George Karl on new Nuggets roster: “deepest team I’ve had here”
By Benjamin Hochman
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Share Everyone – from Josh Kroenke to George Karl, from me to you – is curious about how this new-look Nuggets team is going to, well, look.
“There’s no question,” coach Karl said at today’s shootaround, “that the next 5-10-15 games we will have as much of a surprise – we won’t know how it’ll all work, but (the opposing teams) won’t know how it will work either. Sometimes that works to your advantage.”
The Nuggets host the Celtics tonight in an 8:30 p.m. TNT game. Karl said he hadn’t made a decision about the starting lineup, but hinted that he’s leaning toward starting Danilo Gallinari at small forward, instead of J.R. Smith, the shooting guard who started there in Tuesday’s game (the game played without any players involved in Monday’s big trade).
“We are trying all defensive sets, offensive and defensive concepts,” said Gallinari, who averaged 15.9 points per game with New York this season. “Especially on offense, we run the same concepts we ran in New York. The transition has been pretty easy. … We have a pretty good team with a lot of talent and a lot of guys who know how to play basketball. That makes things a lot easier.”
No, the Nuggets no longer have a superstar – quick, name (in your opinion) the Nuggets’ best player? (Tough to do, right?) But the Nuggets do have a deep team of pretty good players. In fact, Karl admitted, “I think it’s the deepest team I’ve ever had here. I have 12 guys who can play basketball, maybe 14. that’s usually too many, but that’s a nice problem to have.
“It will be interesting how I do the rotation. I’ve got to stay grounded and loyal to the guys who have been here, until (the new guys) feel a comfort zone to play. But a lot of possessions out there are just play hard, play the right way. And we like to play fast, and they know how to because (coach Mike) D’Antoni plays a similar system.”
Karl was asked about his passion for coaching – and how it can splash onto this new team of youngsters. He expressed excitement about new intangibles with the Nuggets:
“There are four things that are as good as it’s ever been: We’re bigger than we’ve ever been, we’re younger than we’ve ever been. It’s the best team in my mind, now this hasn’t been proven yet, but I feel it will be the best running team we’ve ever had. We’ve run with kind of non running players. We’re going to be a better running team. And from what I see, it’s going to be the best passing team. So those things to me, excite the hell out of coaching. Talented players excite the hell out of you. But the things that make a team work, we’ve added some of those pieces that we’ve never had here. We will continue to shoot the ball as well as we shoot it. You’re run, you’re big, you run and you pass. I think (the front office) has done an incredible job. The personality of how we play is now much better than I think it was before.”
OK, George – what about the new Nuggets’ defense? How does it compare to the old Nuggets’ D?
“Come on,” Karl said. “Everybody knows we’re going to be better defensively. We couldn’t get worse. We’re bigger, faster and maybe young, more committed maybe even.
“Commitment, that’s got to be proven. I think the commitment of playing hard and playing with intensity, I think that will be out there too. It has to be the priority. We don’t have time to teach 35 different actions or trick plays we have. We’re going to put a priority on end of game situations, because Chauncey and Melo were so dominant in that area. If we play the right way, that means what a third of the games will be close games, maybe half. As I’ve said 100 times, you still win most of those games with stops, more than shots.”
2/24/2011 2:36 PM