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

[The X]

I like the blur effect with Perko but not a huge fan of the background logo. For me it lets down the rest of the sig, which is good.

[Andrew]

Glad to see that Young's bigger role and steady play was enough to garner Rookie of the Month honours. With your dominance over the West, I certainly wouldn't be too bothered by a couple of unexpected losses here or there, you'll win when it counts.

[Kenny]

I like the blur effect with Perko but not a huge fan of the background logo. For me it lets down the rest of the sig, which is good.

Thanks for the feedback. I was looking to make alternates of the signature anyway, so I'll take that into account

Glad to see that Young's bigger role and steady play was enough to garner Rookie of the Month honours. With your dominance over the West, I certainly wouldn't be too bothered by a couple of unexpected losses here or there, you'll win when it counts.

The West has definitely seen better days. I like that it's gotten weaker over time. If the West was strong throughout the 25 seasons, it'd make for a rather dull dynasty I think.

[Kenny]

5 Game Summary

In the second last 5 game summary of the season, the Nuggets started off with a great win against the Lakers. Denver also had success over the weaker Californian side of Sacramento. However, the win streak ended at 4 as they lost to Melo's Wolves. Minnesota have been the form team of the league as they've moved from 9th place in the West to 4th in the space of a month. Earl destroyed the leading wooden spoon contenders, the Portland Trail Blazers, while the feature game of this round includes the reigning TNL champs and the current RL champs:

Nuggets Wrangle Mavericks



J.R. Smith lifted the Denver Nuggets to an 87-78 win against the Dallas Mavericks in the first game of the back-to-back. Smith followed up his 54 point effort against Rip City by scoring 37 in this game. Kevin Durant played his usual sidekick role and contributed 18. Robin Lopez continued his impressive comeback in the rotation with 12 points, while Borislav Perko flirted with a triple-double (10 points, 10 rebounds 7 assists) once again.

Western All-Star selections Corin Robertson and Sergio Soto were the standouts for the Mavs. Robertson top scored with 19 points, while Sergio Soto had 16 points and 7 rebounds. Brady O'Leary came close to a double-double with 13 points and 9 assists, while Edmund Feehan had 11.

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DAL@DEN

DEN: 87 (Smith 37, Durant 18, Lopez 12)
DAL: 78 (Robertson 19, Soto 16, O'Leary 13)

Sprite Performer of the Game: J.R. Smith 37 points 2 rebounds 1 assist 1 steal

Rebounds

DEN: Perko 10
DAL: Sheehan, Soto 7

Assists

DEN: Perko 7
DAL: O'Leary 9

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Last 5 Games

LAL: 77-65 W
SAC: 93-77 W
@MIN: 86-83 L
@POR: 94-76 W
DAL: 87-78 W

The Nuggets are now 60-15

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Ripping Through Portland

Smith put on a devastating display against the Portland Trail Blazers, scoring a season high 54 points. With a close race for the scoring title, J.R. had a little bit of ground to make up to catch Ollie Rose. But with more games like this, Earl will get awfully close if he doesn't overtake him.

Back At It

After a small absense of these type of games, Borislav Perko almost had two triple-doubles in this stretch of 5. His almost was in the feature game and his actual was against the Lakers. 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

The Robin Redemption

Before the trade deadline, Robin Lopez looked like his career with Denver could have been done. But the deadline passed and in this stretch of 5 games, the Nuggets are surely grateful for their inaction. His best effort came against the Kings, where he had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks off the bench.

Former Vs Former

Durant and Anthony faced off once again. Even though Kevin's 25 beat Melo's 12, the Timberwolves won on the overall scoreboard. Carmelo's game has changed quite a lot since going to Minnesota, as he's more of a distributor now, collecting 5 dimes on the night as well.

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Next 5 Games

DAL
HOU
MEM
NOH
@OKC

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The final 5 game summary of the regular season will be up next, then the double feature against Sacramento.

[Andrew]

Score one for Melo I guess, but you're on your way to another Larry O'Brien trophy. What's your head to head record with the Timberwolves since the Melo trade?

[Warlock95]

Corin?! What parents name their son Corin?! You may be the Mavs' current star, but that doesn't save you from having a ridiculous name.

[Axel The Great]

Nice to see Perko drop a triple-double against the Lakers!!! Surprised Bynum didn't elbow him for that.

Big rampage from JR, 54 and then 37 back-to-back is incredible. I thought Robin Lopez had disappeared after not being mentioned in a lot of updates, good to see him return to form.

