Denver's Training Camp
Big men Kenyon Martin (left), Marcus Camby (middle) and Francisco Elson (right), have all worked tirelessly throughout training camp.
After nearly a two month layoff, the Denver Nuggets were ready to hit the gym and begin their training camp. George Karl's aim for this year's training camp was to focus on building up more strength in areas that the Nuggets needed improvement on during last season. Although the team does not have any glaring weaknesses on defence and rebounding, the team has played some imrpoved defence under new heard coach George Karl, and it would still be one of Karl's main tasks to emphasize and stress team defence and playing as a group. A glaring weakness that was also evident during last season was Denver's inability to hit perimeter jump shots. Coach Karl understands this and says this will also be another one of the main focuses of training camp.
"We'd usually let teams back into the game or let a game slip by us because of our lack of perimeter shooting," said Karl. "We've got a few jump shooting veterans on this team, but we're not a jumpshooting team, and I think with this current group of guys we'll be struggling against a zone. What I'm trying to do right now is to get the players to learn some more plays that can help free up our guys and allow us to have a more effective offence against any type of zone that is thrown against us."
Denver's future star Carmelo Anthony is working hard on improving his freethrow shooting.
The biggest question that looms over George Karl's head is not particularly about defence or outside shooting, but the starting guard at the two spot. The whole starting lineup is pretty much solidified; blocking machine Marcus Camby will be starting at center, budding stars Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony will be manning the foward positions up front, and the point duties will be handled by the reliable veteran Andre Miller. Dermarr Johnson, Voshon Lenard, and Wesley Person are all very promising candidates that are currently using these few weeks as a time to battle it out for the starting spot.
Dermarr Johnson is the youngest and most talented of the trio. He has a very lanky and athletic Tayshaun Prince-like 6'9 frame, and this allows Dermarr to explode to the basket for some pretty athletic dunks. Johnson's ballhandling skills are also clearly just as good, if not better, than the other two players. However, the team's biggest need in the starting lineup is a jumpshooter, and Dermarr's consistency from outside is clearly giving the coach some doubts. Voshon Lenard is probably the leading candidate for the starting spot. He brings the three point shooting that the Nuggets so sorely need, but Lenard does not have much of anything else in his game and he can be pretty one-dimensional. Lenard's biggest problem would also be that he went through a long period of time without playing basketball thanks to an injury last season, so he must also quickly get back into shape because his weight had ballooned substantially. This might make Karl consider Wesley Person, but Person is clearly not the player he used to be and is showing signs of slowing down from old age and is looking to be nothing more than a role player at best.
Dermarr Johnson was working on all facets of his game to earn a starting spot; even his post up game!
"To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know," said Karl. "They are all very good players, and all three of them have their strengths and weaknesses. I'm thinking about Voshon Lenard later in the season because if we spoon-feed him too many minutes than he might not be that effective because he still needs to get back into shape and get re-acquainted with shooting the basketball. If I can't decide by the end of training camp and if it comes down to it, I can always just let one player start for a few games and let the other one start for a few games, and judging by how well they play together with the starting lineup, we'll choose our starter."
Opening Night Roster
by Its_asdf on Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:09 am 
Denver Nuggets
Good Luck asdf
....hope your next game is easier
