By any measure, Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt has had one hell of an audition.
A 6-3 record since he took over after the Nuggets won one lousy game in the month of February certainly deserves a round of applause. But just as importantly, after a a season-and-a-half of passive-aggressive play under former head coach Brian Shaw, Hunt is commanding his players respect. His players like him, have played hard for him, and have publicly pushed for the front office to lift the interim tag from his title.
It’d be easy to say that this just another example of a dead-cat bounce, and while there would be some truth to that assessment, it’s not the entire truth. The Nuggets are trying harder under Hunt, but he’s also putting them in a much better position to play well. Hunt was in Denver as an assistant coach for both the Melo and post-Melo years and saw how George Karl put a more talented, but similarly constructed roster in a position to succeed. He has the Nuggets playing with urgency again, on both sides of the floor, and looking much more like the Nuggets who used to routinely leave opposing teams with their tongues hanging out at home.
Just look at what Kenneth Faried told the AP after the team’s win over Minnesota on March 3rd:
“Coach Mel knows us,” Faried said of the five-year assistant. “He’s been around us a lot longer than coach Shaw has. Coach Mel was around when George Karl was here. When I first got drafted he was here. (Assistant coach Patrick) Mutumbo was here for us. They just know our game and our people, and basically how we play off each other.”
The only problem with that is, judging from their actions over the past two years, a return to what made the Nuggets successful under Karl is exactly what the front office doesn’t want.
The whole reason president of basketball operations Josh Kroenke hired Shaw in the first place was because the team (and a large portion of the media, which here in Denver might be just as important) became convinced that his style was a poor fit for the playoffs. Shaw was weaned on the triangle under Phil Jackson, and while he never really implemented it in Denver, the Nuggets turned into a jump-shooting, post-up, boring team. In his season-opening press conference last fall, Shaw indicated that he preferred to generate offense with post play or from the elbow – which went about as well as expected considering the team’s roster.
Nuggets management clearly signed off on that plan, yet didn’t do anything to change a roster that was built with a specific style of play in mind. Hindsight is 20/20, but it was obvious a long time ago that the team spent was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
So now that the franchise has moved on from Shaw, do they change the peg (the players) or the hole (the team’s run-and-gun system)? Radio silence from Kroenke and vague statements from general manager Tim Connelly haven’t clarified anything since Shaw was fired, but if there’s one thing that should be clear now, is that this collection of players is still built to play with pace.
If that’s the plan, Hunt looks more than capable of getting the best out of his squad. But there’s been nothing to suggest that the Nuggets won’t double-down on their commitment to moving away from the sort of style that brought them so much success in the past.
If that’s the case, by now it should be obvious that to change the system, the front office has to change roster, and that idea is not unreasonable. Until Hunt took over, Denver’s roster had shown no indication that they can contend for a playoff spot as currently constructed. There are other reasons to start a complete overhaul as well: Faried has only recently begun to try and Ty Lawson has had numerous off-the-court issues this season to add to an already too long list of problems. Questions with effort and maturity make it tough for a front office to have confidence building around these guys, and that’s before mentioning Danilo Gallinari’s long road back from injury. Those guys are all making big money, but Faried and Lawson at least would draw interest around the league if the Nuggets ever made them available.
There have been other indicators that the Nuggets front office is looking to tear things down and start over. Wilson Chandler’s name has been floated so often in trade rumors it’s hard to keep them all straight, and in forcing Hunt to sit certain players down this month, the Nuggets top brass has indicated getting a top-five pick is more important than salvaging some sort of good feeling about the rest of the season – and the locker room clearly isn’t happy about that fact.
The merits of that plan can be debated, but there’s no denying the Nuggets are at a crossroads. If they decide to move forward by looking back and copying what made them successful in the past, it would make sense to give this core – plus some improvements via the draft – one more go with Hunt at the helm.
But I’m skeptical that the Kroenke will admit defeat. If the front office is determined to move ahead after almost a two-year stumble, it might not matter how well Hunt does over the rest of the season, because there is no telling who will be here at the start of next year.
Hunt deserves a head coaching job, and right now Denver looks like a perfect fit. But how that fit will change after an off-season of tinkering is anybody’s guess.
Zach Marburger is a staff writer for Mile High Sports. He can be reached via email at zmarburger@milehighsports.com or on Twitter @BurchBurger.
