Denver Nuggets - The Next Level [Game 3 + 4]

I think the thing with jennings on this game is that he was a bit of a sleeper in the draft, at least an unexpectedly good player, and so he hardly improves throughout the game, same for ROY tyreke evans, when playing with jennings he can hardly make a 3 and plays nothing like himself in real life.

As far as your dynasty has gone, have any of the 09 draft class shown much improvement in their ratings? They never do on my game, whilst generated rookies develop a quite a fast rate. I understand there is that DESTINY thing which determines it, but by the looks of it Live 10 didnt think much of the future potential of the class of 09.

Great Moustache article. Sasha seems to be warming benches all around the league, but I've never seen him sad.

the "Who's Left?" & 'stache articles are awesome great start so far and after that sick triple double? i'm pulling for Bo-P!

Awesome articles. The direction this dynasty has taken has been very cool and unique.

Anyway, that article was pretty much for Axel... I hope the rest of you enjoyed it too [/center]

Good to know that a writer does something for a reader. I wish I was blonde so I could have a 'stache like Larry Bird.

I think it's a coincidence how there's exactly 100 real players from the NBA left in your dynasty. At least some players are still with their original teams, but it surprises me how Kyle Lowry is still in Houston.

Great work with those two articles, fun to see the real players that are left and where they've all ended up. The mustache article reminded me of this promo for NBA Live 07:

phpBB [video]

Happy birthday!

Good job in noticing Martti. Happy birthday badreligionau, your age is now the same number as the Black Mamba.

Happy b-day man!

A little belated, but many happy returns!

Bunym, Howard, Bosh, Rose, Williams and Jefferson is his teams 8 years. Bosh 14 years in Raptors ?

Might even be Bosh's 15th season with the Raptors? I'm not quite sure, I'm not great when it comes to maths

Nice to see Rose still with the Bulls.

Man, If you go against OKC, us, the followers, wouldn't have any idea who 'the man' there is any more.

Well, there's a guy on their team named Stanley Alston who won 3 MVP and 2 Defensive player awards in the 3 simmed seasons I did... but yeah, apart from him, I really don't know what to expect from the team. I don't know how much they're going to use Shannon this season.

I think the thing with jennings on this game is that he was a bit of a sleeper in the draft, at least an unexpectedly good player, and so he hardly improves throughout the game, same for ROY tyreke evans, when playing with jennings he can hardly make a 3 and plays nothing like himself in real life.

As far as your dynasty has gone, have any of the 09 draft class shown much improvement in their ratings? They never do on my game, whilst generated rookies develop a quite a fast rate. I understand there is that DESTINY thing which determines it, but by the looks of it Live 10 didnt think much of the future potential of the class of 09.

Blake Griffin is the noticable one at the moment and Tyler Hansbrough quite hilariously won the All-Star game MVP at one point, but apart from that they haven't really progressed. I actually started this dynasty straight from the box so to speak. I didn't have Wifi at the point of starting it, so I started with the rosters as is; hence why Anthony Carter was never on my team at any point because he was on free agency at the time I started.

Brandon Jennings is actually a 73 rated player now... his rating has jumped up 2 within the first 10 games... somewhat unprecidented for me

Great Moustache article. Sasha seems to be warming benches all around the league, but I've never seen him sad.

The funny thing is, when I was kind of shopping T-Mac 2.0 on the trade block, the best deal I could get for him was Sasha

So he was almost a bench warmer for me at one point. He's on possibly the worst team in the league at the moment, so nothing could make that guy sad

the "Who's Left?" & 'stache articles are awesome great start so far and after that sick triple double? i'm pulling for Bo-P!

Thanks Clutch; I was going to correct those spelling/grammatical errors, but I forgot to save the PSD file... oh well.

I'm hoping Bo-P will develop a story much like Ty Maximilian did... he's actually rated a lot better than Ty was as well.

Awesome articles. The direction this dynasty has taken has been very cool and unique.

Thanks Lamrock, I'm always looking for ways to keep my thread fresh and I'm glad that people are enjoying my articles

Anyway, that article was pretty much for Axel... I hope the rest of you enjoyed it too [/center]

Good to know that a writer does something for a reader. I wish I was blonde so I could have a 'stache like Larry Bird.

I think it's a coincidence how there's exactly 100 real players from the NBA left in your dynasty. At least some players are still with their original teams, but it surprises me how Kyle Lowry is still in Houston.

