What now for the Nuggets as dark clouds descend

In the space of two weeks one of arguably the most stable and promising franchises in the NBA has lost their two most important assets; the Nuggets are in free-fall and it’s now the job of the owners to fix their own mistakes.

Just over two weeks ago the NBA executive of the year 2013 Masai Ujiri decided to take his talents north of the border to Toronto, where he’d previously served as the assistant general manager (now becoming the general manager.)

Ujiri was offered $3m a year as well as being given in essence a clean slate; as a franchise the Raptors are completely rebuilding giving him an opportunity to working a large amount of cap space and freedom in the trade market in the coming summers. The Raptors are getting a guy who made losing Melo look like a good thing, a GM who shaped an ailing franchise into a remarkable .695% regular season record including a 35-3 record at the Pepsi Center.

The Nuggets head office are renowned for paying small executive salaries, reportedly less than a million, so to be offered over three times as much money per year would be hard for anyone to resist.

From a playing perspective both teams play a similar style of basketball, a high energy small ball game with future young stars Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan running the team’s offense right now. Despite a quiet first season young Lithuanian centre Jonas Valanciunas gives the team a variety of scoring options before Ujiri even has the chance to make some moves over the summer. For Toronto to progress into playoff contenders however they need an a more reliable point guard as well as a more prolific and defensive power forward, the team is too easily over-powered by big teams over 48 minutes.

The Raptors are also on the forefront of technological game analysis, using the system ‘Sportvu’ gives the coaching and executive staff to track the movement of every player, where they should, when they should shoot and how they cover the court; the system hasn’t been welcomed by the more experienced coaches in the league but time will tell if it works or not, Toronto certainly have given themselves the best young GM to help implement the system.

Denver Team President Josh Kroenke allowed Toronto to interview Masai, which was surprisingly only the second biggest mistake he’d make that week.

Just four days it was confirmed that NBA Coach of the year 2013 would not be returning for his 10th season with the organisation.

The reason? Well according to the Kroenke’s when the best coach in the league attempts to negotiate a contract extension you turn him down. The man who took you to the Western conference finals, turned your home court into a fortress, drafted effective players despite a late pick and assembled a roster worthy of a conference title without possessing a ‘superstar’ player, it seems only logical that you’d turn him away surely?

Losing Masai Ujiri the week previously should’ve highlighted the importance of stabilising the rest of the organisation but this seemed to not be the case, who knows maybe next week they’ll waive Ty Lawson’s contract.

It seems the playing squad is the only cog in the Denver machine to be unaffected by the recent changes and whoever takes of the reigns as GM and then as Head Coach will have a tough job convincing a Ujiri and Karl assembled roster that they can progress as a team.

Without a doubt the Kroenke’s will be looking for a young coach well versed on playing exciting basketball, high tempo entertaining play. An early contender emerging is Vinny Del Negro, a man who undoubtedly has proven he can get the most out of his team from all positions on the floor whilst promoting quick transition offence, something Karl’s team has thrived on over recent seasons.

The Denver Nuggets are in disarray, two major and avoidable losses have set the organisation back and regardless of who is hired, it will be the wrong choice. Choices that will only be justified through continued success and at least a top six finish in the Western Conference next year, something George Karl and Masai Ujiri undoubtedly would’ve accomplished.