Posts Tagged ‘Masai Ujiri’

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Denver’s Whole Much More Than Sum Of Its Parts

March 24, 2013  ·  1:50PM

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Back in 1985, give or take a generation depending on what year was dialed in, Doc Brown retro-fitted a campy DeLorean with a few spare parts he had around his workshop and spawned an entire time-traveling series of Hollywood comedies.

Nearly 30 years later, Denver Nuggets VP of basketball operations Masai Ujiri has cobbled together a roster largely out of spare parts, discards and items from the NBA’s great cutout bin and essentially made time stand still. As in another multiplex favorite, the one with Bill Murray and the rodent in which every day and night ends up the same: Win, win, win, win …

Consider the two hottest teams in The Association at the moment and how they came to be. The Miami Heat, aiming for their 26th consecutive victory Sunday evening against Charlotte, were conceived in a lightning bolt and thunderclap moment of AAU-comes-to-NBA inspiration, the brainstorm of the three key Hall of Fame-caliber players involved. Then there are the Nuggets.

Denver, which extended its lower profile winning streak to 15 games Saturday night, have made do – and made dangerous – with far more humble pieces than the crew in south Florida. At the risk of putting a silly “NBA.com has learned…” spin on something that’s been hiding in plain sight, it is worth looking again (if you haven’t done so recently) at the how the Nuggets’ roster was built:

  • Drafted (3): Kenneth Faried (2011, Round 1, No. 22 overall); Evan Fournier (2012, Round 1, No. 20 overall), and Quincy Miller (2012, Round 2, No. 38 overall).
  • Trades (9): Corey Brewer, Wilson Chandler, Jordan Hamilton, Andre Iguodala, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Kosta Koufos, JaVale McGee, Andre Miller and Timofey Mozgov.
  • Free agents (2): Anthony Randolph and Julyan Stone.

Looked at as a group, the ensemble nature of what Denver and coach George Karl are doing this season – 15 straight, 49-22, fourth-best record in the league with a legit chance to catch OKC to claim the Northwest Division and the West’s No. 2 seed – is amazing and undeniable. That whole sure had better be greater than the sum of its parts, because its parts, on paper especially, wouldn’t scare hardly anybody.

Faried’s sleeper status out of Morehead State has gotten wide play by now. But it’s indicative of Denver’s recent draft history, with the Nuggets stuck at No. 20 or lower for their last 10 picks overall. The last single-digit guy – heck, the last lottery guy – by the Nuggets? Carmelo Anthony in 2003.

As for player acquired via trades, look how many current Nuggets were disappointing Something-Elses before they made it to Denver. Brewer, Randolph and Koufos, huge contributors on a surging team, were left at the curb by Minnesota. So, in a pre-arranged draft night trade, was Lawson, on the same date the Timberwolves spent the No. 6 pick on Jonny Flynn.

Andre Miller was considered old and broken-down by some at age 34, after five teams and 12 seasons. Chandler, Gallinari, Mozgov (and Quincy Miller, as a future pick) were, at the time of the Anthony trade, the best Ujiri and the Nuggest could do when faced with a marquee player who wanted out. Hamilton was a throw-in from Dallas to Portland to Denver on the night he was drafted in June 2011 at No. 26.

McGee? He was classic addition-by-subtraction for Washington, eager to reduce the knuckleheads quotient of its locker room. Even Iguodala, so helpful at both ends and in a leadership role, had fallen out of favor in Philadelphia.

Ujiri, early this season, referred to the process as a “rough two years.” Yet the Nuggets did not drop out of the playoffs in that span. They did not, obviously, sit and pine for pricey, big-name free agents they weren’t going to get anyway.

They took what was available and, with Ujiri working as hard in the front office as Karl on the sideline and the players on the court, rigged it MacGyver-style into something special. Gourmet chefs, three-star restaurants and the finest meats and veggies often make for great meals, but occasionally so do leftovers used creatively in perfect balance.

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Nuggets Way More Than Mellow As Anthony’s Return Game Nears

March 10, 2013  ·  2:23PM

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If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse, according to many NBA team builders.