[The X]

Melo with Wolves, I wonder if I'll ever get a star that big....btw, I'm happy with your pics, less clown heads

[Kenny]

Score one for Melo I guess, but you're on your way to another Larry O'Brien trophy. What's your head to head record with the Timberwolves since the Melo trade?

That's actually Melo's first win against the Nuggets. I believe Kevin has atleast 5 wins against the Wolves, although, I'm pretty sure they've played more games because they're division rivals. So it might be 7 wins to KD.

Corin?! What parents name their son Corin?! You may be the Mavs' current star, but that doesn't save you from having a ridiculous name.

I don't think Corin is any worse than the name DeShawn

Nice to see Perko drop a triple-double against the Lakers!!! Surprised Bynum didn't elbow him for that.

Big rampage from JR, 54 and then 37 back-to-back is incredible. I thought Robin Lopez had disappeared after not being mentioned in a lot of updates, good to see him return to form.

Thought you might like that one in particular... Bynum pretty much defended him the whole game, so I'm surprised about that too.

J.R. has been tearing it up on the way to hopefully a second scoring title. Ollie Rose still holds the lead though. And Robin has just been lost in the rotation. He started the season poor, so I gave more minutes to the younger Aaron Watters.

Melo with Wolves, I wonder if I'll ever get a star that big....btw, I'm happy with your pics, less clown heads

The Wolves also had Kevin Durant in this dynasty, so hopefully you can get atleast one of those type of players. Glad you approve of the non-carnival pictures

[Kenny]

5 Game Summary

In the last 5 game summary of the season, the Nuggets showed once again that they are human, losing first up against the Mavs in overtime. In 3 of their 5 games, they've given the opposition a lead going into the 4th, which led to a second loss against the Hornets as well. However, they managed to win convincingly against Memphis and Oklahoma City. The feature game is against the Houston Rockets:

Taylor's Dagger Flaws Rockets



The Denver Nuggets surged past the Houston Rockets, winning by 87-80. J.R. Smith led the way once again with 30 points, but the deciding moment in the game came down to Taylor MacKenzie. Down 80-78, T-Mac hit a corner three to put Denver up by 1 point and the Rockets wouldn't score again after his dagger. He ended up with 20 points, as he made up for a quiet night by Kevin Durant, who had 13.

The Rockets had a more even share in scoring, with Liam Koch the top scorer with 14 points. Ferrer (12 points, 14 rebounds) and Schmitz (12 points, 12 rebounds) both dominated on the glass and Brice Alan contributed with 10 points and 7 assists. But the 4th quarter firepower of J.R. Smith and Taylor MacKenzie proved to be overwhelming for Houston.

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HOU@DEN

DEN: 87 (Smith 30, MacKenzie 20, Durant 13)
HOU: 80 (Koch 14, Ferrer 12, Schmitz 12)

Sprite Performer of the Game: J.R. Smith 30 points 2 rebounds 2 assists 1 block 2 steals

Rebounds

DEN: Jordan 7
HOU: Ferrer 14

Assists

DEN: Power 4
HOU: Alan 7

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Last 5 Games

DAL: 96-91 L (OT)
HOU: 87-80 W
MEM: 99-77 W
NOH: 91-87 L
@OKC: 88-76 W

The Nuggets are now 63-17

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Timing His Run

J.R. Smith has been on a tear lately. Here are his last 5 games scoring-wise:

DAL: 24 points
HOU: 30 points
MEM: 41 points
NOH: 29 points
OKC: 27 points

He finds himself just 10 points behind Ollie Rose in the race for the scoring title. However, he's also played one more game.

Possibly His Best One

Borislav Perko got himself another triple-double, this time against OKC. It was quite possibly his best output of the year, with 17 points, 16 rebounds and 13 assists. He has a reputation for being big in the post-season and let's hope this is just a sign of things to come.

Another Late Season Charge

If T-Mac 2.0 played like this all the way through the regular season, the 6th man award would be his, hands down. Against the Hornets he scored 23 points. He's making a lot of noise and doing his best to shake the underachiever label.

Pat Is Back

Pat Mills has enjoyed some extra minutes lately and against the Dallas Mavericks, he almost had himself a game that would be the envy of any player in the league. He scored 21 points and nearly had a double-double with 9 assists.

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Double Feature

The season will finish with a double feature against the Sacramento Kings.

