Aspirations were high, optimism was certainly there and the talent on this roster lead many to believe that under the management of team owner Josh Kroenke and General Manager Masai Ujiri that the "sky was the limit" in terms of potential.
We begin the 2013 offseason looking head, and the road appears to be cloudy, murky...and uncertain. Recently, Ujiri was brought in for a interview with the Toronto Raptors, the club that first gave him his shot at working basketball operations. Ujiri came to Denver in 2010 after serving as assistant GM Toronto. After have been apart of the debacle of trading PF/C Chris Bosh to
Miami, he came into another "superstar" situation...Trade franchise savior Carmelo Anthony. With the drama that came along for the season, Ujiri played his poker face well, and didn't bluff when working with the New York Knicks. The Nuggets received Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, the Knicks 2014 first-round draft pick, the Warriors' 2012 second-round pick, the Warriors' 2013 second-round pick and $3 million in cash.
He also got swept up in the trade talks with the LA Lakers, 76'ers and Orlando Magic in which Denver was able to acquire perimeter defender and three pointer shooter Andre Igoudala.
The Nuggets managed to get younger and continued to be competitive. The team continued to grow under the coaching of Head Coach George Karl. Karl was unable to get many of the veterans to listen to him when he came in to coach the squad almost a decade ago now. But now having a young team and his resume as a winning coach, he got the team to buy in, playing "team basketball" and playing defense. This past season, the Nuggets finished near the top in defensive efficiency, fourth in steals per game, first in offensive and twelth in defensive rebounding, eighth in assist/turnover ratio with the second highest amount of possessions per game.
Things seem to be built for a contender, right?! Since 2004, Karl has only had this team advance out of the first round only once, in 2009-09 to the Western Conference Finals. So with the question is, with the talent of this team that seems to be sky high, yet consistently find themselves falling face flat, what next?!
With Masai Ujiri gone, mangement must find someone who will replace and continue the work that Ujiri has done to keep this team from "rebuilding". But what other changes can we see? Coaching change as well? Depends on what the next general manager has planned, and how Josh Kroenke plans to spend money. Josh is not like his father Stan, who was playing well over the luxury tax to get the Nuggets to the top, including in 2008-09. Younger Kroenke's plan is to keep the Nuggets under the max salary cap as much as possible and win under those restrictions. This can lead a team to "do more with less". But as a new G.M. comes in, he's going to want his own guy. Could King George be on his way out? Has this team hit its limit with him on the bench? Currently, Karl has one more season left on his contract, and coupled with uncertainty of a new G.M. and their plans, who knows what happens to Karl, and Kroenke made it be known as well. Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com reported this.
"Denver president Josh Kroenke gave Karl a vote of confidence after the season, telling the Denver Post that, 'George is under contract for next year. At this point in time, we haven't really given any thought to making any change whatsoever. As we do at the end of every season, we'll have internal meetings and George will obviously be a major part of them.'"Lets be real, Phil Jackson isn't walking through the office doors in Denver unless he had full control of the team, and that may not be enough as well to get someone of his stature in here. But as a segway to another regime, does Denver turn to another established coach to lead this young team? This is a Nuggets team that has talent but doesn't have that voice, that leadership to guide them. One report that has come out is that several teams have been in contact with coach Larry Brown about returning to the NBA. The Sixers and Nets have been in contact, but there is a third mystery team out there talking to him. Is it Denver? Could be. Management knows they have solid talent but they still haven't seen the team advance. Karl has been in Denver for almost 10 years now, sometimes a new voice is just what is needed to get teams going. Brown is a proven coach, his most recent coaching stint in the NBA was with the Charlotte Bobcats, who went 44-38 and made it to their only trip as a franchise to the postseason. Imagine what he can do with the third youngest team and a team that has playoff experience.
But would he fit well with Andre Igoudala? Lets not forget, he might opt out of his contract and command 18 million per season. Does Iggy show Denver some love and stick around, or does he give the Nuggets the "Iggy Shuffle" and try to find greener pastures. The 2013 pool of free agents is good, but not great. After Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Josh Smith and maybe a aging Manu Ginobili, it is filled with players that are solid role players or "as beens"at this point, no franchise players. So for the Nuggets, their number one, two and three priorities is to recruit, convince and keep Iggy in Denver.
Until we see what happens with the signing of a new G.M. and with Karl, everything maybe on hold for the Nuggets and as we get closer to next season, we might have a better idea of what is too come in the mile high city.
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