In Denver, Patience Is Paying Off for the Nuggets
By ANDREW MASON
Published: January 17, 2012
DENVER — There are traditional, tried-and-true methods of rebuilding a team. There is the draft-and-wait philosophy, which has the Oklahoma City Thunder poised for a long stay among the N.B.A.’s elite. There is the future-is-now credo that propelled the Boston Celtics from a 15-year rut without a 50-victory season to 234 wins over the last four years, two finals appearances and a title.
Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari, acquired from the Knicks in a trade last year, “is a better passer than I thought he was,” Coach George Karl said.
Then there is the way the Denver Nuggets rebuilt. A season ago, the Nuggets waited as one rumor after another regarding the perennial All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony was floated into public discussion. All the while, their fans fretted and fidgeted, only too eager to share their fear that an inability to trade Anthony would send them into the same abyss the Cleveland Cavaliers found themselves after LeBron James left for Miami.
That the Nuggets are 9-5 offers early evidence that their patience is already reaping dividends. So, too, is the development of Danilo Gallinari, the 6-foot-10 forward whom the Nuggets insisted on acquiring from the Knicks in a 13-player, four-draft-pick, three-team deal that also involved the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Chemistry and cohesion are already evident.
“We have a group of unselfish players,” said guard Arron Afflalo, one of three current starters who was with the team before the trade. “That alone will allow you to have some type of camaraderie. The group that had been here was here for about four or five years. From that standpoint, there was an awareness of who you were on the court with. But from a selfish mentality to the willingness to grow and learn together, this group is very good.”
Eleven months after the exchange, the Nuggets can breathe easier. Their regular-season record since making the trade is 27-12; in the 2010-11 season before the trade, it was 32-25. Five Nuggets are averaging double digits in points, led by Gallinari’s 16.8, for the league’s second-highest-scoring team this season.
The Nuggets emerged from the loss of a star with a passing-intensive team that has the team exactly where it was for most of its seven-plus seasons with Anthony: as a playoff contender for a midrange seed in the Western Conference.
Yet the path to this point is one the Nuggets’ coach, George Karl, would not want to repeat.
“I would recommend highly that organizations don’t go through it,” Karl said. “The wear and tear on us — it’s just negative energy, and we all know what negative energy does. Not only was there negative energy, we had to talk about it. Now, I chose to talk about it; some people might choose not to talk about it, but I used it as a kind of therapy to deal with something wild and crazy.”
A hint of the craziness will return to the Nuggets on Saturday, when they face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden for the first time since the trade. In addition to Gallinari, the Nuggets still have centers Kosta Koufos and Timofey Mozgov remaining from the trade; guard Raymond Felton was dealt to Portland during the N.B.A. draft last June, and forward Wilson Chandler signed with the Chinese team Zhejiang Guangsha during the lockout.
Mozgov and Koufos provide a supplemental physical presence to Denver’s leading rebounder, Nene, but neither is averaging more than 17 minutes a game. That leaves Gallinari, who has been an ideal fit for Denver’s wide-open, flowing, pass-intensive style, which was supplemented by a December trade with the Dallas Mavericks for guard Rudy Fernandez and forward Corey Brewer.
“I think the biggest surprise is that Gallo is a better passer than I thought he was and Fernandez is a better passer than we thought he was,” Karl said. “We got a little lucky, too; we thought Gallo could be more of a playmaker this year, but he’s moved very quickly into becoming a very good decision-maker.”
With Ty Lawson, a three-year veteran, maturing as the starting point guard, the Nuggets are averaging a league-leading 24.2 assists, passing with a crispness and flow that evokes images of the European soccer juggernaut Barcelona more than a typical N.B.A. team.
“Everybody can really pass,” Brewer said.
Yet the team still grapples with inconsistency, as it did in a 92-89 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on New Year’s Eve. No player illustrated this more than Gallinari, who had his worst shooting performance of the season, scoring a season-low 7 points and shooting a season-worst 25 percent from the field, including missing a wide-open layup that would have tied the score with three seconds left. Twenty-six hours later in a rematch with the Lakers in Denver, Gallinari led the Nuggets with 20 points in a 99-90 win.
“The consistency in his last five games is something that doesn’t come with young players,” Karl said last week. “It’s only an 11-game package, so the contract’s not guaranteed yet, but I think we’re all happy with how he rebounded from the L.A. game and he’s come out focused and more responsible. He’s a fun player to watch because he does so many things well.”
So does the team so far, but Karl, the leader among active N.B.A. coaches in career victories, is not ready to pronounce the Nuggets a contender yet.
“I’m very happy, but I’m not convinced,” he said. “There are certain habits in the N.B.A. that as the season goes along, seem to dwindle. Spacing is one of those things. Making the extra pass, bringing the extra effort and energy, consistency. I think those are personality traits of really good basketball teams. We’ve had that in our personality, but I’m going to challenge them to make sure they keep it before I sign that contract.”
1/18/2012 2:41 PM LAST EDITED: 1/18/2012 2:43 PM
