First of all, thanks to everyone who attended Stiffs Night Out this evening. Braving the snow and the horrible Nuggets basketball being played. Andy, Nate and I appreciate everyone who comes to these events and we will likely have a special surprise the next SNO that we have.
On to the Game. This will be a short recap.
The Nuggets got blown out in the second half of tonight's game, on their way to losing their sixth in a row. They played the second half terribly. No energy. Almost like they wanted to hop on the plane home and get out of Memphis (who, by the way, is the lowest scoring team in the NBA). Of all the games in the Nuggets recent losing streak, it was this one that was most disheartening.
It’s strange that I keep getting reminded of those early 2000’s Nuggets teams. I haven’t seen a Nuggets team look this poor for vast stretches for about a decade. Ty Lawson played much better tonight as he had 20 points and 8 assists. Yet, Ty also had an Iguodala-esqe 6 turnovers … following his previous night’s turnover heavy stat line. Wilson Chandler chipped in 19, but struggled to make much of a visible impact on the game in the second half. Timofey Mozgov struggled. J.J. Hickson was at times awful on defense. The Bench in general is offense-deficient. In fact, the Nuggets bench was dominated by the Grizzlies bench, to the point where it was comical to watch.
The Nuggets, to put it bluntly, have no chemistry. Their lineups are failing to produce consistent effort, and their offense is atrocious. You can’t blame this offensive production on injuries. A combination of players, system and effort are all coming together to produce some of what you see before you. Yes, I’m including Brian Shaw in this assessment. Every piece of the Nuggets puzzle has failed them in their recent losing streak.
At this point, why not just embrace development? Play Quincy Miller. Play Evan Fournier. Get your young kids out there and give them experience. Heck, Shaw already has a deep rotation, why not include Fournier in that puzzle? At this point the Nuggets have nothing to lose. While the team's record is 14-15, there is just a "feel" about them that this is much, much worse than their record indicates.
I think all Nuggets fans understand taking a step back if you are going to intensely develop. I think we are starting to reach the point where pretense needs to be dropped in favor of development of players AND a head coach who needs to find his voice again.
The mood is grim right now. Give the people some hope for the future.
