:D Nug Nugs

[eathb]

Written by "Corona" on the RealGM Nuggets board:

stole this analogy (albeit that was a shortern version) from another board.
but I like it, so i'm going to use it and expand on it...

and please, just take the time to read it.
i know it's long, but it could be worth the time and hopefully it will give you a better understanding of denver's situation and why fans are so optimistic or sometimes can seem homerish.

imagine this for a second...
the dallas mavericks are coming off an nba finals appearance, returning with the same lineup, poised, motivated and ready to avenge what happened last season.

however in training camp their backup center, desanga diop suffers a serious MCL strain. it causes him to miss the first 12 games of the season and then to miss 5 more games throughout 2006 because of knee problems. and even when he's playing he's highly limited in his moves, athletecism and minutes up until february. (he keeps having setbacks, swelling and pain in the knee)

3 games into the season erick dampier lands wrong on his knee and tears up every ligament in there, much like shaun livingston. the team learns he'll need to miss the rest of the season and playoffs, and perhaps will never be the same player because of the injury. obviously it's quite a devestating blow to the team's morale, because even though he's not a great statistical player he's an impact player that does a lot of little things to get wins. (extra possessions, finishing plays, defending the opposing teams best big man...etc)

but the mavs persevere, they're not gonna let an injured frontcourt keep them from competing in the west (look what phoenix was able to do in 05-06)

18 games pass, in which they get a strong record of 12-6.

on the last game of a 5 game eastern roadtrip, the mavs are closing out a game against a bad team. terry grabs a long rebound, throws it out to halfcourt where josh howard is streaking down the sideline with a clear path to the basket. as he goes to lay the ball up a thug from the other team comes in, clotheslines howard and tackles him to the floor.
looking to defend himself, howard quickly jumps up and begins yelling at the guy. a skirmish breaks out, there's quite a bit of pushing and shoving and choking going on. dirk nowitzki runs into the scene and tries to pull people off howard, as he's now been tackled to the floor again. the scene begins to quiet down, but the "fight's" not over yet. in a strange burst of emotions seemingly sparked by a set of words, dirk nowitzki punches the player that intitially tackled howard.

two days pass, and david stern suspends nowitzki 15 games, and howard 10 games. fans brace for the worst as now with a lineup that features terry & stackhouse as the main scorers, they figure the season's in the balance and a playoff berth depends largely on how they do during this stretch.

now searching for answers, and unhappy with how last years mavericks collapsed mentally to 'give away' an nba finals series, cuban jumps at an opportunity to land allen iverson on his team...hoping it will provide them the mental toughness for another serious run at the title, and will give them a better chance to get through the next 15 games without losing too much positioning for the playoffs. so he gives up jason terry, austin croshere and some draft picks to land one of the greatest scorers in nba history.

around this time avery johnson learns that doctors have found cancerous lymphnodes in his son, and he'll need surgery and perhaps chemo in the coming months to get rid of it. (this is his son's second bout with cancer, after avery delt with prostate cancer the previous year) - the team's willing to grant him a leave of absence to deal with his family issues, however not wanting to disrupt what's already been a ridiculously disruptive season, he stays on and tries to balance the teams ever growing needs with his family's.

the first few games with iverson are wonderful, they're not winning, but there's a renewed excitement and energy on the homecourt that hasn't been seen there since winning game 2 of the nba finals.

unforunately during one of the first games with ai, jerry stackhouse breaks the 3rd metacarpel in his hand when he attempts to block a shot against the backboard. he misses just 5 games with the injury, however he needs to wear a cast on the hand (it's his shooting hand) to protect the bone. this throws his shot off and causes him to limit his aggressiveness defensively, for fear of tweaking his hand the wrong way and re-breaking the bone.
during this same time, diop is also forced to miss 4 more games, as his minutes were increased, which caused swelling in his knee, which needed to be drained and rested.
so avery johnson's hand is forced and he needs to use a lineup of harris/iverson/buckner/george/mbenga, with anthony johnson, and maurice ager coming off the bench.