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Two more games, then the playoffs. Currently Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix are all contenders for the 8th seed in the West. San Antonio currently have it, as Houston narrowly hold 7th. Phoenix are just behind the Spurs in 9th place.

[Andrew]

Great clutch win over the Rockets, the OT loss aside you seem to be in fine form heading into the postseason. Smith being on a scoring rampage has to be a good sign.

[kibaxx7]

So, where's Perko in the all-time triple-doubles list?

[Axel The Great]

That's a weak contest by Koch on T-Mac's 3...

Seems Perko continues to have at least one triple-double every 5 games. As for JR, good to see he's still going offensively, but the last time you faced the Clippers you should have got Rose into foul trouble to hold him to single digit points and to be able to make a move on the scoring title. That's what I did against Amar'e in the second season of my Rockets dynasty.

[Kenny]

Great clutch win over the Rockets, the OT loss aside you seem to be in fine form heading into the postseason. Smith being on a scoring rampage has to be a good sign.

I think I loved that game against the Rockets because it took me back to MacKenzie's rookie season. I hadn't seen him hit a winning shot since his first game I don't think, so it was a nice little nostalgic moment

So, where's Perko in the all-time triple-doubles list?

To be honest, I wouldn't have a clue. Charles Barkley has 20, so if Perko gets that many, he'll be top 15 of all time. But it's something I'll have to count out at some point.

That's a weak contest by Koch on T-Mac's 3...

Seems Perko continues to have at least one triple-double every 5 games. As for JR, good to see he's still going offensively, but the last time you faced the Clippers you should have got Rose into foul trouble to hold him to single digit points and to be able to make a move on the scoring title. That's what I did against Amar'e in the second season of my Rockets dynasty.

To Koch's credit though, he was helping to double-team J.R. Smith, who would be the more likely suspect.

I do my best to make that the case with Perko. It's a fun little challenge I set myself. Since Rose is a perimeter player, I find it a lot harder to get him into foul trouble. With the inconsistency with the fouling in NBA Live 10, it's a lot easier to rack up the fouls on post defenders I find.

[Kenny]

The Double Feature

This one goes all the way to the capital of California, as the Nuggets take on the Kings in this double-header to conclude the season:

Nuggets Reign Supreme In Double OT



It took two extra periods in the game, but the Denver Nuggets were able to overcome the Sacramento Kings by 114-108. J.R. Smith (45), Taylor MacKenzie (30) and Kevin Durant (26) all had outstanding performances on the offensive end, yet they were all upstaged by Borislav Perko. While Perko only scored 11 points, he got yet another triple-double. This time around, his numbers are quite astounding: 22 rebounds and 19 assists. He also managed to produce the dunk that took the game into overtime. Is this possibly the greatest game in Perko's 4 year career?

Sacramento put up an outstanding fight and almost took this one away from the defending champs. Darren Cunningham was the top scorer with 33, while Caleb Jackman had 24. Amory Buckley was their MVP, as his intriguing battle with Borislav Perko saw him get 22 points and 16 rebounds. Somehow though, he was only the second highest rebounder on the team, with Ernie Young picking up 19 boards. Sylvester Chapman was the last of the double-digit scorers with 12 points.

While it could be argued that the Nugget should have taken out a lowly team like the Kings in regulation, this game was a great test of their resolve, with the playoffs just around the corner.

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DEN@SAC
(2OT)
DEN: 114 (Smith 45, MacKenzie 30, Durant 26)
SAC: 108 (Cunningham 33, Jackman 24, Buckley 22)

Sprite Performer of the Game: Borislav Perko 11 points 22 rebounds 19 assists 2 blocks 1 steal

Rebounds

DEN: Perko 22
SAC: Young 19

Assists

DEN: Perko 19
SAC: Cunningham 8

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Denver Takes Royal Double



After a double-overtime win on the previous outing, the Denver Nuggets were able to dispatch the Kings a lot easier with an 86-73 victory. J.R. Smith was the high scorer for the Denver once again with 34, while Taylor MacKenzie (22) and Kevin Durant (18) both proved to be solid sidekicks once again. Borislav Perko had an influential role, despite only scoring 4 points. His 9 rebounds and 8 assists really helped set the tempo of the game.

For the Kings, Sebastian Gheorge was the pick of the scorers with 17. Caleb Jackman was the only other double-digit scorer with 16, while Darren Cunningham and Ernie Young scored 9 each.

