Denver Nuggets 2013-14 season preview
By Josh Sanchez
The following post was contributed to FanSided.com from Hayden Kane, editor of Mile High Maniac, your source for all things Denver sports on the FanSided Network.
The Denver Nuggets are a difficult team to figure out. They are coming off of a season in which they entered the Western Conference playoffs as a #3 seed and had aspirations of debunking the notion that NBA teams cannot win without a superstar. We are less than six months removed from that and you could argue that the Nuggets are starting over. That is hard to believe. It also makes them an interesting team to project when you looked ahead to the 2013-2014 season.
Key Departures: Andre Iguodala, George Karl, Masai Ujiri (GM)
These three names are linked in a number of ways. Ujiri built a deep and athletic roster that suited Karl’s desire to run and score a lot of points in transition. Karl, in turn, crafted an offensive scheme that maximized that roster. Finally, Iguodala was acquired via trade as the ideal player for that very system. It wasn’t necessarily a domino effect, but it is still fitting that all three of these guys are gone as the Nuggets discard the George Karl era.
Key Arrivals: Randy Foye, Nate Robinson, Brian Shaw, Tim Connelly (GM)
Shaw and Connelly are the new coach and general manager combination. There is a lot to like about Shaw and the resume he brings after serving as an assistant coach for a number of years with the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers. In the long run the Nuggets are banking on his ability to coach defense to turn them into a team that can make a deep playoff run. Connelly follows a wildly successful general manager in Ujiri, but will likely be given some wiggle room in the early going due to the shift in philosophy under the new head coach.
As for Robinson and Foye, the Nuggets sorely lacked a scoring punch at times last season. They also never had a true three-point shooting threat (Corey Brewer, who also left, was a deceptively inefficient outside shooter). Especially with the Nuggets missing Danilo Gallinari to start the season, they will need Foye and Robinson to make shots right away.