analyzing what's left of the team and thinking about how it'll work out in the future, cuban realizes that a backcourt of iverson & devin harris just isn't big enough to hack it in the nba. harris also isn't enough of a pure passer...he does an excellent job using his quickness to get to the rim and score, but the team now needs a guy that'll work in combination with Iverson & Dirk, and not do his own thing. so cuban trades harris for steve blake.

somehow dallas manages to emerge from this 10 game stretch with a 4-6 record. and now howard returns from suspension, so things are looking brighter by the second.

however with so much time away from actual games, and no training camp or preseason to work himself into the rotation, jho's rusty. shots that he usually makes aren't falling, he's a little clumsy driving into the paint and he begins to get frustrated because what was going so right in the first 20 games of the season isn't happening anymore. he's also struggling to familiarize himself with his two new teammates, one of who is a 7 time nba all-star. passes are coming differently, avery johnson's implemented a whole new set of plays to better utilize his new cast of players and the adjustment for howard is tough to make.

they manage to win 3 of the next 5 games though, and the team seems to be hot, headed into the return of nowitzki.

so dirk returns, and an even greater sense of excitement is in the building. they demolish one of the weakest teams in the league, and then beat another weak team the next night. but the honeymoon is short lived, as they lose the next 3 straight games.
nowitzki runs across the same problem that howard has encountered - his role's a little different because iverson's a vastly different point guard than jason terry. he's having to utilize different positions on the court and is getting less easy baskets every game.
dirk had started off the season playing amazing basketball...28/10/4, and he was overanxiously and perhaps overzealously looking to regain that same form. but with the very different lineup and the 5 weeks off, his shot was no longer falling at as high rate, his shooting percentage dropped a little and he's found that because of his image problems he's not getting any respect from the officiating crews anymore.

and iverson, not wanting to step on any toes, seems to have taken a backseat. he's defering too much, and not being aggressive when the team needs him to put points on the board. he's not being the player that got him his status in the league, as far as attacking defenders and pushing the pace and shooting when he's open (and sometimes when he's not). he's...get this...too unselfish.

5 games after the return of dirk, iverson lands on an opponents foot after taking a shot, and severely sprains his right ankle. he struggles to play out the remainder of the game and they lose to an awful team. iverson's then forced to miss the next 4 games, then returns to one (which they lose on a buzzer beating putback), he reaggrevates the ankle in overtime of that game and misses the next 4 games leading into the all-star break.

by now diop's knee is healed and he's really stepped his game up to be a serious threat on the inside. so that's a huge plus for the team.

with iverson returning from his ankle injury (his cuts and quickness is still limited by it, but he's tough so he plays through the pain), and everyone seemingly on the same page the team looks to come out after the all-star game hot and try to put some runs together and build chemistry through the rest of the season.
however in the first game out josh howard tears cartiladge in his knee that requires surgery, and him to miss another 9 games.
the dynamics of the team change yet again and they miss the x-factor for the next three weeks. dallas goes 4-5 in this stretch, which includes a game that dirk has to miss because his wife gave birth to their first child.
howard returns earlier than expected, but like diop he's slowed by swelling and an unsureness in his knee that's limiting him from doing what he really wants to.

despite howard's struggles, dallas looks pretty good for a quarter or two each game, like they're beginning to get it together. there's a little more flow to the offense and the defensive energy has picked up. the ball & player movement has improved drastically and they're attacking the basket more than settling for jumpshots. however the lack of chemistry seems to only allow this to happen for limited stretches every game; in between those nice spots the team goes back to expecting things to come to them without working for it. they shoot jumpers, play matador defense, walk the ball up the court and fail to move the ball consistently.