It’s an admirable mindset, encouraging risk and aggressive personnel moves. But in the case of the Denver Nuggets, it was entirely accurate.

From 2003-04 through 2010-11, Denver won an average of 48.5 games – never more than 54, never fewer than 43 – and qualified for the playoffs eight straight times. But it advanced beyond the first round only once, making it to the Western Conference finals in 2009. Year in, year out, the Nuggets relied on Carmelo Anthony‘s heroics to carry the greatest load – and to outweigh Anthony’s theatrics.

Then Anthony fussed his way out of the Mile High City completely in February 2011 and, lo and behold, the power still was on at the Pepsi Center the next day. Life continued. Denver didn’t nosedive. George Karl got a chance to flex his coaching and player-development skills without butting heads with a younger, equally stubborn star player and what the Nuggets might have lost in the quality of that one guy (Anthony), it believed it made up in the combined skills of quantity.

With Anthony due to face his former team Wednesday for the first time in Denver since the trade, the Denver Post’s Benjamin Hochman looked at the Nuggets’ decision to swap marquee power for the strength of ensemble. He spoke with GM Masai Ujiri about the transformation, more than two years later:

“I think it was a win-win for both teams,” Ujiri said. “Both teams have moved on, even though people talk about it. We’re happy with the growth of those players. It’s kind of what we hoped it would be.”

The Nuggets lost again in the first round against the Lakers last spring, but at least the formula had been changed – and the days of Anthony clamoring for help around HIM were over. The roster has been overhauled, starting but not ending with the ‘Melo trade, and Denver plays differently, is less reliant on one man’s hot hand, has quickened its pace and takes pride on defense in ways that never happened in the Anthony era.

Guard Ty Lawson is Anthony’s only Denver teammate who remains. And he told Hochman, with all due respect for the guy who’s gone, that the Nuggets are better positioned now with the likes of Danilo Gallinari, Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Wilson Chandler, JaVale McGee and others sharing responsibilities.

“We’ve gotten better on defense,” Lawson said. “I think we’re a little more dangerous. You don’t know where our scoring is coming from. With ‘Melo, everybody had their focus on him. With us, JaVale might step up. Gallo, Iguodala, we’ve got weapons all over the place.”

The Nuggets have been on a tear, winning nine of their past 10 and 16 of 20 to reach 42-22, building a virtual floor beneath them in the West’s No. 5 spot. Their 28-3 mark matches Miami for NBA’s best, Karl is assured of his 21st season as a head coach finishing .500 or better and, at a micro level, Denver has strung together two games hitting at least 50 percent of its field-goal attempts, 45 percent of its 3-pointers and 80 percent of its free-throw attempts.

The Nuggets still have a game against Phoenix Monday to navigate before Anthony’s homecoming. And after two years, it’s hard to say how much vitriol or emotion remains (in the stands, probably plenty). But based on recent comments from Karl, you can assume there will big-time significance just below the surface when the Knicks show up Wednesday. As noted by Hochman:

“Most of the people are going to say, ‘You can’t win without a star.’ I’m tired of it. I’m fed up with it. I’ve been angry about it,” Nuggets coach George Karl said last week on the, give or take, seven bazillionth time he’s talked about winning without a star. “It’s a team game. I know Miami won the championship and had a superstar, but they were the best basketball team. Our job is to try to become the best basketball team. I honestly think it can be done. I think it’s silly to not even have one person stand up and say it could be done.”

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Nuggets Make Out in Howard Trade, Too

August 10, 2012  ·  5:23PM





HANG TIME WEST – Oh, and by the way, you’re probably going to want to be concerned about the Nuggets as well.

For all the understandable attention going to the Lakers for acquiring Dwight Howard and the 76ers for landing Andrew Bynum and to the Magic for that spectacular 2 ½ twist with a full gainer into a bellyflop, losing sight of the Nuggets on the periphery of the deal is a mistake.

Denver was already on the rise, the way it went from stage fright last postseason to pushing the Lakers to a Game 7 before being eliminated. Watching the Nuggets grow into a postseason factor in time-lapse photography was a statement of potential. They had that. Now they have this.

