Billups and the Denver Nuggets

[concken]

I was watching sportscenter last night, and it hit me. The Denver Nuggets are 17-7 after beating the Dallas Mavericks for the second time this season.

Chauncey Billups is obviously making a huge impact on the team and it is arguable that he is outperforming A.I. by leading the Nuggets to the top seed in the northwest.

For the Spurs, it's always been a five or six game series, but an exciting and close one nonetheless. Will it be closer this year? How do the Nuggets fair with the rest of the western conference?

One love.

[sonic21]

if there's a spurs-nuggets series, it's already written we'll win 4-1 with the loss in the 1st game

no need to worry about them.

[usckk]

if there's a spurs-nuggets series, it's already written we'll win 4-1 with the loss in the 1st game

no need to worry about them.

LOL.

[Yuixafun]

Billups improves them, but come playoff time the Nuggets are who we thought they were..

Undisciplined prone to chaos and moody.

It will take at least another year for their losing habits to change. They still seem too rough around the edges and mentally unfocused.

Might go 6 this year in the first round if the Spurs and Nugs meet.

We know about our Big 3, but the new fellas need to be baptised and that will take a few games for them to acclimate.

[Anti.Hero]

Nuggets play the Rockets tonight.

[K-State Spur]

I don't think there's any doubt that they're better with Billups.

But I still think that if you lean on them a bit, they'll start giving possessions away on both ends of the floor by chucking up shots and having defensive breakdowns.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

I was watching sportscenter last night, and it hit me. The Denver Nuggets are 17-7 after beating the Dallas Mavericks for the second time this season.

Chauncey Billups is obviously making a huge impact on the team and it is arguable that he is outperforming A.I. by leading the Nuggets to the top seed in the northwest.

For the Spurs, it's always been a five or six game series, but an exciting and close one nonetheless. Will it be closer this year? How do the Nuggets fair with the rest of the western conference?

One love.

No, not arguable. The Pistons have gone 7-11 since the AI trade. Billups has transformed the Nuggets into a tough unit. That's pretty unarguable I think.

[Danny.Zhu]

Nuggets are much weaker than Lakers and Celtics. Those are the only two teams we should worry about.

[raspsa]

I think the Nuggets now have a more disciplined offense but the defense still suffers. Losing Camby will hurt them in this area. Billups is a definite improvement. I really think they need a new coach though. Karl doesn't seem to be a coach you can trust. When times are good he's fine but he doesn't really care about players like Pop.

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

why are people talking about the Nuggets defense being worse?!

do people seriously just listen to media 'experts' and not follow games or even check stats?

They are about 5th in the league in defensive efficiency. They are a MUCH BETTER defensive team without marcus 'leave my man so i can try and get a block for my stats' Camby.

Tonight the Nuggets have played horribly defensively in the 1st half but last year this was the norm for them. Last night they kept the Mavs to 35% shooting and thats not unusual for this seasons Nuggets

[mrspurs]

I was watching sportscenter last night, and it hit me. The Denver Nuggets are 17-7 after beating the Dallas Mavericks for the second time this season.

Chauncey Billups is obviously making a huge impact on the team and it is arguable that he is outperforming A.I. by leading the Nuggets to the top seed in the northwest.

For the Spurs, it's always been a five or six game series, but an exciting and close one nonetheless. Will it be closer this year? How do the Nuggets fair with the rest of the western conference?

One love.

That may be true. Billups has given the nuggets something they've been wanting for years. But it wont be Billups who causes the Nuggets to lose in the POs. It will be the small bigs they have in Nene and Martin. Those guys are just to small to scare anyone inside in the paint. And most of all they're the only top west team that Timmy will have no problems with double teams.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Nene is small... um, okay. :rolleyes He's listed at 6'11" 250, and that looks an understatement to me. Kenyon is only 6'9" 240, though I'd hardly call them undersized. There are plenty of teams with similar sized lineups, the SPURS for example - Timmah is 6'11" 260 (hard to believe he weighs more than Nene), and Bonner at 6'10" 240. In other words, they are almost identical in "size" terms.

Admittedly, the Lakers have a really big front line (Bynum 7' 280, Gasol 7' 250), but the Celtics' is about the same size as ours and Denver's (Garnett 6'11" 253, Perkins - 610" 280).

Overall, in today's NBA I don't think size matters nearly as much as quickness, agility and a high basketball IQ to absorb the complex defensive systems.

On a slight tangent, what will beat Denver in the playoffs has little to do with the size of their front line and everything to do with the lack of ability in the clutch of some of their players, although Chauncey will elevate the clutch level of the team as a whole. Denver might make the second round this year if things continue to fall into place. JR Smith, Linas Kleiza and the Birdman are very important - if they grow into a consistently productive bench, Denver will be dangerous. If the lightbulb finally goes off in JR Smith's brain they will be very dangerous - on the flipside, if he continues to make poor decisions the team probably goes nowhere. He seems to be playing better lately. We shall see.

[Rogue]

It's really a great move for the nuggets to take Billups from Detriot, even at the expense of Iverson. Iverson may be more capable and famous than Billups but billups seems more effient than AI, at least by now.

[Obstructed_View]

Time to order a rape kit for the Pistons. There seems to be some evidence that they were assaulted.

[Indazone]

I was watching sportscenter last night, and it hit me. The Denver Nuggets are 17-7 after beating the Dallas Mavericks for the second time this season.

Chauncey Billups is obviously making a huge impact on the team and it is arguable that he is outperforming A.I. by leading the Nuggets to the top seed in the northwest.

For the Spurs, it's always been a five or six game series, but an exciting and close one nonetheless. Will it be closer this year? How do the Nuggets fair with the rest of the western conference?

One love.

Make that 17-8 :lol

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I'd love to see the Nuggets go in and upset the Lakers in the first or second round. That would be a nice present from the folks in Mile High. I think SA matches up pretty well with Denver...we would win that series again, methinks.

[jag]

Billups improves them, but come playoff time the Nuggets are who we thought they were..

Undisciplined prone to chaos and moody.


I'm not ready to crown them, but...

if you wanna crown them, then crown their ass!

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