sure. . . it's disheartening, to say the least. . . in all honesty, though, it's not my top gripe with our front office. . . they have drafted pretty well overall, it's not realistic to expect perfection. . . it's not like mitchell was some consensus, top five talent that they passed on. . . how many other point guards were taken before him? not saying i'm not bummed about it. . . i'm more pissed about their failure to land either jimmy butler or paul george, though-- those guys are known stars, terrific fits for what we needed roster-wise, and both were available for pennies on the dollar. . . instead we went all-in on an over-the-hill second-tier star on a short deal. . . ahh, what could have been. . .
So, answer me this:
Why is it that the Broncos can attract excellent players that will then typically make Denver their home and the Nuggets can't? Is it ownership? Is it really location? Why wouldn't LeBron come here and attract other very good free-agents?
Nearly everyone that comes to Denver stays. I don't get it.
because NFL players by and large aren't the spoiled babies that NBA stars are. . . because the nuggets have never had a winning culture, and the broncos have always had a winning culture. . . because the broncos have had star players like von miller and peyton manning, and the nuggets have never had legitimate, big-time stars. . . because the NFL has a franchise tag and a hard salary cap, and legitimate parity, while the NBA does not. . . because the broncos are run by a legend, and the nuggets are run by nobodies. . .
edit; i realize that it's a long time ago now, and doesn't really matter, but i wanted to strangle everyone involved when we had the all-star game back in '05. . . with the entire basketball world watching, we had a chance to show that we were a real, grown-up, cosmopolitan city, instead of the ridiculous and badly dated "dusty cow town" stereotypes. . . what did they do? put a gawddamn rodeo on stage for the halftime show. . . morons! that alone probably set us back five more years. . .
Last edited by dogfish; 06-07-2018 at 01:25 PM.
Denver has to land a transcendent star that sticks - that's what attracts FA's. They landed one in 'Melo, but he's not an attractive teammate, historically.
It sucks for the Nuggets in that sense - they try to get those guys. They wanted Kyrie, they wanted Chris Paul, etc. They just can't get the ball rolling, and it's a death sentence.
My theories:
1.) There is an ownership and tradition element to that. Bowlen is one of the most respected owners in the NFL. Kroenke Jr. is not in the NHL or NBA. The Broncos have a tradition of winning and a GM that is a part of that tradition. There's mystique. That doesn't exist with the Nuggets. That is a hard cycle to fix, and if you have it, it's something you don't want to give up.
2.) NBA stars seem to be more marketable in today's world and that pushes them to the largest markets (Manning is the obvious outlier here, but part of his charm was the midwestern/southern, good ole' boy thing). LeBron has a future in entertainment. He wants a big market, which is why I'm convinced he's going to go to Hollywood. He already has two homes there and a massive amount of investments in the community. I believe Maverick Carter's (LeBron's business partner) business is based in LA now. It has a partnership with Warner Brothers and Bleacher Report. The Bleacher Report portion, Uninterrupted, is based in LA. I'm guessing the Warner Brothers part is too.
3.) Talent around him. The Lakers have the money to attract two other max free agents in the next two years, so he can form another group like he had in Miami and to a lesser extent in Cleveland prior to this year. If he doesn't choose LA, and chooses the other two most speculated destinations, Philadelphia and Houston, it's because they'd be championship ready when he arrived.
4.) There's a collective bargaining and revenue sharing aspect to this. Why can the Yankees and Red Sox attract the biggest free agents and not Kansas City? The revenue sharing is lesser and the individual TV deals (the NFL doesn't have local TV deals) are larger in those markets.
Hey dog/buff/MO--was it a disaster letting Masai walk?
Originally Posted by Sting
they're never going to get one of those guys as a free agent. . . their only hope is to develop one in-house, who will then bring the other stars. . . it would be nice if the effing refs would give jokic some recognition. . . this is one of the reasons that missing on mitchell hurts so bad. . .
I go back and forth on Masai. He's obviously done a decent job up in Toronto, but two years in a row, they've bounced early and he's changed things underneath him. The first time (this year), the shift to a more 3-point oriented offense (they called it a culture shift, without ever expressing what it was specifically) didn't work, so he's fired Casey. We'll see if that works for him.
He also seems to be more of a loose cannon in interviews than I remember. He's said some remarkably dumb things at fan fests, as well.
ainge is obviously a good GM. . . he also got wildly, unbelievably lucky when brooklyn agreed to the worst desperation trade ever made. . . he also has the full weight of an east coast market and a storied program behind him-- i think other guys could also have succeeded given the assets that he had to work with. . . hiring brad stevens was a masterstroke, though, you have to give him credit for that. . .
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