Why The Nuggets Are A Better Team

I give a ton of props to Billups, he has been great for the Nugs. However, I certainly don't think he deserves all the credit for the improved success of the team.

Here is how I would rank the reasons for the Nuggets improvement (almost in no particular order as they are all very substantial):

1) Nene's presence and performance

Nene is finally healthy and playing at a super high level. Both offensively and defensively he has made a huge difference for the team. He is a huge threat to opposing teams on the offensive end, averaging 15 points a game while shooting over 60 percent.

That is simply amazing.

And he has been playing very well on the defensive end. He D's up hard on opposing post players, and rebounds well. He may not have all the blocks Camby did (no offense to Camby but he was a bad post defender and got most his blocks from small guards and forwards driving into the lane) but his defensive presence towers over Camby's.

2) Coach George Carl finally deciding to give a sh*t and coach again.

In previous years you rarely saw him up off the bench or excited about anything. Now he is back to form the way he coached in Seattle.

3) Billups as floor general

Billups has done a great job of adding leadership and direction to this team. I believe he has made George Carl a better coach just by being a coach himself on the court. I will not go over this point much as you have done a fine job of pointing out the positive things he has done to improve this team.

4) Melo

Melo has done a great job ever since his rookie year of doing whatever he had to do for this team to be successful. It's funny how people forget how terrible the Nugs were before Melo showed up in Denver. He is a phenomenal talent.

I don't think Billups should get much glory for making Melo better as you say. I think if any player were to join the Nugs and change the team dynamic Melo would also change as he did in the past. And if there was any major outside influence as to is improvement on rebounding and defense I would say it was his Olympic experience vs. Billups mere presence.

Also, Melo and Billups are simply more compatible than Melo and Iverson were. I think it is quite evident now that Iverson is not very compatible to new situations and teams (even though many would say Iverson is better than Billups, this was addition by subtraction for the Nugs).

These are just the four major reasons why the Nugs are better this year. There are many other small ones that have also contributed to their success. JR Smith has continued to improve. Dante Jones has done a great job of slowing down opponents top scorers. Birdman has pretty much completely replaced Camby, getting a ton of blocks with much less playing time. Linus has stepped up in Melo's absence to prove he could be a starting forward for a lot of NBA teams. Balkman has provided very strong defense when called upon. And there are many other reasons I am failing to mention.