In a lighter moment of a heavy night in which the Nuggets were ripped by the Bucks, official Monty McCutchen watched as the mascot Rocky during a late-game timeout tried a third and then a fourth halfcourt, back-to-the-basket shot. It, too, sliced only air.
The horn already had sounded for the teams to return.
Rocky asked for one more.
McCutchen groaned to a fellow official, “Sometimes they let this stuff go too far.”
He might as well have been talking about the Nuggets players, their coaches, their management and their ownership.
The entire bunch is out of sorts.
This must be said about the Nuggets: Their 110-89 flop against the Bucks on Monday night at the Pepsi Center does not diminish the fact they have won more games than they have lost, that they are the only team in their division with a winning record and, thus, remain above peers Utah, Minnesota, Seattle and Portland.
Those are four teams with deeper problems and buzzing headaches.
And in the NBA, a team that gives another one fits (Denver had won six straight against Milwaukee) somewhere down the road gets that team’s best shot and can be spun for a loop. Remember, Denver won at San Antonio this season and the Nuggets are no better than San Antonio than the Bucks are than the Nuggets.
That said, the Nuggets, when chemistry is considered, are a mess.
They win at Minnesota without a couple of players who were traded and then return home, add three new guys, and look pitiful.
They thought their worst was behind them early in the season when injuries sapped them and they survived and had a mini-streak going there in hard play and victories, but several slips before the all-star break created more confusion.
All three new pieces – Ruben Patterson, Reggie Evans and Charles Smith – played against the Bucks. Coach George Karl all night tried so many different combinations my head is still spinning. None worked.
It has become clear that one of the biggest hopes of the offseason for the Nuggets was that a deal could be swung to bring in forward Paul Pierce from Boston. The Nuggets talked to Boston about Nene and Andre Miller and others in a deal for Pierce. Boston wanted Nene, Miller and gave the Nuggets a list of other players in the league that if the Nuggets could obtain, the deal could be done. It was an unrealistic list.
A couple of months of talks, and all fell flat.
The Nuggets seem to have been in a state of flux since. They have mixed and matched their lineup and made their recent deal for this new trio, but no Pierce has meant a Plan B, C, D and so on.
The trading deadline may have come and gone, but the Nuggets are still searching for themselves.
General manager Kiki Vandeweghe does not have a new contract. Karl gives him an endorsement that includes an offer of praise to any other NBA team that might want him. Owner Stan Kroenke watches it all but waits. And listens. And one man in his ear that he apparently respects is Bret Bearup, a financial adviser based in Atlanta.
He is around the Nuggets a lot. The players think he is Kroenke’s eyes and ears. One Nugget, Greg Buckner, when asked about Bearup said “no comment” three separate times in as testy a manner as I have ever seen this usually serene and thoughtful man.
I asked Bearup about a dinner last summer he reportedly had with Pierce and Kenyon Martin here in Denver to discuss Pierce coming here: “That did not happen,” Bearup said. “But I am a friend of this organization’s and a friend of Stan’s.”
Several Nuggets do not buy it. They think Bearup is more formidable in the organization than Vandeweghe.
You hear the Nuggets players grumble about Karl’s ego and Earl Boykins’ frequent and errant shots and Miller’s deliberate style and …
This is a team with a fragile psyche. The Nuggets have 25 regular-season games left to find order. Blend. Unite. Excel.
Few have seen enough to believe it will happen. That it will stick.
“The problem is we need to grow up,” center Francisco Elson said. “If you talk like you are a man you should grow up and be one.”
Miller added: “Chemistry? I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to get from certain guys here. We’ve got to get tougher.”
With a heck of a lot more understanding, from top to bottom.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
