Denver Post sports writer posts his Nuggets Mailbag every other Thursday during the regular season.
for the Nuggets Mailbag.
The Broncos have had their homecoming with coach Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips. Any chance we could possibly see Larry Brown and Doug Moe try to rebuild the Nuggets?
— Jim S., North Carolina
Jim — As much as that might be a fun return for guys who helped the Nuggets be good in the past, it won’t happen. Brown is doing a great job at SMU. And Moe? He’s enjoying the retired life.
Do you think that if the NBA had non-guaranteed contracts, like the NFL, this outrageous scuttling of a coach would have happened?
— Jim, Highlands Ranch
Jim — That’s hard to predict. Even if you could just cut players and not pay them beyond a signing bonus — as is done in the NFL — it doesn’t mean it would happen, especially if they’re “name” players, because you’d rather just trade those guys and get value in return instead of releasing them. And since you can’t trade an entire team with the snap of a finger, it stands to reason that things probably would have gone similarly for the Nuggets this season.
It certainly seems coach Melvin Hunt has found a way to utilize the abilities of the Nuggets to maximize effort in a cohesive game plan. Do you think coach Brian Shaw was stubbornly set on a system ill-equipped for the current roster; or, that he just wasn’t as good of a coach as Hunt in failing to conform the system to his players’ strengths?
— Vincent Pawlowski, Tampa
Vincent — Brian Shaw wasn’t brought in to be the status quo. He was brought in to change what had been done in the past with former coach George Karl. So coming in and just doing the same thing wasn’t the plan.
But the roster was inflexible. It was built to play a certain way, running, and the struggle was compounded when some players pushed against learning to execute a game plan differently. Shaw would have had a better chance if the roster was more versatile and amenable to change. So, while he could have done a couple of things differently, he wasn’t helped by cobbling a roster more suited to his style of play. And if management was just looking for a carbon copy of Karl — which it wasn’t — it could have just kept George Karl.
Will Melvin Hunt’s effort to win now (and a job for next year) get in the way of giving minutes to the younger players to see who should be brought back and who shouldn’t? And will any success he has blind general manager Tim Connelly and owner Josh Kroenke to the real need of extensively rebuilding the team next year?
— Richard W., Loveland
Richard — The first part is a simple answer: No.
Truth be told, by this late in the season, management already has an extensive profile of the strengths and weaknesses of the young players and what they’ll need to work on during the summer. So playing them now is more about getting them in a rhythm and getting them experience.
And I can think of no better way to do that than by teaching them how to win and by establishing a winning culture. There are pressure situations players are put in during competitive games that go a lot further in learning the game than just playing a ton of minutes in a 20-point blowout.
Now, the second part of your question is interesting, because the winning could mask things that need to be changed. But I’d be shocked if that happened. So, I guess I’m saying I’d be shocked if, next season, the roster looks 80-90 percent like it does now. The season is a body of work, and there are things management will not forget from the months prior to Shaw’s firing in reshaping the roster during the offseason.
Who do you like in the NCAA Tournament this year? I also think something needs to be done about the one-and-done rule. What are your thoughts on this?
— Keith, Aurora
Keith — I’m in the minority on this, but I have no problem with the one-and-done players in college. I completely understand those who do have a problem with it, from the standpoint of players not being fully ready for the NBA and having to learn on the job there. But this is the same NBA that, while admonishing the rule, lines up early and often to draft these same players. So if there was that big of an issue they’d just pass and draft the players with more experience. But that doesn’t, and won’t, happen. If the college athletes are ready after one season, they should go to the pros. And while I love watching March Madness, I’m not necessarily concerned about the state of college basketball.
There’s always another “great” player on the heels of the one that just left, so there will never be a shortage of star power in college. It’s just short-lived. And I’m all right with that. As for the NBA, younger players tend to be sloppier, and that’s an issue. But it’s not present with the best teams in the league, and with experience those young players generally blossom quite nicely.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
