On Feb. 22, 2011, the day that Carmelo Anthony was getting everything he wanted — the huge contract and a trade back to his home, New York — the Nuggets were left wondering what was next.
Team president Josh Kroenke and then-general manager Masai Ujiri got what they wanted in the trade: multiple promising players who ensured the Nuggets would not fade into obscurity. But they weren’t certain where the total makeover would lead.
A team that had subscribed to the star system, rolling Anthony, Allen Iverson and Chauncey Billups through the roster in an eight-year span, was facing a new future.
As Kroenke said, the roster “was dictated to us.”
And with it, so was their new identity.
Then-coach George Karl embraced it, loved it, protected it and was dead set on proving you could win big in the NBA without proven stars. In 2012, he very nearly proved himself right. The Nuggets steamrolled to the third-best record in the Western Conference, only to get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by Golden State.
Soon after, Karl was fired. The general manager left. But the philosophy did not. And now, two seasons later, the Nuggets enter their second year under coach Brian Shaw coming off a 36-win season and staring at the realization that this, quite possibly, is it. The deepest roster in Nuggets franchise history has to put up or will probably be broken up at season’s end if the group doesn’t produce.
“This is a big year for the organization, from top to bottom,” Kroenke said Tuesday.
It’s an experiment that appears to have an expiration date.
“I think this is the year,” Nuggets guard Ty Lawson said. “Everybody is healthy. We have no excuses. Everybody is older, we have no rookies at each position; it’s all veterans. This will be the year to prove that this works, or not.”
Numbers game
Even as they talk up the worth of their plan, winning with numbers, not stars, the Nuggets are also straddling the fence.
This team’s slogan ‘Power in Numbers’ is in constant rotation in television commercials, in the arena during the player introduction video, and on the radio.
“With the depth we have, and with Brian doing such a great job, we look forward to returning to the playoffs,” general manager Tim Connelly said.
And yet Connelly and the front office are also interested in condensing the roster at some point and getting back into the ‘star’ business. In the summer, the Nuggets were in conversations with Minnesota about what it might take to pry then-Timberwolves star Kevin Love off the roster via trade. Connelly has always made it known that he’s first and foremost interested in improving the roster.
Soon, finances will be on his side.
In two years, the Nuggets’ payroll will shrink from its current $73 million to around $29 million. Connelly said the Nuggets have no “albatross contracts” to be concerned about. After the next two seasons every player’s contract will have expired except recently extended forward Kenneth Faried, Lawson — who goes into the final year of his deal in 2016-17 — the two draft picks, Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic, and reserve guard Erick Green.
The Nuggets, therefore, are entering a period of time when money starts to really turn in their favor, and they’ll have total control over how they shape their roster for the first time since the Anthony trade.
And that makes part of this season an evaluation. If the team underperforms and a teardown begins, management wants to have a clear idea of which players they want to retain during the roster remodel. If the Nuggets do well, they should have the finanacial flexibility to make moves in order to mold the roster into one that continues to push them toward their stated goal of playing for an NBA title.
Equipped for battle
Shaw is relatively new to the power-in-numbers format, but proving to others that it can win doesn’t burn inside him the way it did with his predecessor, George Karl.
“I don’t even look at it like winning ‘this way,’ so I don’t even let that occupy my mind,” Shaw said. “It’s like, this is who we’re going to battle with and so we’ve got to make sure we have enough ammunition, that we’re prepared, that we can execute and do all of those things. Because you still have to do all of those things even if you have stars.”
For that reason Shaw isn’t viewing this season as a referendum one way or another on winning without a star.
“I don’t know if it’s the last hurrah,” Shaw said. “It might be the last hurrah for me (coaching the team). I’ve been on teams that have been fortunate to have stars. And I was with an Indiana team that was very good that didn’t have a star, that had young players that were up-and-coming, that were just a solid group. And I like the feel of that as well. So I don’t mind the fact that we don’t have a superstar. I like our team, I like our depth. This is the first time that I’m going to be able to coach that.”
The Nuggets believe they have a star in the making in Faried, who they recently signed to a four-year, $50 million extension, but he must continue to grow in the fashion he has ever since being drafted in 2011.
In Lawson, Shaw believes he has the making of an elite level player. But the point guard has to be more detail oriented to progress from good to great. Lawson has been with the Nuggets through the entire transition. He was given the keys to the team as the starting point guard the day of the Anthony trade, which removed Billups from the roster as well.
He said he thinks it can and will work. But “if it doesn’t work, it’s up to management” to make the changes they feel necessary.
“But this is a good test to see if this model works,” Lawson said.
Shaw shrugs.
“I’ve only been here for one year since that Melo trade,” he said. “If every team could have one or two or three, in some cases, superstars, they would. But there’s not that many to go around. So you’ve got to make the most of what you have with the team that you have.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost
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Spotlight on Spencer Dinwiddie: The former CU Buff’s decision to enter the NBA draft despite having a torn ACL has paid off, as he’ll be in town as a member of the Pistons. He was cleared to play about a week ago and promptly scored eight points and had six assists in 15 minutes of the Pistons’ final preseason game. Injuries to Pistons backcourt players might provide a chance for Dinwiddie to play a big role in the opener.
