Mark Warkentien is on his way out of Denver after the Nuggets announced they are not interested in renewing the contract of their VP of Basketball Operations. With him will go Rex Chapman, the Nuggets’ VP of Player Personnel, whose contract has also expired.
Bear in mind, of course, that this would not have happened in 2009. The ot-nine Nuggets would have simply overwhelmed the Jazz with the same barrage of offensive firepower that defeated New Orleans & Dallas. But without the commanding influence of one George Matthew Karl manually balancing Denver’s speeding keel, they routinely fell out of rhythm on both ends of the court.
Denver had a unique opportunity to crush the Jazz in Game 2, and they let it slip away. Utah is beset by injuries, losing Andrei Kirilenko & Mehmet Okur over the last few weeks. Granted, Deron Williams & Carlos Boozer had outstanding games in Denver, but the Nuggets’ bench was absolutely useless on Monday night. If Denver’s B-Team can’t beat Utah’s C-Team, the Nuggets don’t deserve to move on in these playoffs.
The doctor charged with overseeing George Karl’s treatment for neck & throat cancer is optimistic about the NBA coach’s recovery. In fact, Karl may yet return for his Denver Nuggets’ playoff run.
This was just what the doctor ordered for the Nuggets’ hopes to win the Northwest Division. Three starters played less than 29:00 minutes (Nene, Billups, Martin), so everyone should have plenty of energy to run with the Suns tomorrow. A win Tuesday night in Phoenix clenches the 3 seed.
Wednesday night’s game against Oklahoma City will be Brian Butch’s first test in the big leagues, and may go far in foretelling the Nuggets’ playoff future.
This entire game was still on the line even with the Nuggets down by 8 in the fourth. And then 1 moment’s lack of focus by J.R. Smith and Jason Kidd steps in with a steal and Dallas takes an 8-point lead to 16 in 2 minutes. One play in the middle of the fourth quarter and a possible win becomes a 20ish point loss. That’s how close this was.
Unexpected as it may be, Anthony Carter is enjoying a sort of Renaissance… the sort of Renaissance a career backup has when his team really, really needs him
The Nuggets will be offering a contract to free agent power forward Brian Cook, according to Travis Heath at Hoopsworld.
Amazingly, Karl says he will try to make it back to the Nuggets’ bench for Friday’s game at New Orleans. Radiation treatments to this point have had minor side-effects, but today’s surgery immediately followed by tomorrows Chemotherapy will likely have a more profound effect.