Always willing to write stuff for my regular readers and I'm blond, but somehow my stache still manages to be darker than Larry's... he's got some kind of gift there I think

I amended that actually since there's 101 (I forgot about Rudy Fernandez) but it did seem like an amusing coincidence at the time to me too. Kyle Lowry is a surprise, but Aaron Brooks left pretty early on, so that gave him a chance at a starting position.

Great work with those two articles, fun to see the real players that are left and where they've all ended up. The mustache article reminded me of this promo for NBA Live 07:

You know, I never did see that promo, but I love it! I'm actually one of Morrison's cult followers at the moment and I loved that bit on Jimmy Kimmel with his highlights of the NBA Finals. I really wish that he could still salvage a career in real life because he was a gun in college.

The stache is here to stay

Happy birthday!

Good job in noticing Martti. Happy birthday badreligionau, your age is now the same number as the Black Mamba.

Happy b-day man!

A little belated, but many happy returns!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. While I'm the age of the Black Mamba's number, I think it's more significant to me that I was born the day that is the same number as MJ. I guess that's a matter of preference though. Nice that this year both my birthdate and age correspond to two legends of the game

Also quite coincidental that my birthday fell on the 23rd page of this story.

Always willing to write stuff for my regular readers and I'm blond, but somehow my stache still manages to be darker than Larry's... he's got some kind of gift there I think

I've got the opposite going on. I was blonde as a kid with my hair going darker to a dark blonde/brownish blonde in my teens, but my goatee is a mix of light blonde and red. I've been sporting an attempt at a goatee since I was about 16 but it's only really been thick enough to stand out properly since I was about 19 or 20.

Happy Birthday! I don't know how you continue to have the gut for this dynasty. Coffee?

Happy B-Day man. You are a dynasty legend!

I've got the opposite going on. I was blonde as a kid with my hair going darker to a dark blonde/brownish blonde in my teens, but my goatee is a mix of light blonde and red. I've been sporting an attempt at a goatee since I was about 16 but it's only really been thick enough to stand out properly since I was about 19 or 20.

It takes me a really long time to grow a moustache of substance though. My beard grows really dark but the blond comes in around where my "Ali G" goatee is (for a lack of a better description). Pretty much all my facial hair is through laziness

Happy Birthday! I don't know how you continue to have the gut for this dynasty. Coffee?

Thanks Houndy66; I guess it's the team that has kept me interested. The core has been left in tact for the 9 seasons. I guess once my team gets gutted, I might lose interest... but then again the development of Borislav Perko might renew my interest.

:lol:

Welcome back

Happy B-Day man. You are a dynasty legend!

Thanks megarover, you're too kind

5 Game Summary

The Nuggets went 4-1 over this 5 game round, with their winning streak coming to a halt at 7 thanks to Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. For the most part, Denver had comfortable victories though, belting both the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzlies. Portland were unable to win the division rivalry thanks to a stunning NBA debut, which now brings us to the feature game against the Cleveland Cavaliers:

Old Man Billups sinks Cavs

Once again it took the unrivaled clutch ability of Chauncey Billups to get the win for Denver as they won 87-84 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the last play of the game, Chauncey Billups possibly got away with a foul on the Cleveland shooter as the shot missed. Rather than describe the rest of the play, I might let the video tell the story in this classic Billups moment:

phpBB [video]

Denver were down by 14 at the half time break. Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Nuggets with 24 points, but it'd be Robin Lopez who would prove crucial in the game, scoring 14 points in the second half to help Denver cut down the sizeable deficit. Power forwards Borislav Perko and Jordan Hill both scored 12, but the last minute heroics of Chauncey Billups was probably the main story of this game.

For the unlucky Cleveland side, former Finals MVP Jason Gardiner was the best player with 22 points and 7 assists. OJ Mayo provided solid support with 18, while Leo Lange registered a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Bertrand Carroll contributed 11, while 6-man Amare Stoudemire rounded out the scorers with 10.

In his 20th season, Chauncey Billups is cementing his spot as one of the greatest clutch shooters in the history of the game.

