff run.”
Courting new season
The Nuggets start training camp Tuesday. A look at key dates:
Oct. 4-14: Practice at the Pepsi Center
Oct. 13: Exhibition opener vs. New Orleans, 7 p.m.
Oct. 28: Final exhibition, at Utah, 7 p.m.
Nov. 1: Season opener, at San Antonio, 6 p.m.
Projected training camp roster
Player Pos. Ht. Wt.
Carmelo Anthony F 6-8 220
Earl Boykins G 5-5 133
Greg Buckner G-F 6-4 210
Marcus Camby C-F 6-11 225
Nigel Dixon C 6-11 320
Francisco Elson C 7-0 235
Julius Hodge G 6-7 210
DerMarr Johnson G-F 6-9 201
Linas Kleiza F 6-8 245
Voshon Lenard G 6-4 205
Kenyon Martin F 6-9 234
Andre Miller G 6-2 200
Eduardo Najera F 6-8 235
Nene F-C 6-11 260
Mark Pope C-F 6-10 235
Bryon Russell G-F 6-7 225
Luke Schenscher C 7-1 255
Earl Watson G 6-1 190
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
