Forget if. The only question is when the trades begin and Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly takes a broom to the mess in his locker room.
Who leaves town first? Point guard Ty Lawson? Kenneth Faried and his new contract? Veteran scorer Wilson Chandler?
The better question might be: When the dealing’s done, how many current players will remain as the next rebuilding project at the Pepsi Center begins in earnest?
On the eve of the new year, 2015 is already meaningless for the Nuggets. This franchise is now playing for 2016 and beyond.
The lowly Los Angeles Lakers dropped Denver so hard in a 111-103 defeat Tuesday night, this will be remembered as the loss that broke up these Nuggets. Maybe we should all send Kobe Bryant a thank-you note.
Where was the urgency? The Nuggets had been put on notice by coach Brian Shaw that player movement is inevitable unless Denver starts a long winning streak that nobody, least of all team management, believes this roster of mismatched parts has in it.
“It’s now or never,” Shaw said, before one of Denver’s more disheartening home performances in an arena where all hope is lost. “And if it’s not going to happen now, I’m sure there’s going to possibly be changes made. And I’ve expressed that to our guys. That’s just the nature of the business. It’s do or die. It’s now or never.”
Color the Nuggets dead and gone. The Denver starters looked as if they don’t want to be here.
“I’m disappointed,” Shaw said after the loss, again threatening to cut minutes for a starting five that too often falls short of giving a professional effort.
“If that’s the way it’s going to be and that’s what I’m going to get (from the starters), then the guys like Gary (Harris) and Erick Green and Alonzo Gee and Jusuf (Nurkic), I’m going to put them out there and I’m just going to let them play.”
While Lawson and Faried are both talented, neither the 27-year-old guard nor the 25-year-old forward has any real shot at being one of the NBA’s top five players at his respective position. That single, sobering fact eliminates Denver from being a bona fide championship contender with the current core.
If the Nuggets want to tank, Lawson is the obvious player to trade. Without him, there’s nobody who can consistently direct an already-unreliable Denver offense. A top-five pick in the 2015 draft could be in the offing.
At a relatively modest salary of $6.75 million, Chandler would be an easy fit as a perimeter shooter in any championship contender’s rotation.
While Faried has become the face of the franchise, it seems that no matter how hard Shaw tries to embrace the Manimal’s unique skill set, there’s no real love between the coach and player.
Since joining the Nuggets 18 months ago, Connelly has been itching to put his imprint on this roster. He decided instead to wait and see if the injured knee of Danilo Gallinari could bounce back, while praying JaVale McGee might develop something resembling passion for the game.
Let’s do the math. It required 49 victories last season to qualify for the eighth and final berth in the Western Conference playoffs. To hit that target, the Nuggets would have to win 36 of their final 50 games.
“Anything can happen,” Shaw said. “You have to spew optimism.”
Well, consider the optimism spewed. Grab a mop. Can we get a clean-up on Aisle 3? The Nuggets aren’t making the playoffs.
So let the trade discussions begin. While frustrated Nuggets fans might want to blow up the locker room for the entertainment value of watching the fireworks, team management must be patient. Nothing less than the quality of basketball in Denver for the next five years is at stake. The days leading up to the draft generally present a better opportunity for a blockbuster deal than the weeks prior to the league’s midseason trade deadline.
This much is certain: The fate of the Nuggets is no longer in the hands of Lawson, Faried or Shaw. The ball is in Connelly’s court.
Tank the season? The Nuggets are already in the tank.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or