------------------------------------------------------

DEN@CLE

DEN: 87 (Anthony 24, Lopez 14, Hill 12)
CLE: 84 (Gardiner 22, Mayo 18, Lange 15)

Sprite Performer of the Game: Carmelo Anthony 24 points 3 rebounds 3 assists 4 steals

Rebounds

DEN: Billups 7
CLE: Lange 11

Assists

DEN: Jennings 7
CLE: Gardiner 7

------------------------------------------------------

Last 5 Games

DAL: 94-77 W
MEM: 88-74 W
NOH: 87-84 L
POR: 102-90 W
@CLE: 87-84 W

Denver are now 9-1 after 10 games of the season

------------------------------------------------------

Unstopabble

Brandon Jennings was unbelievable against the Mavericks. He scored 49 points... OFF THE BENCH. He managed to force George Karl's hand over the next 2 games, earning a start against Memphis and New Orleans.

No Rest for Rudy

J.R. Smith tormented his former team (and Rudy Fernandez) once again with 33 points.

Powerful Debut

Rookie George Power had an incredible NBA debut. In his first game in the big time, he had a stat-line of:

31 points 8 rebounds 5 assists 2 blocks 2 steals

He also had the distinction of one point having a 1.000 3 point field goal percentage, hitting his first from behind the arc... too bad he missed he last 4. Could the Denver Nuggets see an all-blond starting front court next season?

------------------------------------------------------

Next 5 Games

@CHA
@IND
@PHX
@LAC
@GSW

------------------------------------------------------

Sorry it took so long for this one guys. I've been working a lot and the next couple of weekends are pretty much booked. Best man for a wedding this weekend and I'm going to see Kevin Smith in Sydney next weekend. Hopefully after all the craziness, this dynasty will gain the momentum it had the previous season. Next up will be the 10 game player summary.

Another great feature game with some heroics by Mr Big Shot. You certainly might have gotten away with a foul there but considering how often the CPU gets away with fouling shooters like that, I think we all deserve a break on that at some point. Kind of makes things interesting from a story perspective, anyway.

Huge debut from Power and an amazing game from Jennings. Sounds like a fun stretch, all in all.

I'm going to see Kevin Smith in Sydney next weekend.

Nice. Do you listen to SModcast and/or any of the other podcasts in the network?

Still impressive, man! Denver is still where it's at. Enjoyed the Billups game-winner, especially the part where you got away with a foul.

Don't know who's Kevin Smith, or what it's like to be best man for a wedding, but you've got a busy schedule. Good Luck.

Another great feature game with some heroics by Mr Big Shot. You certainly might have gotten away with a foul there but considering how often the CPU gets away with fouling shooters like that, I think we all deserve a break on that at some point. Kind of makes things interesting from a story perspective, anyway.

Huge debut from Power and an amazing game from Jennings. Sounds like a fun stretch, all in all.

I'm going to see Kevin Smith in Sydney next weekend.

Nice. Do you listen to SModcast and/or any of the other podcasts in the network?

It was a great stretch to play, particularly since I had two really tough games (one which I lost too).

I listen to Smodcast every now and then. I'm not a huge listener of podcasts in general, but his is very entertaining. I have every movie of his except for Jersey Girl and his two latest ones and I've started to read the Green Arrow comics that he wrote. So I'm a pretty big fan of his work

Still impressive, man! Denver is still where it's at. Enjoyed the Billups game-winner, especially the part where you got away with a foul.

Don't know who's Kevin Smith, or what it's like to be best man for a wedding, but you've got a busy schedule. Good Luck.

Yeah, I didn't really notice the foul until after I hit the shot. I was like "ooo, that's kind of controversial" but as Andrew said, I've been screwed over a lot by NBA Live 10, so it's nice to get even with it every now and then

Kevin Smith is Silent Bob if that helps

10 Game Summary


Melo beginning to warm to the task

Becoming a tradition of mine to review my roster after 10 games to let you know how I think they're going. I find that after 10, the dust seems to settle a bit and you can have a fairly accurate indication of the direction your squad is going to go in the season. Here it is:

Starters

Chris Andersen: At the start of this season, it looks as though the Birdman is there for insurance. Once the master defensive presense in the lane, he has let his apprentice Borislav Perko take over the role. Not to say that he isn't productive; he's 2nd in rebounds per game (5.7) and blocks per game (1.7). He's still very good at protecting the lane, but in what's possibly his last year, he seems more willing to watch a young prospect grow in his old role.

Borislav Perko: Despite having a quiet last 5 games, Perko is still a statistical leader in rebounds per game (7.8), assists per game (3.6) and blocks per game (1.8). Add an additional 11 points that he contributes a contest and you have a guy who has a bright future on a winning side.

