I have a habit of focusing on the Nuggets' offensive mistakes and problems in greater detail than the defensive, but it turns out that in terms of damage done, the defensive flaws are bigger. The Nuggets like all teams have many flaws, but what things are they the absolute worst at as compared to other teams? There is no doubt about what the Nuggets are worst at, and they are so bad at these things that they can not hope to win a playoff series unless many of these things are improved. Here they are: 1. Defensive anticipation and intelligence: making the right guess as to where the play is going to go. 2. Defending the 3-point shot in general and getting a man on almost every 3-point shooter. 3. Rotating out of screens correctly to try to defend midrange jumpers and 3-pointers as much as possible. 4. Taking away the pass by hustling and blocking the passing lanes, and forcing a dribble or poor shot as much as possible. This is sometimes called “breaking down the offense”. 5. Forcing more turnovers in general and more steals in particular. The Nuggets are too afraid to "gamble" a little on defense and try for the extra steal by defending the passing lanes better. They act as if their opponents can not beat them with midrange jumpers and threes, which has been proved false over and over again, especially in the playoffs. Defense can not be limited to conservative and one-dimensional interior defending; you must have a defensive scheme that includes passing and outside shooting. 6. The Nuggets may need to commit a few more fouls in order to slow down the scoring, passing, and assisting rates of their opponents, which are practically off the scales. 7. Defending the other team's point guard better, especially the outstanding point guards. The Nuggets probably need to double point guards such as Chauncey Billups, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams. 8. Choosing correctly between zone and man to man defending. 9. The Nuggets if they hope to ever win a playoff series simply can not have a backcourt where both of the guards are 6 foot 3 inches or less. There should rarely if ever be two players on the court who are shorter than 6' 6" tall. 10. J.R. Smith has to start and play at least 30 minutes a game because he is 6’6” tall and because he is precisely the kind of guard defender that the Nuggets have been short on. He is a guard who not always but more and more frequently defends the midrange and 3-point shot correctly, who makes steals at a very good rate, and who generally helps more than the average player in disrupting the passing game of the other team. In particular, it's time for the coaches to stop being so terrified of having J.R. Smith guard point guards. Investigation shows that the Nuggets are terrible in these aspects of defending, whereas thanks to Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby, they are much better in interior man to man defending, as long as you know who does not do something stupid like put Kenyon Martin on a guard with no Nene available! There have been those who have criticized Marcus Camby for not helping enough with the above problems, but of all positions on a basketball team, the Center is the one that is least important in dealing with these problems on a correctly run team. Don't limit the blame to Marcus Camby if aspects of defending that are supposed to be guard, swingman, and coaching responsibilities are in a state of disaster. Or, to put it more crudely, Camby can't be expected to guard the interior and the perimeter at the same time.
I definitely throw in 1 offensive one. Improve 3 point shooting. Teams collapse on the Nuggets, because they have good bigs (Camby, Kmart, Nene, Kleiza, even Melo is strong down low, and AI loves driving or mid-range shots) Most of the Nuggets scoring is in the painted area, but they don't have the 3 point shooters to spread the floor. So opposing teams don't mind if they collapse the paint some and make it hard for the Nuggets.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ May 29 2008, 10:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I definitely throw in 1 offensive one. Improve 3 point shooting. Teams collapse on the Nuggets, because they have good bigs (Camby, Kmart, Nene, Kleiza, even Melo is strong down low, and AI loves driving or mid-range shots) Most of the Nuggets scoring is in the painted area, but they don't have the 3 point shooters to spread the floor. So opposing teams don't mind if they collapse the paint some and make it hard for the Nuggets.</div> Yes, the Nuggets are hopeless in this, which also kills them in the playoffs. If you combine the poor 3-point shooting on offense with the terrible 3-point shot defending, the Nuggets act as if the 3-point shot does not exist. But not only does it exist, it's even more important in the playoffs than it is in the regular season.
