DENVER (AP) -George Karl and his staff are going back to their roots by both design and necessity.
Preaching defense when the Denver Nuggets gathered for training camp, Karl didn’t even run an offensive set for the first few practices.
He had little choice but to go back to the foundation of his teaching philosophies after management let Eduardo Najera and Marcus Camby leave in the offseason, stripping the Nuggets of their top two defenders.
Renaldo Balkman and Chris Anderson, two high-energy players, arrived over the summer to help shift Denver’s focus toward defense when the Nuggets begin the season Wednesday night in Utah.
“We as a coaching staff feel that there’s a lot of differences to this team, but there’s a challenge to take the differences and make it better,” Karl said. “And after kind of a unique summer of rebuilding the psyche and sprit of our team, I think we’re in a very good place.
o get his team past the first round of the playoffs since his arrival midway through the 2004-05 season.
Denver’s never been known for its ‘D’, but that’s what Karl is counting on to make the Nuggets competitive in the ever-improving West.
He spent the last two years trying to match the Phoenix Suns’ up-tempo style, and while that made for an exciting product, it didn’t get them past the first round of the playoffs.
To change the team’s culture, Karl is counting on a slew of new high-energy young players and a renewed commitment from his veterans, beginning with Carmelo Anthony, whom he trusts will bring with him the lessons he learned from the U.S. Olympic team that rode tenacious defense to the gold medal in Beijing.
Anthony is promising to put his offensive game on the back burner to help the Nuggets transform themselves into a team like the Spurs or Celtics, whose team defense has led to championships.
“I know I can score with the best of ’em,” Anthony said. “But that’s really not an issue for us right now. We’ve got to stop people.”
And Anthony said all the stopping starts with him.
“You will see a different me,” he promised.
A leader. A stopper. A rebounder. Whatever it takes. Hustling back to the paint, funneling a player toward the help.
y soft defense.
“If I can stop five people out there on the court myself then I’d be the best to ever play this basketball game,” Anthony said. “There’s no ‘I’ in defense. The only thing I can concentrate on is my man and help the other four players on my team. I know I can play defense.”
He’s certain his teammates can, too.
After a fifth consecutive first-round flop in the playoffs, the Nuggets lost Najera to the New Jersey Nets in free agency and traded Camby, the league’s top shot-blocker and a former defensive player of the year, to the Los Angeles Clippers for basically nothing so they could get his remaining $29 million off their books.
“I know a lot of people are saying that our defense left when Marcus Camby left,” Anthony said. “That gives us motivation to go out there and prove to everybody that we are going to come together as a team and play defense.”
The Nuggets averaged 110 points last season, second most in the NBA, but they allowed 107, also second in the league, and the porous defense led to another first-round exit from the playoffs when the Los Angeles Lakers made them the first 50-win team to get swept in the postseason.
to Camby’s spot.
“There’s no question that Marcus’ presence is going to be missed, but I think Nene in a different way can be as good or better a basketball player than Marcus,” Karl said. “That’s his challenge and our challenge.”
Karl, an old-fashioned, defensive-minded coach who has spent his last decade in the NBA watching his teams in Milwaukee and Denver light up the scoreboard and more often than not fail to sprint back to the paint to deny baskets, said this team is faster, quicker and more athletic than any he’s coached in Denver.
Allen Iverson, known more for his ballhandling skills than his steals, said he’s willing to commit to playing better defense, too.
“I’ve been in this league going on my 13th year and I’ve been to the finals once. I would have thought I’d have been there five or six times by now and won a championship,” Iverson said. “So, obviously, the commitment is there from me to sacrifice my game, do whatever the team needs me to do.”
Karl isn’t expecting miracles, just movement.
“We don’t expect A.I. and ‘Melo to become stoppers or Defensive Team vote-getters,” Karl said. “But I would just want a commitment on transition defense (from everyone). … No one plays the defensive end of the court with perfection. But you can play the defensive end of the court perfect conceptually.”
Add A Comment