Andre Igoudala came from the 76ers as Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, a first-round pick and a second-rounder went to Orlando. The Nuggets got better and saved money that should allow them to get a new deal with point guard Ty Lawson.

The Nuggets also got options, which is also a problem for the rest of the league. George Karl with several possibilities among forwards and wings and the ability to play big or small? Karl can take capitalize on basketball chemistry and general manager Masai Ujiri can take advantage of trade chips, so Denver is in great position for another step forward after what would have been a 47-win season with a typical schedule.

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Embry Honored 40 Years After GM Gig

August 9, 2012  ·  10:22AM

This post might pack a little extra meaning for NBA GMs Masai Ujiri, Joe Dumars, Rod Higgins, Billy King and Dell Demps.

Forty years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks made Wayne Embry the first black general manager in NBA history. In fact, they made him the first black GM in U.S. pro sports.

That’s one of the reasons Embry will be honored Aug. 17 with the Legends Award at the annual Fellowship Open golf tournament in Milwaukee. That award goes to citizens who have demonstrated a personal commitment to helping others. Previous recipients have included baseball’s Hank Aaron, football’s Willie Davis and former Bucks player-turned-fast food entrepreneur Junior Bridgeman.

Embry, 75, a Naismith Hall of Famer, has been in and around the NBA for more than a half century, beginning in 1958 — 11 seasons as a player with Cincinnati, Boston and Milwaukee, and almost without interruption since in front-office roles with the Bucks, the Cavaliers and the Raptors. In Cleveland in 1994, Embry became the first African-American president of a sports team and twice was honored as NBA Executive of the Year. He is in his ninth year in Toronto as a senior advisor.

“Wayne’s legacy is best defined by his leadership and the example he sets for others,” NBA commissioner David Stern wrote in a letter to Fellowship Open board chairman John Daniels. “In addition to acknowledging his position as a role model whose career is an inspiration to younger generations, Wayne recognizes the importance of giving back to the game and to the community. He has taught players to use the values they have learned while competing to make a positive impact on society. The NBA has benefited greatly from Wayne Embry’s commitment to the game of basketball. I am honored to join with you to celebrate his career and to thank him for all he has given us. He is a true pioneer.” (more…)

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Report: Howard Won’t Go Back To Magic

July 26, 2012  ·  9:19AM

HANG TIME, TEXAS– No matter where he plays next season, Dwight Howard should have his agent sign an endorsement deal with IHOP. Only a pancake griddle has more flip-flops than his story.

He’s going. He’s staying. He’s going. He’s staying. He plans to retire and become a coconut farmer on an island in the South Pacific. OK, we made that last one up. We think.

After meeting on Wednesday with new Magic general manager Rob Hennigan, the word is that the All-Star center wants to be in L.A. in this summer, Brooklyn in January or Dallas next July.

But according to Jarrod Rudolph of RealGM, the one scenario that Howard will not consider for a moment is a return to Orlando for the 2012-13 season:

Hennigan’s pitch to Howard had a heavy focus on the two men developing a relationship that would be valuable to the Magic moving forward. He expressed a sincere interest in getting to know the six-time All-Star and working with him to improve the team. Howard, however, was expecting an outline of how the team planned to improve and get back to a championship-contending level, something he didn’t receive during the hour-long meeting, according to sources. 

Howard was staunch in his stance and again made it clear to Hennigan that he has no desire to return to Orlando. He told the 30-year-old general manager that he would “never sign another contract with the Magic,” according to sources that spoke with RealGM. 

During the meeting, Howard informed Hennigan that he would be willing to re-sign with the Lakers at the end of the 12-13 season if the two teams were able to complete a trade.

The scenarios Howard was open to during the meeting were: An immediate trade to the Lakers, a January trade to the Brooklyn Nets or a clean break at the end of the 2012-13 season. But he was clear that he would not return to the Magic, choosing to leave as a free agent after the season, sources told RealGM. 

