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Nuggets hire Dantley to help team with footwork (5-22-03).
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/gen...ageId=16923528


DENVER (AP) _ Adrian Dantley's the name, and footwork's the game.

The Denver Nuggets have hired Dantley to work with their inside players during off-season workouts this season.

``I'm trying to show them some things that I had success with, give them my little say on inside play, on post play,'' Dantley said Wednesday.

The six-time All-Star played for seven NBA teams from 1976 to 1991.

``I'm basically working with them on their footwork, how to get open, how to get a nice open shot, how to get a guy in foul trouble and how to get a guy in the air,'' Dantley said. ``It is all the same things I worked on in the summer.''

Dantley, 48, was a 6-foot-5 small forward who scored 23,177 points, won two scoring titles, averaged 30-plus points a game for four consecutive seasons and produced a .540 shooting percentage.

``Just because you've played the game, it doesn't mean you know the footwork or the ways to get open. I think because of my size and the success I had, I had to have a lot of footwork, pump fakes, head fakes and so forth,'' he said.

He will be showing new moves to Nuggets players such as Nene Hilario, Donnell Harvey, Marcus Camby, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Chris Andersen, Vincent Yarbrough and Ryan Bowen.

Dantley said new moves are a prerequisite to playing in the NBA, where teams have players pegged with scouting reports.

He used Harvey as an example.

``I already know which way Harvey is going to go and where he won't go,'' Dantley said. ``Hey, if he gets a little move going the other way, that's going to help his game. It's going to help the organization.''

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