This game concludes the regular season for both the Kings and the Nuggets. While the Kings won't be seeing any post-season action, they can be proud of how they performed against the threepeat champs. Denver will head to the playoffs with 65 wins; 7 more than the next league rival, the Chicago Bulls.

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DEN@SAC

DEN: 86 (Smith 34, MacKenzie 22, Durant 18)
SAC: 73 (Gheorge 17, Jackman 16, Cunningham 9)

Sprite Performer of the Game: J.R. Smith 34 points 3 rebounds 1 assist 1 steal

Rebounds

DEN: Perko 9
SAC: Buckley 11

Assists

DEN: Perko 8
SAC: Cunningham 5

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And that's the regular season! Another 82 games played and it's probably been my favourite of the lot. The style of basketball I'm playing in the game is keeping me interested and hopefully it can lead Denver to a 4th straight title. Up next will be the league standings and statistical leaders, after that the yearly awards will be announced, a team review of 2019-2020 and then the preview of the first round of the 2020 Playoffs.

Let's hope this off-season has the theme of "4"

[Andrew]

Great way to cap off the season, an exciting double OT game and a decisive victory. Now the real season can begin.

[Kenny]

Thanks Andrew, it was a great way to end what was a really fun season

[Kenny]

Season 2019-2020

Playoff Bound Teams

EAST

Chicago 58-24
Detroit 52-30
Washington 49-33
New York 48-34
Cleveland 46-36
Toronto 45-37
Atlanta 42-40
Philadelphia 42-40

WEST

Denver 65-17
LA Clippers 48-34
LA Lakers 43-39
Houston 42-40
Minnesota 42-40
New Orleans 42-40
San Antonio 41-41
Utah 41-41


Statistical Leaders

PPG: [LAC] Ollie Rose 25.6
RPG: [LAL] Andrew Bynum 9.7
APG: [SAN] Batholomew David/[CHI] Kelly Scott 7.2
SPG: [DEN] Kevin Durant 2
BPG: [CLE] Leo Lange

[Kenny]

Awards and Teams

Earl Headlines Three Denver Award Winners

After being on a tear in the month of April, J.R. Smith has taken out his second MVP trophy ahead of incumbent Ollie Rose. Despite coming second in the scoring race, what set him apart was his efficiency and he joined an elite group of players who achieved a 50-40-90 season.

George Karl picked up yet another accolaide for his coaching, while the surprise of the season was Kevin Durant. He scooped the Defensive Player of the Year Award, while expect shoe-in Borislav Perko narrowly missed out on the Most Improved Player Award.

The Award Winners

MVP: J.R. Smith

This is the second time Earl has picked up this award. The favourite for this award was Ollie Rose, and even though his stat-line didn't match that of the Clippers superstar, J.R. achieved something that Rose didn't. He shot 51.5% from the field, 41.5% from beyond the arc and 90.8% from the stripe. Those numbers are amazing for anyone, but for the second leading scorer in the league, they're incredible.

Most Improved Player: Rufus Baylor

The Hornets point guard quite controversially picked up this one over the heavily touted Borislav Perko, but when you consider that he went from being a backup point guard to replacing Chris Paul as the starter, it's not a complete stretch. Still... Perko did get a lot of triple-doubles...

Defensive Player of the Year: Kevin Durant

If the MIP didn't raise eyebrows, this one certainly did. During the course of the season, Kevin Durant led the league in steals per game (2), grabbed 3 defensive rebounds and almost recorded a block per game. His defense is generally overlooked, but obviously not this season.

Rookie of the Year: Nicholas Schneider

A no brainer; he dominated the Eastern Conference monthly awards, won the Rookie Challenge MVP and was really the only rookie to put up decent numbers. The New Jersey Nets didn't have a great season, but the future is in good hands with Nicholas Schneider.

6th Man: Matthew Clement

Clement used to be a starting shooting guard, but with the emergence of Kelly Scott, he was put on the bench and given a new role as a 6th man. The former All-Star excelled in this given role, providing some big minutes off the bench during the season on the second best team.

Coach of the Year: George Karl

Add another one for George and his dynasty team.

Denver's Big Three Make All First Team

Borislav Perko, Kevin Durant and J.R. Smith together made the All NBA First Team. As well as this honour, Defensive Player of the Year Durant also made the All Defensive First Team.

For his efforts in his first season, Adrian Young made the All Rookie Second Team.

