The elevation in Denver is high but the Nuggets’s chances of winning many evenings are low. The Nuggets have some promising young players who are getting minutes in Jokic, Harris, and Mudiay along with good veterans Gallinari and Chandler and some prospects. The prospect getting the most run right now is Murray.
The payroll isn’t bad at all and the expectations might be reasonable. There isn’t a designated superstar who has taken the league by storm so they can fly low and avoid the radar. As always avoiding injuries and self destruction will be huge. Of course that’s stating the obvious but too many sports writers act like writing the obvious is earth shattering news.
The Nuggets franchise has had some very nice runs and featured great players Alex English, Dan Issel, and David Thompson. George Karl successfully coached there and recently put himself back in the news with some incendiary comments he made in his new book. He later backtracked from those comments after some players he had negatively written about took offense. Multiple Olympics gold medal winner and never NBA champion Carmelo Anthony was a target of Karl’s criticism. Anthony has taken much criticism throughout his career and that comes with his decisions and failures to win.
In Los Angeles the Lakers still can’t play defense and the Clippers still can’t stay healthy or avoid self destructing. Clarkson isn’t playing well and neither is Crawford. Clarkson’s deal is larger and he’s younger so that’s more troubling to those who care. Houston, San Antonio, and Golden State have made the Clippers second page news and though some will hype them they’re a long shot to make the Finals. Paul has played very well since returning from injury but unless he leaves or things there change drastically he’s another Kevin Johnson or John Stockton.
You read here that Derrick Rose’s life has played out like a tragedy. Of course the tragedy continues because he skipped a recent game and failed to notify his bosses and because his wiring hasn’t changed. Rose supposedly wants a huge deal for his next contract. Rose is worth maybe 2 years $24 million. If some team gives him a big deal God help them all. If Rose is lucky he becomes like Allen Iverson and avoids big trouble. If he’s unlucky he’s another O.J. Simpson. He refuses to grow up and has that low IQ willful streak that harms too many people. Shaq and Barkley have low IQs but they’re teachable and seemingly hate the idea of prison so they play to their strengths and have surrounded themselves with the right people. Rose’s friends are pure trash.
This piece was written by Jim Swigart. Jim has been seriously writing for at least eight years and previously wrote about music for a now defunct online magazine for about two years. Jim briefly blogged about sports for an online site and currently blogs weekly about sports on his own site.
His academic background is in business and math. He has done numerous work tasks besides writing. My interests include exercise, sports, music, and politics. You can reach James for questions at [email protected]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