and unfortunately now the team's faced with by far the toughest schedule in the entire league to finish the season - where most games are on the road against playoff suitors. they immediately have a 7 day, 5 game eastern roadtrip against all playoff teams. in the trip they lose stackhouse to a groin strain for a game and a half, and devean george to a bone bruise in his leg (8 games). they get beat in one game on a buzzer beating putback, then 3 games later they have a 3 point lead and the ball with 1.5 seconds to go...and rasheed wallace gets a steal and hits a 65 footer to send the game to overtime, where dallas loses again.

now a playoff spot is in jeopardy as a roadtrip that could have easily been 4-1 turns into 2-3.
iverson has a bursa sack drained from his throbbing elbow that he's smashed on the court too many times.
and avery johnson needs to miss a game to attend his son's surgery for cancer, which is yet another distraction. however del harris fills in nicely and coaches the team to a win over a team they're fighting for position in the playoffs with.

now everyone's healthy (except george, who's still recovering from the bone bruise, and iverson with the pain in his elbow that he's playing through) and they start establishing some chemistry. the ball and player movement that was only visible for 1 quarter can now be seen for 3+, when they're playing quality opponents the defensive energy is there (against lesser teams they still take plays off). avery johnson's established a consistent set of rotations for his players. diop's emerged as a consistent 15/8 threat, stackhouse is healthy, dirk's regained the mojo he had in the first 20 games of the season, howard's still struggling but seems to have found a nice role on the team where he's expending more energy defensively (because dallas doesn't need as many points out of him anymore), they're getting greg buckner to step up and hit 3's at a high rate for them, and allen iverson's become the aggressive player everyone wanted to see in denver....where he's playing largely team ball, and then picking his spots to take over games in the 4th quarter.

dallas has solidified their playoff berth as a 6th seed, and have won 6 games in a row and 12 of 17 (keep in mind a ridiculously tough schedule)....including wins over phoenix, san antonio, the lakers, clippers (had won 7 of 8) & cavaliers.

what should have been the expections of the above dallas team during the regular season?
what are the expectations going into the playoffs?
where should the team rank in comparison to the others in the league?

----

as a disclaimer:
this isn't meant to say that melo = dirk, and howard = jr, and dampier = kmart. clearly every player is different and has their strengths and weaknesses. this is more of an essay about how injuries, suspensions and trades can affect every team.
and please don't make a comment about "dirk wouldn't have punched the guy...etc" because nobody knows, and certainly nobody thought melo would do what he did. it happens.

----

to bring this back around to denver, and summarize...
-kenyon martin needed a second microfracture surgery and will miss all but 2 games this season.
-nene's missed 17 games with swelling in his knee, and he was limited to under 20mpg until february 1st.
-jr smith's missed 20 games with the suspension & knee surgery.
-carmelo's missed 16 games with the suspension & his child's birth.
-camby's missed 10 games with a broken hand a groin strain.
-najera's essentially missed 9 games with a bone bruise.
-iverson's missed 8 games with an ankle sprain.
-dre miller & joe smith were traded for iverson in a very strange time.
-boykins was traded for steve blake in an equally strange time.
-george karl's son has had cancer surgery, causing george to be distracted nearly all season.

all of that happened in under a 5 month span.
and people joke about this team because they have iverson & melo and it hasn't worked out perfectly yet.

http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=647297&start=0

 

[Al_Bundy]

Iverson and Melo are going to lead your team down the yellow brick road with Dorothy and Toto and you'll beat the Spurs or Suns and proceed to go 16-0 taking the title and we'll all dance to the song from the lion king.

 

[driver 8]

'dirk nowitzki punches the player that intitially tackled howard'

forgot to mention how 'nowitzki' ran away like a little girl after throwing that punch/slap

 

[Inferno]

'dirk nowitzki punches the player that intitially tackled howard'

forgot to mention how 'nowitzki' ran away like a little girl after throwing that punch/slap

You also forgot to mention that the guy he was punching/slapping had a back turned.