kingofkings

If anyone needs to be commended it is this man. He had to pick up the pieces of the abortion that Dan Issel created and rebuilt the Nuggets in a single swoop. Let us break down his agenda.

1) Got rid of overpaid guys that he could not win with anyway. Hey, why have guys taking up huge spots on your roster, when the team is struggling?? Why not rebuild again and dump some salaries. So by trading LaFrentz, Van Exel, Abdul Wahad, etc for Howard, whose mammoth contract frees up over 20 million in cap space at the end of the year was a great move.For this reason, Howard is probably the most valuable trade commodity in the league right now.

LaFrentz would have commanded a huge salary and Van Exel, was rumoured to be a cancer and would never accept rebuilding. So now, the Nuggets have rid themselves of overpaid players and have chance at maybe securing the key free agents coming out next year, with cap space to sign them.

2) Got a coach that is getting his guys to play hard and strong every night. How the hell has this team won 5 games with a starting lineup of Blount, Bowen, Posey, Whitney, etc. It shows, that you might not have the best talent out there, but if you scrap hard and play your guts out, you can bring the opposing team down to your level.

There are many teams out there not playing hard enough, like the Nuggets are. I know, as I get most of the Nuggets games on TV. This team hustles, scraps and slows the tempo of the game down, in order to get an advantage. The players have bought into the coaches system and for that Kiki needs to be commended, for this particular hiring.

3) Traded McDyess, a guy coming off a serious knee injury for a lottery pick. Who knows, Mcdyess might be finished after the same knee gave way again, finishing off his season. They took the most explosive player in the draft, in Hilario. This guy could develop into a defensive monster, given the right coaching and development.

They took the best potential big man available at the number 7 spot.Look, if they could not win with McDyess, why not draft and develop a player, that could be as good, if not better then him in the future.McDyess had said that he was going to opt out of his contract at the end of the year, so the Nuggets played ball and received a lottery pick for him and Marcus Camby. Great trade for the future of the franchise.

4) The only problem I have is that I am not sure about Skita. This guy is clueless at the present time. That is to be expected. I just hope that he was not drafted on the expectation that he would be a Dirk Nowitzki type of player.

Draft mistakes are made, when guys are drafted and the team expects to mold them into a player that they are not. That is what concerns me, to a degree.

Just because he is 7 foot and can presumably shoot the lights out in drills, really to me means nothing. Dirk is a special player and expecting Skita to blossom into this kind of player, is just getting caught up in the fad of the long, fast, shooting big man, needed to bust up zone defenses.

But, given the right coaching and development, maybe he can develop into a great player. But at the moment, he seems scared and will not drive to the hole and appears afraid of contact. He is spotting up all the time and just wants to shoot jumpshots. He needs to get more aggressive and just get the ball and take off to the hole and cop the contact and draw some fouls. This will build up his confidence and get him used to the NBA faster.

5) Kiki has built up respect for the Nuggets.They are no longer laughing stocks, like they were with Dan Issel. Issel had control of both the team, through coaching and also GM duties. Bad move. The team is now refreshed and has a new direction. Maybe with the cap room that they have, they can steal a Andre Miller, Maggette, Odom, type of player, in next years frenzy. This is a new Nuggets team and they have a young core of players that can develop into superstars in the future.

6) They could have drafted with the #5 pick, Wagner or Stoudemire. They need more scoring from the guard position, so why did they not draft Wagner?? Maybe they saw that Skita had a better upside and could cause greater matchup problems with his height and length. Anyway, if Skita is a bust, the 20 plus points per game that Wagner is putting up,will hurt real bad.

Can you imagine a Stoudemire and Hilario front line??They could have had Nene at the 5 and Amare at the 4, giving a future explosive frontline, that would finish and crash the life out of the boards. Maybe the Nuggets saw these two guys as being the same player, I don't know. But once again, if Skita turns out to develop longer then expected, the opportunity cost is seeing guys like Butler, Amare and Wagner developing into superstars.

But with great risk comes great reward.Would other teams have had two great defenders in their frontcourt, to counter both Nene and Amare, in the future. These guys would cause defenses trouble and make them give up alot of fouls.

If you have taken the time out to read down this far, the Nuggets to me, seem refreshed, young and enthusiastic. A vast difference to a year ago, with Dan Issel and Co. You can thank one person for this. Kiki....

tenkev

I concur

JGKoblenz

Great post as usual!

Ok, I like what Kiki is doing for the franchise. As said before now the Nuggets has a future.

About the rookies I have to say that Nene is surprising me. I didn't expect him playing well so early in the season. The main factor was his body, he really developed physically during the summer time. When I watched him playing in Brazil the best quality was that he is faster than almost everyone. I think that he had lucky when NY traded him to Denver.

I can't say much about Skita. We will have to wait at least an year to form an opinion.

If Kiki can pull out some good free agents next year this can be one of the best rebuilding process in the league.

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