Hennigan informed Howard that he didn’t have any deals in the works and wasn’t quite sure how to respond to what he was told, according to sources. Hennigan was noncommittal on any of the discussed scenarios as the meeting ended. 

Hennigan’s noncommittal approach has only frustrated Howard more as it’s believed that several acceptable offers have been presented to the Magic only to be turned down due to a lack of a true intent to trade him, sources said. (more…)

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Nene, Nuggets Agree To Terms

December 13, 2011  ·  10:41PM

– For the latest updates check out: NBA.com’s Free Agent Tracker

The Denver Nuggets were not always the favorites, but at the end of the day, they got their big man back.

Beating back strong competition from Houston and New Jersey, the Nuggets reached terms Tuesday with free agent center Nene on a five-year, $67 million deal. Earlier in the day, the Nuggets pulled off a trade with the Mavericks, acquiring forwards Corey Brewer and Rudy Fernandez from Dallas for a second-round pick. And general manager Masai Ujiri said Tuesday night that progress had been made toward re-signing restricted free agent guard Arron Afflalo.

“Today was a good day for the Nuggets,” Ujiri said.

The Nets had an offer on the table believed to be in excess of $14 million per season for the 29-year-old Nene, who averaged 14.5 points and 7.6 rebounds last season for Denver. And the Rockets coveted Nene as well, hoping to pair him with Lakers forward Pau Gasol last week when it looked like Houston would be part of the three-team deal that sent Chris Paul to the Lakers. But the deal fell through, and the Rockets couldn’t make a deal for Nene alone work.

“We’ve been grinding all along,” Ujiri said. “Nene was our guy and we stayed the course and got through it. Nene wanted to stay home. He wanted to test free agency, but at the end of the day he wanted to stay home and play for the Nuggets. Nene will be a good player for us for a long time.”

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‘Bad Rotations’ In Denver

June 27, 2011  ·  11:32AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — There is probably no smooth way to fire a Hall of Famer.

But even in this day and age of strange, the unceremonious dismissal of Nuggets assistant coach Adrian Dantley after his eight years on the job seems fraught with black ops-style treachery on someone’s part.

Dantley confirmed previous reports that he was indeed fired by Nuggets coach George Karl late last week, telling Chris Tomasson via denverstiffs.com, that “he is done.”

Dantley’s contract expires Thursday at midnight and will not be renewed. The reason given? Well, read it for yourself:

“I got fired because I didn’t rotate on the bench,’’ said Dantley, who was regarded as Karl’s lead assistant and filled in for Karl for the final 1 ½ months of the 2009-10 season when the head man was battling a form of throat cancer.

NBA teams are allowed to have three assistants sit on the bench, with others having to sit behind it. Dantley, who always had sat on the bench, said Karl approached him early last season and requested he rotate along with other assistants either sitting on or behind the bench.

Dantley said he sat behind the bench for the final 67 games of the regular season and during the playoffs and wouldn’t rotate to the front of the bench. Nuggets assistants Chad Iske, John Welch and Melvin Hunt sat on the bench for those games.

“I didn’t rotate,’’ said Dantley, an NBA star forward from 1976-91 who was named in 2008 to the Hall of Fame. “I wasn’t going to rotate. If they (other assistants) want the publicity to sit up front, I don’t need the publicity… I got no problem not being seen on TV and sitting at the back of the bench.’’

And we thought Kurt Rambis had it bad in Minnesota having to wait nearly three months (and counting) to get a decision on his fate as coach of the Timberwolves …

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Big (Man) Issues To Address

June 25, 2011  ·  10:04AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – No offense to Jonas Valanciunas, Jan Vesely or Bismack Biyombo, the biggest of the big men drafted in the top 10 of Thursday night’s Draft, but they are not the biggest name international post players that we’ll be keeping our eyes on in the coming weeks.

Sure, without a summer league to watch them perform in that makes it a little tougher to track their immediate progress, and there’s no telling when we’ll see Valanciunas in his Raptors uniform.

