Season Preview For The Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets were one of the surprising teams of the NBA last season. Things started to finally mesh for them.
Denver finished the regular season 1st in the Northwest division at 54-28. Denver was an excellent home team, 33-8, but an average road team at only 21-20. Denver was a top 6 team in scoring averaging with 104 points per game.
The Nuggets look to improve on this upcoming season and make it to the finals. They didn’t have any real changes during the off-season, but their core is all healthy and will continue to improve with time.
Coach George Karl and the rest of the team had other plans though. The acquisition of Chauncey Billups proved invaluable to the team. Billups’ leadership, efficiency on the court, playoff experience, and his ability to serve as a natural point guard – a position the team had sorely been lacking ever since the departure of Andre Miller a few seasons prior – all gave the team a major boost in places that the Nuggets had been lagging before he joined the team.
Billups is also a great on court leader who knows how to play in big games. In 77 games with Denver Billups averaged 17 points per game, 6 assists and 91% at the free throw line. At 32 years old at the time, Billups seemed to hit the prime of his career.
Carmelo Anthony emerged as a defensive player as well because of Billups. Anthony could possibly be the best pure scorer in the entire NBA – that includes Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. Everyone knew ‘Melo could score but his improvement on defense was most impressive.
One who provided much “entertainment” for the Denver Nuggets was Chris “The Birdman” Andersen off the bench. The Birdman has become one of the best shot blockers averaging nearly 3 blocks per game. Look for him to have another great defensive season.
The Denver Nuggets have the same core of players that had last season and it wasn’t enough to beat the Lakers, maybe Denver can add one more piece to their team to give them a better chance this season.
For more Nuggets talk, check out the Denver Nuggest forum at RootZoo Sports, the most exciting sports forum online.
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