Thread: The Official Denver Nuggets Thread!

Originally Posted by Benetto

Did I ever say Kobe isn't dirty? What should I get over bro? A little mad i can see...

I was just refering to the K-Mart is a bitch stuff. Yes I am a little upset. Were you not after the Celtics last year?............................................. .................................................. ....................

Heck of a run, hard way to watch it come to an end.

Hopefully Denver can build on this and make a competitive run next year.

Well, no doubt in my mind the correct team is headed to the finals!

Nuggets had a great run and it feels good not to be the laughing stock of the NBA. Hopefully they can build on this and have another deep run next year. Good job by the Lakers, but I hope Orlando/Cleveland can beat them because them winning is getting really old!

Thank you Denver Nuggets for a great season. For a team that many picked to miss the playoffs, I think you did ok!

(good job Lakers, too)

Thank you Nuggets for one heck of a run by a team that was not even picked to make the playoffs. As Scott Hastings just said - this is not the end - it is the beginning.

NUGGETS

Originally Posted by slim

Well, it was a good run.

Nice season by the nugs.

Bump

Well it was fun, disappointing by the lose, but man. did you think we would get this far? Lets not blame the refs they are not worth our time, and let the NBA have Kobe cuz the Lakers are not winning the finals. This is a young and good team lets hope they don't pull a Rockies and blow it up, and if we don't I expect a more mature and maybe better nuggets team in 2010. So for the nuggets we should give them a standing O, and be pumped for next years team. Now we have the way down graded Broncos to look forward too, awesome!

They played horrible game and they took too many missing shots.

Originally Posted by Magnificent Seven

They played horrible game and they took too many missing shots.

Thanks, Einstein.

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

Thank you Nuggets for one heck of a run by a team that was not even picked to make the playoffs. As Scott Hastings just said - this is not the end - it is the beginning.

NUGGETS

It's hard when it ends, but I am so proud of this team and all they did this year. They came so far and made it to one of the final four teams left in the NBA. So I hope they can build on what they learned this year hit the ground running next year. It's May 30th and the Nuggets just finished their season, thank you Nuggets for a great run!!!

I'm sad

Originally Posted by getlynched47

I'm sad

i know the broncos are going to suck.... lol

Great series guys and gals, really...Ill be the first and last Laker fan to admit that Denver played better, wanted it more, and was robbed in some aspects of the series...

I know if the Nuggets would have won, a lot of you would rub it in my face, gloat, and talk a lot of shit...but I will not...Good series, and good luck next year.

Hey at least you have a solid team now with Chauncy...

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

Thank you Nuggets for one heck of a run by a team that was not even picked to make the playoffs. As Scott Hastings just said - this is not the end - it is the beginning.

NUGGETS

I'm sad that its over, but this team has many many many years ahead of itselft. Melo turned 25 today...JR Smith is only 23, LK is 24 ( hopefully he will be back next year) and on and on. Its a very young team and it showed in games 3, 5, and 6.

I hope this is the taste these young guys needed to see what it takes ....and leadership from Chauncey.

Good run by the Nuggets. They will be back.

Kudos to the Nuggets for playing their hearts out. I expect them to be back next year. Billups is the Man.

Time for the Finals....Lets Go Lakers!!!!

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/feature...ver/index.html

DENVER -- Chauncey Billups made his way through the Nuggets locker room looking impeccable in a tailored suit as he sought out each and every locker room attendant and offered a fist pound, a hug or even his phone number before exiting into the Denver night.

It was an act of mindfulness that you just don't find in an athlete minutes after his season ends in a crushing 119-92 home loss with his team just two wins away from The Finals. You could never imagine the scene playing out with the guy he was traded for back in November -- not the outfit, not the selflessness, not the last day of work for the year coming just three days before the start of June.

"I'll holla at you later," Billups could be heard saying.

He could have been speaking on behalf of his entire Nuggets team and addressing the competition known as the Western Conference finals. Denver will be back, it's certainly not done making noise.

"I think we've proven that we're a top team in the West and in the NBA period," Carmelo Anthony said.

Oh, they have. The Nuggets were a combined 4-20 in the Playoffs in the last five seasons. They were swept out of the first round by Los Angeles last year even. This year, they exit gracefully, giving the Lakers all they could handle in a 4-2 series loss, finishing their remarkable run with 10 playoff wins against just six losses.

"It's been a pretty damn good series," head coach George Karl said before Game 6 on Friday. "In a lot of ways we helped them get their pieces back together. In a lot of ways, they helped us grow up faster."

It had been 24 years since Denver last reached the conference finals. The franchise picked up a lot of tarnish (and tattoos) in that time too. Winning just 21 games in 1996-97, 11 games in '97-98 and 27 games in '02-03 will do that to a team. So will players like Ruben Patterson and top-five draft picks like Nikoloz Tskitishvilli.

In the 11 days Denver went toe-to-toe with the heavily favored Lakers for the right to play for the championship, the Nuggets rewrote that history.

"We came a long way as a team and for me personally, this feels like a new beginning for me," Anthony said after electrifying the basketball world with the precision and power intermingled in his game on the grandest stage.

Smith, just 23 years old, is a vital part of just how good this team can be in the future. With Dahntay Jones an impending free agent, Smith needs to find consistency fill the void left by Jones on defense should he have to fill in as the starting two guard next season.

"In my opinion, yes, [I've earned the right to start], in some people's opinion, no," Smith said. "But I just think about trying to go forward from here, get back in the gym on Monday and go to work.

Denver will have decisions to make about Jones and key bench players in Andersen, Linas Kleiza and Anthony Carter who are all up for new contracts this summer. The Nuggets can at least be assured they'll have a qualified person making those choices, vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien was just named the league's Executive of the Year.

"Whatever story you want to write tonight, write a good one," Karl said as he closed the door on 2008-09, the season that revived the Nuggets franchise. "White a good one about Nene. Write a good one about Chris Andersen. Write a good one about Carmelo Anthony. Write a good one about Dahntay Jones and Kenyon Martin and write a good one about A.C., and don't think about what happened for the last two and a half hours, because there's too much good in this season not to celebrate."

Said Billups: "I think the culture has been changed in our locker room. It's something that they needed in the worst way before the season started. And I think that the proper adjustments have been made to try and make a run every single year now."

There's a sign that hangs in the Denver locker room that reads: "Team Work Makes The Dream Work."

The notion of a title in the Nuggets' future moved a little bit closer from dream to reality on Friday. The Denver youngins are bound to holla back.

Anthony averaged 27.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in the series, rightfully stepping into the spotlight as one of the game's truly elite players, joining the likes of Kobe Bryant (whom he volunteered to guard), Chris Paul (who he blew out by 58 points the first round), LeBron James (who he used to draw favorable comparisons to when they entered the league as rookies together), Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade and the like.

"We all need each other," Anthony said. "No one man can do it, nobody by themselves. We give Chauncey a lot of credit. We give Bird [Chris Andersen] a lot of credit. But our team, we give ourselves a lot of credit. We came together as a unit, as a team and got through everything."

"Everything" of course included some problems brought upon themselves. The Nuggets collected 11 technical fouls throughout the course of the series, often at inopportune times that sparked Lakers runs. J.R. Smith was brilliant in Games 4 and 6 (48 points on a combined 19-for-34 shooting), but he was equally frustrating in Games 2, 3 and 5 (19 points on a combined 8-for-34 shooting).

"Our mishaps cost us," said Kenyon Martin, who along with Nene and Andersen created one of the most formidable -- if not unlikely -- frontlines in the league this season after all three players bounced back from a personal struggle: knee surgeries, testicular cancer and a league drug ban, respectively.