Denver Nuggets: Still Not Championship Caliber

Through the first two weeks of the NBA season, I was riding high. The Nuggets were off to their best start since the run-and-gun squad of ‘85. Carmelo Anthony was establishing himself as a serious MVP threat. Heck, J.R. Smith hadn’t even made his first appearance yet and the Nuggets were still lighting up their opponents for more than 100 points every night.

Life was good.

But all good things must come to an end. After winning the first three games of the season, the Nuggets headed out on a six game east coast road swing that started off on a positive note with convincing victories against the Indiana Pacers and the New Jersey Nets.

Even sitting at 5-0, however, the Nuggets were clearly demonstrating signs of a team with a glaring weakness. During the course of these first five games, the Nuggets were outrebounded 214-211, and their lack of defensive awareness was being exposed on a nightly basis.

Faults like these are easily glossed over when a team jumps out to an undefeated start, but I predicted that these deficiencies would eventually come back to bite the Nuggets.

Looks like I was right.

The Nuggets suffered back-to-back losses to the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks, neither of which really felt like very competitive games. In consecutive defeats, the Nuggets were outrebounded 85-70, and played lazy and uninspired basketball in the process.

I do cut them some slack on these two losses because they were largely without one of the key members of their frontcourt in Kenyon Martin, who was injured in the second quarter of the Miami game and didn’t return.

On Tuesday, the Nuggets went into Chicago and grinded out an ugly 90-89 win against the Bulls. With this victory, I was once again reassured as to the state of the team. I felt confident that with Kenyon Martin playing strongly through his injury and J.R. Smith back in the lineup, we would head into Milwaukee and dismantle the Bucks.

I was wrong.

That game in Milwaukee was one that champions would win...the second game of a back-to-back, against a young, physical, but over-matched team. Instead, the Nuggets were embarrassed and outplayed in nearly every facet of the game. And once again, they were outrebounded 46-37.

There can be no excuses made for that loss. They played uninspired basketball the entire game (except Aaron Afflalo who was all over the court), and the floor leadership that elevated them to the Western Conference Finals last year was completely devoid. I’m looking at you, Chauncey.

It's early in the season, and the Milwaukee loss did come on the final game of an extended east coast road trip. However, that performance was a far cry from the display of a champion. 

It just feels like the Nuggets are still one player away from truly being a contender. They needed a defensive spark from someone off the bench last night, and that player just wasn’t there.

They needed someone who could come in, bully the young Bucks around, do all the unglamorous dirty work, and inspire the rest of the bigs out of their complacency. 

They needed someone to put a body on their man, grab 15 rebounds off the bench, and defend the pick-and-roll with some purpose.

They needed that player, but he's not on their roster. Until they find this someone, I just don’t think they have the makeup of a champion.

The Nuggets will be good. They will win 50 games and their division. They will get past the first round of the playoffs again and may even make it back to the Western Conference Finals.

But unless they address the elephant in the room, or should I say the lack of one on their roster, there will be too many games like the one in Milwaukee. And they will never make it any further than they did last year.