With the 2014-15 regular season right around the corner, we at RMC figured it was about time for some good ol’ fashioned preseason predictions — you know, MVP, total wins, Sixth Man, the whole nine yards. But more importantly we wanted to look ahead, to irrationally predict the zeitgeist of the Denver Nuggets come June 2015 — which is exactly what we’ve done in our latest Roundball Roundtable. As always, we encourage you to play along in the comments section below by divulging your preseason expectations to each of the questions posed in the following poll.
By the end of the year…
1. How many games will the Nuggets have won in the regular season?
Tom: 51
Jim: 50
Joel: 50
David: 45
Kalen: 48
2. Who will be the Nuggets’ MVP?
Tom: Ty Lawson
Jim: Ty Lawson
Joel: Ty Lawson
David: Ty Lawson
Kalen: Ty Lawson
3. Who will be the Nuggets’ most improved player?
Tom: Jusuf Nurkic
Jim: Kenneth Faried
Joel: Gary Harris
David: Kenneth Faried
Kalen: Jusuf Nurkic
4. Who will be the Nuggets’ sixth man?
Tom: Nate Robinson
Jim: Nate Robinson
Joel: Wilson Chandler
David: Nate Robinson
Kalen: Randy Foye
5. Who will be the Nuggets’ best center?
Tom: JaVale McGee
Jim: Timofey Mozgov
Joel: Timofey Mozgov
David: Timofey Mozgov
Kalen: Jusuf Nurkic
6. How will Brian Shaw be perceived?
Tom: Perceptions will be mixed. Some fans will place the credit for a 15-game improvement entirely on the coach. Others will blame him for every close loss and for the team still falling short of 57 wins. On average, he’ll be perceived as an adequate and improving coach who has earned another year.
Jim: As a coach who focuses on defense.
Joel: Favorably, for the most part. Given the number of players who arguably deserve meaningful playing time, some fans will grumble no matter how Shaw handles the rotations. But he’s in high demand by Phil Jackson and elsewhere in the NBA for a reason: He’s a highly respected basketball mind who, with an additional year of experience and a healthy roster, should be able to lead his team to much greater success than last year. But whether that might be enough to win back the Karl loyalists remains an open question.
David: Likely mixed, with more than a tinge of negativity. The media couldn’t really seem to make up their mind over how well a job Shaw did last year. Opinion swayed from the narrative that he lost control of the locker room during the epic losing streak to someone who fought through waves of adversity to keep the team competitive. It’s hard to judge mediocrity without leaning too far one way or the other, and I think that’s where the Nuggets — at least compared to the rest of the brutal West — are heading.
Kalen: As a good, defensive-minded head coach. It’s difficult to comprehend just how inconsiderate fans were last year in Shaw’s first season at the helm. In the eyes of the detractors (aka, Karl apologists) it was as if the Nuggets were completely healthy, when in fact a handful of the team’s most valuable commodities were out either the entire year or most of the year with injuries. If the Nuggets remain healthy this season Shaw should receive the respect and admiration he deserves.
7. What will be the Nuggets’ biggest team storyline and how will this team be remembered?
Tom: The whole team storyline will be about the battle for playoff positioning and the eventual tough loss in six or seven games in the first round. The intra-team storyline will be about which players earn more minutes and which players fall off, particularly at the center spot. The team will be remembered as entertaining and competitive, but ultimately without enough high-end talent to make a deep playoff run.
Jim: As a team returning to the playoffs and for improved defense.
Joel: As a storyline, I think what happens with the roster may be more compelling than how well or poorly the team performs. With a fairly appealing array of assets now in tow, and the need to consolidate roster depth into more supercharged talent, it seems quite likely that Connelly will be gunning to land a “legit” star (he tipped his hand on this in his attempt to land Kevin Love). And what he accomplishes (or not) by the trade deadline may in large part define not only this season, but the direction of the team’s longer-term future as well.
David: One that involves deciding who will be a part of the future and who will be shipped off. This is a make or break year for both Gallo and McGee and the only cogs the franchise has really seemed intent on making sure will be there in years to come is Lawson and Faried. Everyone else will likely be playing for their right to stay.
Kalen: Return of the Mack. Return of the King. Return of the Jedi. Whatever it is, however you want to define it, the Nuggets of yore are back. This team should hover around that 50-win threshold like it did for so many years under George Karl. Now that they’ve had some time to adjust to Shaw’s system the Nuggets should improve vastly on defense and execute smoothly on offense. I see this team winning a spot in a lot of people’s hearts for playing tough, inspired basketball and fighting to the last second of the last game of the season — whenever that may be.
8. How enthusiastic will fans be about the team’s future?
Tom: Much more enthusiastic than they are right now. I don’t know which young guys will step up, but by the end of the year most fans will have a favorite rookie they want to see play more next year, and a favorite starter they think was an All-Star snub. Expectations for the team two or three years down the road will be high.
Jim: There will be excitement due to improvement but ultimately another first-round exit will cool the fervor.
Joel: Much more than a year ago. With better health and more experience playing together, the team should be much improved over last season — and everyone loves a winner. And for the fans attentive to salary and roster issues, the flexibility and range of options Denver has going forward (especially from 2016-17 when they’ll have a ton of cap space to work with) should have them intrigued and excited (and, albeit for some, scared) to see how the still largely untested front office continues building the team.
David: Still relatively enthusiastic. The Nuggets have a slew of assets and a front office that has, outside of the Hickson deal, yet to give fans any sign to worry. They still have to deal with being situated as just “pretty good” in a conference where very good is the only thing that cuts it, but the fresh faces in the Nuggets organizations have yet to wear thin yet.
Kalen: Probably more enthusiastic than they should be. Last year was such a disappointment whereas this year will likely be the opposite, a team exceeding expectations. Fans are just about the most capricious things in the world next to the weather, so I wouldn’t be surprised if people are over the moon for the 2015-16 season. What we have to keep in mind, however, is that this team’s success will hinge mostly on the roster improvements made by Tim Connelly and Co. If the front office does its job, the rest will take care of itself.
