duncan228
05-19-2009, 12:06 AM
Vandeweghe's fingerprints still on Nuggets (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Vandeweghes_fingerprints_still_on_Nuggets.html)
Mike Monroe
Kiki Vandeweghe was lost in a maze of street closures in Manhattan on Monday morning.
The entrance to the Midtown Tunnel to Queens was visible, but unreachable. Each time the Nets general manager thought he'd found a passageway, he had to circle back and start over.
It was an apt analogy for Vandeweghe's days as GM of the Nuggets, when it seemed each good move he made brought him face-to-face with setback until, after a playoff elimination by the Clippers in 2006, he was denied a contract extension by owner Stan Kroenke.
The Nuggets open the Western Conference finals against the Lakers tonight, the darlings of contrarians everywhere who believe they have what it takes to prevent a Kobe vs. LeBron Finals.
Vandeweghe is a realist, not a contrarian. He understands the Nuggets will have to play nearly perfect to have a shot at upsetting the Lakers.
He is a sentimentalist, too, so Vandeweghe makes no attempt to hide his Nuggets bias.
Heck, he picked the colors the Nuggets now wear. A big chunk of his basketball heart and soul is still colored powder blue and gold.
A big chunk of the Nuggets' player rotation in the playoffs still has Vandeweghe's stamp, too. He drafted Carmelo Anthony and Nenê and traded for Kenyon Martin. He gave the undrafted Chris Andersen his start in the league.
Mark Warkentien, who replaced Vandeweghe as Nuggets GM, earned this season's Executive of the Year for engineering the Allen Iverson-for-Chauncey Billups trade. But the frontline consists entirely of players Vandeweghe brought to Denver.
Make no mistake: If the Nuggets have a chance to beat the Lakers, it is because they have an athletic, physical frontline capable of negating the advantage the Lakers enjoyed in the first two rounds.
“I'm very proud of what the guys are doing,” he said. “I think they're a very physical, tough frontline that is extremely competitive and truly one of the best in the NBA.”
Vandeweghe, a great teacher of big-man skills, spent a lot of time with Anthony after he drafted him.
He helped hone his offensive array and preached about the demeanor required when you are your team's go-to guy from your first game.
“You think back to the nights you sat in the gym with Carmelo and struggled with him, back and forth,” he said. “There are a lot of very personal memories.”
The last time the Nuggets made it to the Western Conference finals, it was because they had traded Vandeweghe to Portland for Calvin Natt, Fat Lever and Wayne Cooper, the tough defenders they needed to win in the playoffs.
This time, they are Western finalists in no small measure because Vandeweghe saw the same sort of defensive potential in Martin and Nenê that Natt and Lever brought to Denver in 1984.
Mike Monroe
Kiki Vandeweghe was lost in a maze of street closures in Manhattan on Monday morning.
The entrance to the Midtown Tunnel to Queens was visible, but unreachable. Each time the Nets general manager thought he'd found a passageway, he had to circle back and start over.
It was an apt analogy for Vandeweghe's days as GM of the Nuggets, when it seemed each good move he made brought him face-to-face with setback until, after a playoff elimination by the Clippers in 2006, he was denied a contract extension by owner Stan Kroenke.
The Nuggets open the Western Conference finals against the Lakers tonight, the darlings of contrarians everywhere who believe they have what it takes to prevent a Kobe vs. LeBron Finals.
Vandeweghe is a realist, not a contrarian. He understands the Nuggets will have to play nearly perfect to have a shot at upsetting the Lakers.
He is a sentimentalist, too, so Vandeweghe makes no attempt to hide his Nuggets bias.
Heck, he picked the colors the Nuggets now wear. A big chunk of his basketball heart and soul is still colored powder blue and gold.
A big chunk of the Nuggets' player rotation in the playoffs still has Vandeweghe's stamp, too. He drafted Carmelo Anthony and Nenê and traded for Kenyon Martin. He gave the undrafted Chris Andersen his start in the league.
Mark Warkentien, who replaced Vandeweghe as Nuggets GM, earned this season's Executive of the Year for engineering the Allen Iverson-for-Chauncey Billups trade. But the frontline consists entirely of players Vandeweghe brought to Denver.
Make no mistake: If the Nuggets have a chance to beat the Lakers, it is because they have an athletic, physical frontline capable of negating the advantage the Lakers enjoyed in the first two rounds.
“I'm very proud of what the guys are doing,” he said. “I think they're a very physical, tough frontline that is extremely competitive and truly one of the best in the NBA.”
Vandeweghe, a great teacher of big-man skills, spent a lot of time with Anthony after he drafted him.
He helped hone his offensive array and preached about the demeanor required when you are your team's go-to guy from your first game.
“You think back to the nights you sat in the gym with Carmelo and struggled with him, back and forth,” he said. “There are a lot of very personal memories.”
The last time the Nuggets made it to the Western Conference finals, it was because they had traded Vandeweghe to Portland for Calvin Natt, Fat Lever and Wayne Cooper, the tough defenders they needed to win in the playoffs.
This time, they are Western finalists in no small measure because Vandeweghe saw the same sort of defensive potential in Martin and Nenê that Natt and Lever brought to Denver in 1984.