All NBA First Team

[UTA] Ken O'Farrell
[DEN] Borislav Perko
[DEN] Kevin Durant
[DEN] J.R. Smith
[MEM] Stephen Curry

All NBA Second Team

[NYK] Zach Pearson
[CHI] Igor Martin
[NOH] Hobbes MacDonald
[LAC] Ollie Rose
[CHI] Kelly Scott

All Defensive First Team

[NYK] Grant Bernard
[ATL] Tyrus Thomas
[DEN] Kevin Durant
[LAC] Ollie Rose
[OKC] Roy Kohler

All Defensive Second Team

[NOH] Lawrence Coutts
[HOU] Armando Ferrer
[CHA] Luis Johnston
[CLE] OJ Mayo
[MEM] Stephen Curry

All Rookie First Team

[NJN] Nicholas Schneider
[NYK] Steven King
[SAN] Axel Donnelly
[HOU] Waldo Bonner
[CHI] Sam Ricci

All Rookie Second Team

[DEN] Adrian Young
[TOR] Stanley Johnston
[LAC] Kazandu Chidzero
[SAC] Will Walter
[MIL] Dirk Herrmann

[Axel The Great]

Nice two wins against the Kings. Sometimes, cellar-dwellers become a pain in the ass trying to beat them that they force you to your best. Incredible game from Perko, though.

I find it pretty surprising to see JR win MVP and KD win DPOY, but the most deserving of his respective award, Perko, was snubbed for MIP. Well, at least they all made All-First team, and Denver has some season hardware to take home.

[kibaxx7]

Looking forward to a sweep of the Jazz. Nice to see the Nuggets' Big 3 with all these awards.

[Cruzerr]

Big 3 was great. Bit surprised that Perko was not MIP.

Also, Nicolas seems like a serious baller. Stats?

[Andrew]

Perko was robbed on MIP, but good to see you picking up the MVP and DPOY hardware, along with all the All-NBA honours.

[Kenny]

Nice two wins against the Kings. Sometimes, cellar-dwellers become a pain in the ass trying to beat them that they force you to your best. Incredible game from Perko, though.

I find it pretty surprising to see JR win MVP and KD win DPOY, but the most deserving of his respective award, Perko, was snubbed for MIP. Well, at least they all made All-First team, and Denver has some season hardware to take home.

I try not to get complacent against the lower teams, but sometimes it's just so easy to. But yeah, Perko's display in that game was outstanding.

I remember when I saw that screen for the awards, J.R. Smith came up and I thought "cool, I didn't expect that"... then I got to Durant and I was like "WHAT?!?!?!?!"

But yeah, it was a strong showing in the end of season honours, which always makes me happy

Looking forward to a sweep of the Jazz. Nice to see the Nuggets' Big 3 with all these awards.

The Jazz is actually a team I've handed some absolute beat-downs to, but again, I can't get complacent. Here's hoping for the sweep

Big 3 was great. Bit surprised that Perko was not MIP.

Also, Nicolas seems like a serious baller. Stats?

I was surprised to... if anything, I thought Kelly Scott of the Bulls might have won it, but Rufus Baylor?

Schneider had a solid season, but his numbers would suggest it was a weak draft class (12.8ppg 4.8apg 1spg)

Perko was robbed on MIP, but good to see you picking up the MVP and DPOY hardware, along with all the All-NBA honours.

It was a good haul all up, but in the same token, it was a bit disappointing. I pretty much played the 82 because it looked like Perko was on target to win the award that has illuded me. But as I said before, this ended up being my favourite season so far, so no harm done

[Kenny]

2019-2020 Player Review

Centre

DeAndre Jordan

In many ways, DJ was the heart of Denver's defense. His ability to change players' shots and energy on the defensive glass were both assets to the Nuggets through the season. In fact, his defense was so great that he earned himself his first All-Star appearance. His offense... well, he had the odd moment or two where he helped anchor it, but for the most part, it wasn't existent. Overall he was a terrific pick up for the Nuggets in the off-season and stepped into the Birdman's defensive role excellently.

Robin Lopez

At the start of the season, it looked like his days with Denver were numbered; he was playing absolutely awfully. He fell into obscurity during the mid-season, but towards the end he came back and proved his value on both ends of the court. If DeAndre Jordan is heavily on the defensive side and Aaron Watters is more so on the offensive side, then consider Robin Lopez the happy medium in the rotation.

