This is in response to the ESPN Nene evaluation and prediction done by John Hollinger.</p> I'm going to agree with Hollinger across the board on his Nene analysis. In a word, Nene was huge last year, and allowed the Nuggets to emerge from the "you fools paid way to much for Nene" syndrome. "Nene is back" was a rallying cry in the Denver lockeroom last year. As Hollinger states, the most amazing thing of all about Nene was that hekept getting better and better as the season went along, until he was giving Duncan all he could handle in the series. As Hollinger notes, Nene brilliantly adjusted his shooting to mostly layups and close-in shots. And, it has to be noted, Nene was playing through pain in alot of games last year. The Brazilian is a gamer and a keeper.</p> He does get tricked and beat too easily sometimes, but the Nuggets would get utterly destroyed in the paint without him. And with Evans gone, Nene will have to do even more rebounding this year than last.</p> We just need for Nene to keep the fat off and to avoid any further knee or leg problems. Is that too much to ask?</p> If the Nuggets are without both Nene and K-Mart at any time, they are almost always going to betoast. The Nuggets, at a minimum, need the services of one of the two at all times,because Camby-Melo-Najera or Camby-Melo-Kleizaare good examples of the types of front court defensive squads that the top teams in the West just laugh at, and there is no way Karl is going to give alot of minutes to Bobby Jones, so how good he might be up front in relief of Nene or K-Mart is irrelevant. If both Nene and K-Mart were out, Karl would play Najera all day before he would play Jones much.Kleiza's minutes in that situation would depend on Karl's Kleiza judgment at the time; it's been varying from one extreme to the other. No matter how good Najera is on defense, and opinions differ, everyone must agree that Najera is too unproductive offensively most of the time for the Nuggets to be successful with him getting alot of minutes. And Kleiza istoo slow and not quite physical enough to be a good defender. In summary, the Nuggets will be all but ruined whenever both K-Mart and Nene are out. Just about the only way to win a game against a decent team without Nene and K-Mart would be for Melo and A.I. to get 60 points or more on 45% shooting or better, with turnovers kept to a minimum.</p> So, if it's not too much to ask, aside from Nene's knees and legs staying good, I'd also like to ask that K-Mart's rehabbed knees hold out for the whole season and that Camby be sidelined for no more than a dozen games with back and wrist problems and so forth. I won't trouble you right now about J.R. Smith, because I don't want to come across as too demanding. Thanks in advance, God.</p>
The one problem with Nene is that he is very sensitive and doesn't work hard if he doesn't fell 100%. He has taken a lot of crap from the front office and his teammates about the length of time it has taken him to "recover" from his calf injury.</p> That said, everyone knows they need Nene, but they still want him to stop being so soft.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> The one problem with Nene is that he is very sensitive and doesn't work hard if he doesn't fell 100%. He has taken a lot of crap from the front office and his teammates about the length of time it has taken him to "recover" from his calf injury.</p> That said, everyone knows they need Nene, but they still want him to stop being so soft.</p> </div></p> ...and so pudgy. Seriously though, I used to think that being soft with minor injuries was a problem with Camby, but when I saw Camby playing alot with his hand wrapped last year, I backed off of that idea. Whenever he went out last year, Camby kept coming back faster than everyone was predicting. Camby would go out, I would pronounce the Nuggets dead and buried, and then Camby would be back in within a game or two. In order to be optimistic, I am assuming that Camby will fight off and play through relatively minor problems this year in the way that he did last year.</p> In general, how well the Nuggets do this year will be partly a reflection of how good their trainers and doctors are. I am always surprised to see how many teams have "No Injuries Reported" under their names on the injury page. It's been a long time since the Nuggets have had no injuries.</p>
