Many felt the Denver Nuggets would not be the same team as they were with Carmelo Anthony after he was traded to the New York Knicks. However, after the trade, it was Denver that improved with their new pieces such as Wilson Chandler, and Raymond Felton while the Knicks went through an adjustment period and struggled to get things going.
Now Denver’s head coach George Karl feels the new-look Nuggets are a lot like the San Antonio Spurs:
I have to say we are a better basketball team only because of our defense. Offensively we would’ve been a very high caliber offensive team with Melo but the combination of how we played, where we got, and maybe just being together for a long period of time, we had lost our defensive intensity. That falls on my shoulders as much as it falls on Melo’s shoulders. The whole thing comes down when we changed we thought we would improve defensively but we never thought we would be 10 points better defensively. In a very quiet way our team has become what I call kind of a solid San Antonio Spur team. We don’t beat ourselves.
Indeed defense win championships and the Spurs are a testament to that philosophy. Not a bad team to compare your team to Karl.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