Carmelo Anthony: Melo's first 5 games of the season were fairly quiet... but then again, a player named Brandon Jennings is eating into his points per game average. He's still second in the team for points per game (15.7) and steals per game (2.1). While at times Melo might have to settle into a 3rd scoring role, he is the most consistent out of the 3 offensive weapons on the team.

J.R. Smith: His start of the season has been reserved compared to the previous season which saw him win the MVP award. He still leads the team in points per game (17.4) and steals per game (2.2), but he no longer seems to be a lock to be the main offensive guy.

Chauncey Billups: So Chauncey is 41 and he's only averaging 8.6 points per game... but over the first two 5 game summaries, he has come up with 2 clutch moments that could almost be a defining point of Denver's season. The first one was in the first game; if he misses that shot, Denver are 0-1 and possibly on the back foot to start their title defense. Instead, the win 7 straight and win 9 out of 10. I'm not saying Billups has been the only reason for Denver's form, but it's moments like that one that can turn a season around or give it a different complexion.


Garth Vine was impressive against the Lakers... Worthy finds and interesting way to challenge the shot

The Bench

Jordan Hill: The reigning 6th man of the year has had a solid start to the season without being spectacular. With one of the main stories being the starting power forward, he might see his playing time drop a little through the season. However he will continue to provide a difficult matchup and still prove to be a vital piece to the Nuggets organisation.

Brandon Jennings: At times, the artist former known as Young Buck has been brilliant. With 49 against the Mavericks and 27 against the Grizzlies, it looked like Melo would have to take a back-seat and watch the duo of Smith and Jennings weave their magic. Consistency however has proved to be an issue. Whether it's a chemistry thing or having an institutionalised point guard in front of him, Brandon will have to find a way to be a contributor every night.

Robin Lopez: Lopez is the kind of guy that every bench needs. He may not be scheduled for many minutes, but he'll fulfil the assignment your teams needs from a big man. Robin is 3rd in the team for rebounds per game with 5; this added to the fact that he's a better than average shot blocker as well, Denver have no shortage of productive big men.

Garth Vine: It wasn't expected that Vine would make much of an impact this season, and whilst he hasn't been a huge scorer for Denver, he surprised a lot of people when he scored 17 in the first game. He's got 3 point range but whether it's to the extent of Shannon Brown's is yet to be determined. Too early to tell whether the acquisition of Vine was a win for the Nuggets.

Taylor MacKenzie: T-Mac 2.0 seems doomed to be a bit-player and it has to do with him shooting 39 percent from the field. Averaging 6 points per game is fine, but being one of the least efficient guys in the league hurts your team in the long run. It's the reason why George Karl uses him rather sparingly.

Nicolas Batum: Nic has only played 2 games this season. At this point, he'll sit for most of the start of this season. He's a great player and will no doubt get his opportunities down the line, but right now, he'll have to settle for being apart of the cheer squad.

Patrick Mills: Patty has played 2 less games than Batum. The acquisition of Jennings was to Mills' detriment and unless he demands for a trade, he won't be getting any substantial time on the court this year. He might have to put his career on hold if he's going to stay with the Nuggets.

IR

George Power: Power had an amazing debut against Portland. He proved to be a little clumsy against Cleveland, but there's enough there to suggest he's got a lot of potential. He can play both power forward and centre, has a strong back-to-the-basket game and can even hit the odd perimeter shot.

Yao Ming: A lot of hype around this season has been the signing of the great wall of China, but Denver have not used him yet. It is believed that he will return to action early-to-mid December.

Basil Richter: He is behind Batum on the depth chart. Could be used as a trade chip down the stretch of the season, but not a whole lot more.

I listen to Smodcast every now and then. I'm not a huge listener of podcasts in general, but his is very entertaining. I have every movie of his except for Jersey Girl and his two latest ones and I've started to read the Green Arrow comics that he wrote. So I'm a pretty big fan of his work

Good stuff. I'm an avid listener of SModcast, Tell 'Em Steve-Dave! and I've just started getting into the Peephole History series as well. Something to listen to along with music while I'm working on a patch or something else for the NLSC. The live shows they're doing at the moment are definitely entertaining.

Anyway, nice work as always with the recap. I'm sure Melo's scoring average will be up come Playoff time.

Still an unstoppable squad. And great to see Jennings playing like that!

Yung Buck playing like he should.

Looks like the Lakers' nabbed themselves another Worthy