You’ve probably heard by now that the Denver Nuggets, they of the 12th place record in the Western Conference, opted to rest three starters for their game against the Memphis Grizzlies Monday night. Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried all were in street clothes as the Nuggets lost 92-81.
Losing the game was, of course, the point of the entire exercise, but it was still a weird situation that raised a lot of eyebrows. The San Antonio Spurs may have made “DNP – Rest” fashionable, or at least a thing, but they’re a veteran team preparing for the playoffs. The Nuggets are heading for another early vacation–only they suddenly aren’t acting like a team seeing out the season, and interim head coach Melvin Hunt isn’t taking a page out of Gregg Popovich’s book. Via Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post:
Hunt isn’t making the decision to sit players. He’s just having to coach through it and then talk about it. And the players, banged up like most other players in the NBA this late in a season, aren’t sitting themselves down.
Asked what he thought about sitting, Faried said “no comment.”
Courtesy of USA Today: Denver’s front office, led by owner Josh Kroenke, is a joke.
If lottery positioning is so important to Denver’s front office, why did the team replace head coach Brian Shaw in the first place? Prior to Monday night’s loss, the Nuggets had won four straight and six of eight under Hunt—a stretch that now sees the team sitting eighth from the bottom of the standings. Depending on which expert you ask, this year’s draft class drops off after the sixth or seventh pick, meaning the Nuggets are playing themselves into trouble.
The big question, beyond the ethics of the decision to rest healthy players, is what exactly is Denver’s plan? Since allowing Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri to leave for Toronto and not renewing Coach of the Year George Karl’s contract in 2013, the Nuggets have been a mess. Their most recent debacle had them trading a useful first-round pick to Philadelphia on deadline day so they could rid themselves of the not-exactly-crippling contract of center Javale McGee. That kind of financial shortsightedness has been a staple of the Kroenke sports empire, and it isn’t helpful for a rebuilding franchise.
The Nuggets have no coach, no franchise player and no direction. Owner Josh Kroenke and general manager Tim Connelly need an idea, and they need it fast.
Until then, this franchise will remain a joke.
Photo: USA Today