Being Underdogs Will Only Help The Denver Nuggets

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The Denver Nuggets faced a season full of adversity during the 2013-14′ campaign, playing without key players such as Danilo Gallinari, JaVale McGee, Nate Robinson, and J.J. Hickson for all if not most of the season. Not to mention, Ty Lawson, Wilson Chandler, and Darrell Arthur missed quite a bit of time as well. Also, they had to learn a new style of play on the go with rookie head coach Brian Shaw, who will be entering his second season as the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

As I look around the internet, including ESPN, the Denver Nuggets are nowhere to be found in terms of making the playoffs. Why? This is basically the same team, minus Andre Iguodala and Corey Brewer, where they won 57 games. Personally, this team is even deeper and scarier, and I don’t think people have taken the time to notice.

The Nuggets drafted Doug McDermott 11th overall but made the right decision on trading down. They would receive two, solid players in Jusuf Nurkic (16th overall) and Gary Harris (19th overall) who need a little time to develop but they will be key players down the road. Denver would also re-acquire shooting guard Arron Afflalo in the offseason for Evan Fournier. Afflalo is what Denver needs, a shooting guard that can play lockdown perimeter defense and hit the three-pointer.

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Getting Afflalo back is great, but the return of Danilo Gallinari is even greater. Before tearing his ACL against the Mavericks in April of 2012, Gallinari was Denver’s leading scorer until Lawson was the main option down the stretch. Gallo went on to average 16.2 points on 41.8% percent shooting, knocking down 82.2% percent of his free-throws which was desperately missed. Denver was and has been an atrocious team at the charity stripe, which makes the return of Gallo and addition of Afflalo even sweeter.

As we move down the list, Kenneth Faried showed improvement during the second half of last season, and has now wowed us with his play in the 2014 FIBA World Cup. Faried averaged 12.4 points and 7.8 rebounds the entire tournament but put up those numbers in a limited role in terms of minutes. Once Faried played more, the stats increased as expected. Against Turkey, Faried played 28 minutes and made the most of it. He went on to shoot 11-for-14 from the field, including 22 points and 8 rebounds.

We still are unsure what we will get out of JaVale McGee, but Timofey Mozgov really made the most of his opportunity to start the rest of the season. The month of April was Mozzy’s best statistical month, even though it was just eight games. On Apr. 10th against the Golden State Warriors on the road, Mozzy recorded 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 29 rebounds to go along with 3 blocks. Wow. He would average 15.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in the month of April, which should solidify himself as the starter heading into the season.

This team is deep, maybe the deepest Denver has ever had. Names off of the bench include Nate Robinson, Randy Foye, Wilson Chandler, J.J. Hickson, JaVale McGee, Quincy Miller, Darrell Arthur, Jusuf Nurkic, and Gary Harris. Most, if not some of those guys, can/could be starters elsewhere.

In conclusion, I don’t know how people or experts for that matter are overlooking this team, but in the end, being the underdog will only help the Denver Nuggets.