Denver Nuggets: Bet The House On Brook Lopez

Never in my life have I seen the Denver Nuggets in such disarray that the head coach is saying the players aren’t trying their hardest, the star player is admitting the coach is fed up, and the team is losing by 20 points – consistently – even at the Pepsi Center.

And I was alive during the 2002-03 season where the Nuggets went 17-65 and finished as the worst team in the Western Conference.

Wow. Something went really wrong this season, and the team is showing no signs of getting over it. The Nuggets have lost 11 of their last 12 games, and even Deadspin is reporting on how much of a train wreck they’ve become, with the headline “The Denver Nuggets are a burning clown car plunging into a gorge.”

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The Nuggets last four losses – by 30 at Memphis, by 18 at home against lowly Charlotte, by eight against the worst team in the league in Philly, and by four at lowly Boston – are just embarrassing…not as embarrassing as the Golden State loss, though.

The recent losing is especially bad considering Ty Lawson is still top two in the NBA in assists per game, they have four players (Lawson, Arron Afflalo, Kenneth Faried, and Wilson Chandler) averaging more than 10 points a game, and they have a talented roster that has Alonzo Gee (a starter on the Cavaliers the past two seasons) as their last player off the bench. They simply shouldn’t be THIS bad, they simply should not lose to bottom feeding Eastern Conference teams.

The embarrassing losses this roster is compiling have caused plenty of calls for a pink slip for head coach Brian Shaw – even from the Denver Post. I also mentioned that any more blowouts should lead to his dismissal.

Blaming the coach is a huge misdiagnosis of the Nuggets current problems though. The roster is simply broken. The Nuggets are unmotivated, they’re losing in close fashion and in blowouts, and exemplified by two late inbound-play turnovers to seal their fate in Boston, they just don’t know how to play with each other.

It’s officially time for general manager Tim Connelly to blow the roster up as much as humanly possible. There are 13 days before the trade deadline and the only Nuggets that need to remain in Denver are rookie center Jusuf Nurkic and Ty Lawson.

Feb 4, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Denver Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson (3) reacts in the final seconds of the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The Boston Celtics won 104-100. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports /

It’s time for Connelly to bend a little bit to the Brooklyn Nets’ demands for star center Brook Lopez. Last week, ESPN reported the Nuggets made a push to give up JJ Hickson and JaVale McGee‘s close-to-expiring contracts with a draft pick to get the center, but fell short.

Given the losses we’ve suffered since that offer though, it’s time to throw in Wilson Chandler, another draft pick, or whatever the Nets want besides Nurkic and Lawson. Why keep the team intact when they are a complete mess? Why hold on to anyone when they’re losing like this? It’s not working, so the risk in giving up assets is minimal in order to get closer to a return to the playoffs.

The big risk for the Nuggets lies in the fact that Lopez has a player option to become a free agent after this season, and even if he picks it up he is a free agent after next season. Can Connelly risk an asset like Chandler for a big who might leave town right away?

Connelly can risk it, and Connelly should risk it. Lopez presents a great reward for the Nuggets. Lopez would be a perfect fit for Brian Shaw’s inside-out big man focused coaching, and he would be the PERFECT mentor to Nurkic.

Even if Lopez bolts to a big market after a season in Denver, just having Nurkic go head-to-head in practice for a year could do wonders for the young star’s development. Nurkic is still second in rookie efficiency this season, and Lopez’s mentorship could potentially give Denver the best frontcourt in the NBA in a couple years if he stays.

Even if Connelly fails to keep the big star in Denver, at least it means McGee, Hickson, and Chandler would be gone, and with their departure a true repair on this broken and hard-to-watch roster would begin.

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