Denver Nuggets: New Forward Wilson Chandler Gives Fans Lots To Love

Unless you're living under a rock, you know the Nuggets were forced to make a trade, and the players they got in return from the Knicks were relative unknowns to fans in the Mile High City.

But all Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton and Danilo Gallinari have done is impressed Nuggets fans with their high-effort, team-oriented basketball, leading the Nuggets to an 8-2 record post-trade on February 22.

Denver, meet your next favorite Nugget: Wilson Chandler.

At 6'8” 230 pounds, Chandler possesses the prototypical size to play small forward in the NBA.

And what's really astounding is Chandler's all-around play; from his shooting and driving, to passing and rebounding, Chandler has been impressive—he even plays defense.

On Monday night, as the Nuggets won again in blowout fashion 114-103 over the New Orleans Hornets, all of Chandler's skills were on display.

Early in the contest, Chandler's play was marked by tough, physical defense and he ran the court with speed.

On three separate occasions in the first half, Chandler ran the break smoothly, silkily assisting big men for dunked buckets twice, once running and gliding to the hoop himself.

And Chandler did almost all his damage on the boards in the first half, soaring through the air to snag six rebounds before the break.

But after the break, Chandler was flat-out on fire from the field.

Chandler's hot hand knocked down three three-pointers in a row, before hitting a step-back, mid-range jumper and finishing off the quarter strong with a deep three from behind the arc that ripped the cords of the Nuggets' hoop. In the third quarter alone, Chandler was unconscious as he rang up 14 points on 5-6 shooting, including 4-4 from downtown.

Even his misspelled jersey (which read “Chanlder”) couldn't slow Chandler down tonight; he was in the zone.

In the game, Chandler stacked up 21 total points, his most as a Nugget, while grabbing seven rebounds and assisting two. And on defense, he was able to frustrate Trevor Ariza to the point of taking him out of the game (10 points, two rebounds).

For a third-year player, whose scoring was on fire for the first time with his new team, the only thing Chandler could talk about in the post-game interview was defense—an encouraging attribute that could eventually make him the best baller in Denver.

“We let them back in the game, but we played tough defense all night. It was a team game...” Chandler said. “Besides our turnovers and the quick start they had, we held them to 17 points (in the first quarter) and it came from our defense.”

Through his nine games as a Nugget, Chandler has averaged 14.2 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 44.1 percent from behind the arc as he continues to improve his overall game from year to year.

Simply stated, Wilson Chandler is a microcosm of the new-look Denver Nuggets: he's selfless, team-oriented and hard-working on both ends of the court.

He represents what these Nuggets are all about, and if fans are lucky, Chandler may even become Denver's newest star in the near future.

Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist actively seeking a career in journalism. Along with being the CSU Rams Examiner, Kurtzman is a Denver Nuggets and NBA Featured Columnist for bleacherreport.com, the Colorado/Utah Regional Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com and a weekly contributor to milehighhoops.com and a contributor to milehighreport.com.

Rich also heads up PR for K-Biz and Beezy, a Colorado-based rap group.

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