DENVER—In the high-stakes game of Western Conference poker, George Karl likes the hand he is holding.
So, while other contenders in the conference made marquee moves to restock their rosters in the offseason, Karl and the Nuggets largely stood pat.
The Nuggets coach valued continuity over change following a year in which his team reached the conference championships for the first time since 1985. Karl told the front office not to bother keeping up with everybody else in the West who was spending millions to retool their rosters.
“George felt these guys deserved the right to stick together,” said Mark Warkentien, Denver’s vice president of basketball operations and reigning executive of the year. “He wanted to hold most of the cards he had.”
A few tweaks (trading for Arron Afflalo), drafting a potential impact point guard (Ty Lawson) and re-signing a couple of high-energy veterans (Chris “Birdman” Andersen and Anthony Carter) were pretty much all the moves Karl thought were necessary.
But the West raised the ante in a big way, the top teams all adding big names. The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers acquired Ron Artest, the San Antonio Spurs landed Richard Jefferson, the Portland Trail Blazers brought in Andre Miller and the Dallas Mavericks picked up Shawn Marion.
The Nuggets feel as though the changes were made with them in mind.
“We’re a little more of the huntee than the hunter,” Karl said. “Teams are going to take us as a big game, teams are going to take us as a championship-type team. We can’t be surprised by the intensity we get hit with early in the season, because people have a lot of respect for us.”
The Nuggets tied a franchise record last season with 54 wins in the regular season. They also gave the Lakers quite a handful before bowing out of the conference finals in six games.
Leading the charge was Chauncey Billups, who helped transform the Nuggets from mediocre to mighty with his arrival in the trade that sent Allen Iverson to Detroit. Billups’ leadership steadied the Nuggets and gave Karl the true point guard he had always craved.
The challenge now will be recreating that chemistry.
“You’ve got to prove yourself all over again,” Billups said. “You can’t feel like it’s automatic that you’re going to be good just because you’ve got the same players. If you feel like teams are going to lay down because you made the Western Conference finals, you’re in for a real long season.”
That’s why Billups embraces the disappointment he felt after the playoff loss to the Lakers.
“My whole thing was, remember how this feels,” Billups said. “To be a really good team, to have a legitimate chance to win a championship last season and end the season like that, just remember that feeling … We all know we had a great season and achieved more than anyone thought we could, but we thought we could have done more.”
And they’ll try to do that this year.
The Nuggets lost defensive stalwart Dahntay Jones in free agency and sharpshooter Linas Kleiza to Europe.
They acquired Afflalo to provide a defensive boost and drafted Lawson as a way to take some of the burden off Billups in the backcourt, especially down the stretch.
Karl thinks the Nuggets’ biggest opportunity for growth revolves around Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Nene and Andersen. That’s one reason why he wanted to avoid big overhauls. A big name could have possibly clouded the picture.
“I think that would have maybe put too much pressure,” Karl said. “It was an easy challenge to go to ‘Melo, J.R. and Nene and say, ‘Hey, we think you can be better than you were last year,’ and challenging them to grow. I don’t think we were that far from the Lakers.”
Last season, Anthony took a leap forward in the evolution of his game. His personal stats were down, averaging nearly 23 points a game, but the Nuggets were winning.
He then cranked it up in the postseason, pouring in 27 points a contest.
Smith and Andersen provided valuable minutes off the bench, Smith supplying a spark with his explosive long-range shooting while Andersen dispensed excitement with his high-flying, shot-blocking ability.
With Jones’ departure, Smith has the inside track to stepping into the starting lineup.
But that decision has to wait. Smith will miss the opening seven games of the season, a punishment handed down by the league after he pleaded guilty this summer to reckless driving.
Nene flashed his pillowy-soft touch around the hoop last season after missing almost an entire year as he battled cancer. Kenyon Martin had a rebound year as well, returning to his intimidating form after being slowed by microfracture surgeries on both knees.
The Nuggets are banking on more of the same out of those two this season, along with the rest of the crew.
“It’s their challenge to come together and hopefully play like they ended … and build on that as the season goes on,” Karl said. “I like continuity, I like consistency, I like a rhythm of being together.”