Aaron Watters

Aaron had a solid start to his Nuggets career, but towards the end of the regular season, he was losing pretty much all his minutes to Robin Lopez. A big part of this is that he can be a bit of a liability on the defensive end. He's pretty good at rebounding and shot blocking, but often found himself getting bullied in the post. His mid-range shooting somewhat made up for his short-comings on the other end, but his lack of post game could see him looking for a new club in the upcoming free agency.

Power Forward

Borislav Perko

If it wasn't for Earl's MVP season, Perko would have been the story of the year. This season saw him become an All-Star MVP, a perenial triple-double threat and a better all-round scorer. In the playoffs he has the opportunity to have 4 rings in 4 seasons of play, and it's not like he's been a passenger. A big reason why Denver achieved 65 wins this season was because of his versatility. He led the Nuggets in rebounds (8.2) and assists (4.8), while coming second in blocks (1.2) and 3rd in points (11.4). ESPN say Dwight Howard is handsy... well, Borislav Perko could very well be handsier.

Adrian Young

A nice little story that developed this season was the Adrian Young experiment. It was to see whether the Nuggets could get a bit player to win a Rookie of the Month award in what was considered to be a weak draft. But during this month, Denver found out what a useful player Young really is. He's a good rebounder and shot blocker and he's a guy you don't want to leave open from three point range. He burned a number of teams who thought they could and his potential to keep doing so is definitely enough to keep a certain GM intrigued.

George Power

The decline of Power continued this season. I have a feeling that he is going to become like Jamaal Magloire; he will always have an impressive title (Magloire was a former all-star), despite ending up being a relatively average player. But there's 1 year left on his contract, so who knows; he could turn it around yet.

Crispin Erwin

With Perko's breakout season, Young's majority of minutes at power forward and another sentimental favourite ahead of him in the rotation, Erwin was never really going to have much of a chance to crack this rotation.

Small Forward

Kevin Durant

KD played an excellent sidekick role this season, coming second in points per game with 17.6. The biggest surprise of them all though was him being named the Defensive Player of the Year. However, it was an award that wasn't completely farfetched. He led the league in steals (2) and was consistently a game-changer on both ends of the court. Durant has a highly publicised free agency decision coming up and let's hope he stays in the Mile High City.

Taylor MacKenzie

I had a hard time thinking where to slot this guy. The Denver Nuggets for the most part use a 9 man rotation because of MacKenzie's ability to play both wing positions. Wherever the Nuggets put him, Taylor has the ability to turn the game on it's head. He's another guy who made his run towards the end of the season, but it seemed to be a more prolonged one than he previously had. I'd go as far to say that this is the second best season he's ever had and he was well worth the 4 year investment. The highlight of his season was definitely the 44 point effort against the Spurs. He is devastating at his best and hopefully he can bring his A-game to the playoffs.

Dennis Da Conceicao

DDC had very little opportunities this season and with the roster the way it is, Denver could be willing to explore a trade day deal involving him. He's not a bad player, but the side is just too good at the moment.

Shooting Guard

J.R. Smith

Judged the league's most valuable for the second time in his career, he came second in the league in points (25.4) and steals per game (1.8). The most impressive part of his season though was his efficiency. He joined the 50-40-90 club while trying to chase down Ollie Rose in the scorers race... pretty phenominal if you ask me.

Rudy Fernandez

Rudy was looking like the buy of the season with some performance, including a 28 point effort against the Pistons. But as the playoffs came closer, he fell down in the rotation due to a hot streak from Taylor MacKenzie. Even though he has another season left on his contract, I could see this being his last if his playing time doesn't return to the way it was.

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings

Brandon Jennings offensive game has faded more than a Metallica shirt... and that's being rather polite. But what he lacks in scoring, he makes up for it in his ability to run the plays for the Nuggets. Probably comparable to Mike Bibby (Atlanta) at this point of his career. His ability to hit the odd clutch shot sets him apart from Pat Mills.

Pat Mills

Somewhat under-appreciated by the Nuggets, Patty still remains to be a solid backup. There's a good case for him to be a starter, but his Anthony Carter-esque shooting touch probably doesn't help his cause.

Ed Reed

It seemed like we were preparing ourselves for big things from Ed Reed. He was arguably the Rookie Challenge MVP, but after the glory of the All-Star Weekend, his usually reliable jumpshot failed him. With Pat Mills being the better all-round point guard, there's no reason to be playing a cold Ed Reed.