The Denver Nuggets Won't Get it Done in the NBA Playoffs

Before Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant did it, only one other team in the history of the NBA had won a championship with two players who were in the top four in scoring average. Thus, teams that have faced this scenario have only won 2 championships out of the 11 times this has happened. The Denver Nuggets are hoping to make that 3 for 12.

When you think about it, there are many reasons to explain why that it is. Although, I do understand the natural inclination to be bewildered by that outcome given that those 11 teams clearly had two of the better players in the NBA.

The problem with having two, not just great scorers, but the most productive scorers in the league, is that those players typically require controlling the ball in order to score. You see the difference between the Duncan/Ginobili combination and the Carmelo Anthony/Allen Iverson combo is that the former can score by running an offensive system around them.

Duncan can set up the pick and roll, or pick and pop, and he can be efficient as the benefactor of the natural offense. The same goes for Ginobili who can shoot.

However, with AI and 'Melo, they need the ball in their hands. Neither one of them is known for their spot up shooting, and even when they are hitting from the outside, it is very streaky. So in cases where the game is only line, or just any point in the game where opposing team has decided to play lock down defense on the two stars, it's going to force them to give up the ball, or worse yet, force shots, thereby rendering the offense inefficient. And you just can have those long spurts, or closing minute droughts in the playoffs.

Yet the only way to avoid them is to be able to move the ball around, trust the offense, and have depend on scoring from the natural progression of your offense instead of one-on-one ball.

But the Nuggets are incapable of that. AI is one of the greatest one-on-one players in the history of the league. And even though he is very adept at passing the ball, that's his second option, and it's not a part of his game that he is likely to exercise in the waning seconds of a playoff contest. Not because he doesn't want to, but because it doesn't come natural to him.

'Melo is the same way. He is score first player, who wants the ball on the wing or in the high post. That's how he operates. He doesn't run around screens, rotate of the pick, back door cut, or spot up and shoot. No, he is a guy who operates with the entire defense looking at him, while his players stand around waiting and expecting him to score. That's just not going to get in done in the playoffs, which is why the Nuggets went home early last year.

It's also why the Nuggets are in danger of missing the playoffs this year. In fact, they weren't going to have a shot at the playoffs, in my opinion, if Yao Ming didn't go down for the season. Now, by the unfortunate graces of that injury, the Nuggets will probably slide into that 8^th spot, and go up against the first seed of the West. There they will be immediately encounter a team who's sole purpose is to take "Melo and A.I. out of the game, and make the other bystanders beat team. And for one or two games, a guy like JR Smith or Marcus Camby will put forth a big offensive performance, and the Nuggets may come out of the series with a respectable 2 wins.

However, in the end, they will go nowhere. Despite their possession of two of the best players in the game today (two All-stars mind you!); they won't be a factor in the playoffs. History projects that, and the present is validating it. Thus the Nuggets future is already written in stone:

"Gone fishing..."