There is a movement in the Mile High City — mostly online, on social media and sports talk radio — where the most vocal Nuggets critics have found their latest target.
Winning.
More specifically, winning now.
After four months of losing most every game in sight, the Nuggets have done a 180-degree turn that is going beyond the expected “bump” a team gets when a head coach is fired and replaced. They are 5-2 with interim coach Melvin Hunt and have gone from having the NBA’s sixth-worst record to the eighth-worst entering Saturday.
But what does all of the recent winning mean?
The Nuggets are playing themselves back into the gray area of a lottery draft pick not good enough to give the peace of mind that a franchise player could bring.
But had the Nuggets truly cared about that, they might not have made the move to fire coach Brian Shaw in the first place. Players aren’t concerned about lottery riches; they simply want to replace a season’s worth of frustration with at least a month of winning basketball.
Nuggets management hasn’t handed Hunt a directive to lose.
He has the incentive to win to build his case to be the permanent head coach, whether in Denver or somewhere else in the league.
“If I’m playing marbles or jacks, I’m trying to win,” Hunt said. “If I’m playing checkers, Candy Crush, I want to win. There’s just something about it. When you have integrity and you’re doing the right thing, no matter who’s watching, no matter what the situation is, I think good things happen.”
Still, there is improvement and true change to think about.
The Nuggets are in search of their next Carmelo Anthony, a star player who gave them instant credibility throughout the NBA and helped them advance to the Western Conference finals in 2009. The catch: He was a draft pick. And the Nuggets had to be really bad to have the chance to draft him.
This season’s Denver team isn’t as bad as the 17-65 squad that eventually earned the third pick in the 2003 draft, the slot where Anthony was acquired out of Syracuse.
Not that everyone is sold on being historically bad to become good. The Philadelphia 76ers are in the midst of the second year of their tanking plan, and have done little more than test the patience of a basketball-crazy fan base.
Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson went on record early this season hoping the Lakers would lose big to receive an advantageous lottery draft pick.
NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy of ESPN acknowledges Philadelphia is “playing by the rules,” but he wishes those rules were different.
“I don’t think there should be any incentive at all to lose,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think you should get one advantage from losing. And so, I’m for anything that takes out any incentive to lose.”
But those rules don’t exist.
Any tearing down and rebuild of the Nuggets will soak up the next couple of seasons at least.
“But now, what price do you pay as fans?” ESPN’s Jalen Rose, a former Nuggets guard, said early this season on a conference call with NBA media. “How long are you willing to wait? Because Philadelphia does have knowledgeable fans, but also ticket prices are so exorbitant in today’s landscape.”
The draft would have to be stocked with transformative talent. That’s debatable in this upcoming draft, though most peg Duke star Jahlil Okafor as close to a “can’t miss” prospect as there is. There is a lot of intriguing talent — guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who is playing in China; a bevy of University of Kentucky stars, Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein among them; Ohio State freshman guard D’Angelo Russell; and Arizona youngster Stanley Johnson.
It’s part of the reason the 76ers have opted to field a team that can’t win consistently. More years of high lottery picks increase the odds that one of those players will turn into the face of the franchise.
Might the Nuggets choose that route?
“There are a lot of different ways to do it,” Rose said. “So just because you get the No. 1 pick, that guy has only went on to win a championship with that team — if it was Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan, those are the only No. 1 picks that have gone on to win titles with the team that drafted them.
“It’s not an exact science that tanking is going to get you a great player or a franchise championship player, or it’s going to turn around your forces.”
Pick-and-roll
Christopher Dempsey’s top-10 prospects in the NBA draft:
Jahlil Okafor, PF-C, Duke, Fr.
Candidate for national player of the year, projected top pick in the draft. Will enter the NCAA Tournament with averages of 17.7 points and 9.0 rebounds.
Karl-Anthony Towns, PF-C, Kentucky, Fr.
Superior defensive force in the paint with burgeoning offensive game. Many think he could top Okafor and go No. 1 in the draft.
D’Angelo Russell, PG, Ohio State, Fr.
Dynamic scorer and ball hand- ler. Will enter the NCAA Tournament with averages of 19.3 points and 5.1 assists.
Emmanuel Mudiay, PG, China
Skipped college after committing to SMU to play professionally. An explosive playmaker at age 19. Has a knack for getting into the teeth of the defense.
Stanley Johnson, SF, Arizona, Fr.
Great size (6-foot-7, 245 pounds) with the ability to score inside and out. Solid defender too.
Willie Cauley-Stein, PF-C, Kentucky, Jr.
The other half of the Wildcats’ shot-blocking twin towers, Cauley-Stein has game-changing potential on the defensive end. But he is raw offensively.
Justise Winslow, SF, Duke, Fr.
Has crept into the conversation as to which small forward is better — him or Arizona’s Johnson? Winslow has shot it well from everywhere this season.
Mario Hezonia, SG-SF, international (Barcelona)
This Croatian player doesn’t have a huge role on his team, but he has shown that he can shoot the ball well and is polished offensively.
Kelly Oubre, SF, Kansas, Fr.
Not having the season he expected, but has been good of late. Can score out to the arc and has scary good upside.
Myles Turner, C, Texas, Fr.
He already has NBA size, and can score from the post all the way to the 3-point line. But inconsistency is an issue.
DENVER AT NEW ORLEANS
4 p.m. Sunday, ALT; 950 AM
Spotlight on Eric Gordon: Once thought to have upside that would place Gordon among the NBA’s top shooting guards, injuries derailed all of that promise. But the former Indiana Hoosiers star has stayed healthy of late and is playing very effective basketball for the Pelicans. He is shooting 52.2 percent from the 3-point line over his last 23 games and, after missing 21 games because of a shoulder injury, has averaged 14.7 points and 4.7 assists.
NOTEBOOK
Nuggets: Starting point guard Ty Lawson probably will be back for Sunday’s game against the Pelicans. Lawson sat out Friday’s game against the Warriors because of illness, the Nuggets said. Darrell Arthur (calf strain) is listed as probable.
Pelicans: Tyreke Evans (ankle) is listed as probable. He is averaging 16.7 points and 8.3 assists in 11 games since the all-star break. … The Pelicans have won nine of their past 11 games. They defeated the Nuggets 99-92 in Denver on March 1 — Evans and Eric Gordon combined for 40 points — and are making a push for a playoff berth. … New Orleans is 1-2 vs. Denver.
Christopher Dempsey, The Denver Post