But there are two other NBA bigs that will have our undivided attention as we head into an uncertain July. Nuggets center Nene and Grizzlies center Marc Gasol are the headliners in a free agent class whose star power and depth pales in comparison to the flashy class of 2010 (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, etc.), a group still awaiting word on a new collective bargaining agreement before they can begin the process of deciding their futures.

As promising as that international crop of big men from the draft is supposed to be, and Valanciunas is considered by most the best long-term big man from the 2011 class, none of them will be as valuable as either Nene has been and could be to the Nuggets or Gasol has been and could be to the Grizzlies.

We are talking about two low-post anchors for Western Conference playoff teams, as opposed to long-range projects that no one is sure will be impact players in the league anytime soon.

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‘Melo doesn’t want to talk to Nets

January 17, 2011  ·  11:10AM

SAN ANTONIO — Carmelo Anthony didn’t exactly dispute reports that the New Jersey Nets were given permission by the Denver Nuggets to negotiate with him, he just doesn’t believe that’s the case. David Aldridge first reported the latest twist in the ‘Melo Sweepstakes on NBA.com.

“I haven’t talk to anybody, [general manager Masai Ujiri] or [owner Josh Kroenke] or any other teams,” Anthony said Sunday night after a lackluster performance by him and Denver in a loss to the Spurs. “So for that speculation to be thrown around out there, that’s false.”

‘Melo added that he has no desire to talk to another team, noting the Nuggets still dish out his paychecks. He claimed not to know anything about a proposed meeting with the Nets, which reportedly would include a personal pitch from New Jersey billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

“I don’t want to talk to nobody,” Anthony said. “I’ll let the front office handle that type of stuff. That ain’t my job to be talking to New Jersey, Lakers, Dallas, no one. That’s not my job to do.”

And if given permission?

“I still won’t step into something like that,” ‘Melo said. “I have seen a lot of people go through that. For me to sit here and say I want to talk to them or Masai and Josh gave them permission to talk to me, I think that’s false. If that was the case then I’m pretty sure I would have got a phone call.”

Should that phone call come, Denver’s 26-year-old franchise player said he still wants no part in being personally involved in any trade talks. As has been the case lately, ‘Melo virtually guaranteed being in a Nuggets uniform for the foreseeable future — Wednesday against Oklahoma City, Friday against the Lakers and Sunday against Indiana.

So what about the option of staying in Denver fore the entire season before weighing his options? Ken Berger of CBSSports.com wrote that ‘Melo hasn’t taken the ongoing CBA talks into consideration.

When asked about the possibility of Anthony waiting until after the season to address his future, the person familiar with his strategy told CBSSports.com that he has not factored in the prospect of a hard cap and salary rollbacks in a new CBA. Such an outcome in the labor talks would make Anthony’s three-year, $65 million extension — thought to be a driving force behind any trade that would compel him to sign it before the Feb. 24 deadline — a moot point.

Nuggets coach George Karl said he hasn’t been given an update on Anthony by Ujiri.

“I have not talked to him since Friday and I’m sure if there was anything that would have drastically changed, he would have called me,” Karl said.

As for the team, Karl did evoke a slogan that’s been tied to ‘Melo since trade speculation exploded last summer.

“We just got to keep our focus and keep fighting through our drama,” he said.

It doesn’t figure to end anytime soon. ‘Melo was asked if dealing with this at every stop is a drag.

“It is. I get tired of answering the questions. I live with it,” he said. “I wake up in the morning, keep my head high, be professional and answer the questions as y’all ask them.”

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Mixed Signals In ‘Melo-Drama

January 11, 2011  ·  9:04AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – While everyone else on the planet believes that Carmelo Anthony is headed to the New Jersey Nets any day now, Anthony remains skeptical that a deal is imminent.

In fact, Anthony doesn’t seem like a man convinced of anything right now. He’s waiting to hear from Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri and team president Josh Kroenke before he gives all these rumors anything but a roll of his eyes.

All these mixed signals do, though, is set Anthony up to be the fall guy in a debacle that could play out much like “The Decision” did for Anthony’s good friend LeBron James, with Anthony playing the unsuspecting villain this time.

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