Minus Melo, Nuggets Still Find a Way to Win

Recently I was reading the article in the latest edition of Sports Illustrated on the Denver Nuggets, titled Defiant in Denver. The author, Lee Jenkins, spoke about how the Nuggets have come together more as a team following Carmelo Anthony's departure, playing significantly better defense and passing the ball more often. This simple observation brought a few questions to mind: Isn't this how college teams play? Isn't this how basketball is supposed to be played? Did Carmelo actually make the Nuggets worse? This also reminded me of my hometown (and currently winning) team, the 76ers.

Many cynics of the NBA who prefer the college game have a justified argument. Criticism of the NBA is that many of the players don't hustle enough and lag back to play halfhearted defense. Watch a team like the Golden State Warriors and you'll see defense at its worst. It's not just them though, but much of the league. In college, while the players certainly don't possess the skills of those in the NBA, they actually look like they're playing for something. They routinely sprint back to find their man and dive for loose balls. In the NBA, whenever a player does this they are applauded; in college, it's expected. As Jenkins explains in the article, when Carmelo was on the Nuggets, coach George Karl couldn't bench him for jogging back on D because of his superstar status. Now he is able to have a guy ride the pine if he isn't winding himself (like college coaches do to their players), and as a result, the new-look Nuggets are allowing eleven fewer points a game.

Jenkins also mentioned a play in a 40-point Nuggets win over the Charlotte Bobcats in which numerous players passed up open shots in order to find a better one. That's one of the first things young kids learn when starting basketball, to find the best shot. Now that Anthony isn't there to clog up ball movement, this seems to be newly discovered for a team of professionals. Basketball was intended to be a team sport, not a two-man game like what the Nuggets had with Chauncey Billups and Melo. Since Anthony has left, the star-less Nuggets are averaging three more dimes a night.

So are the new-look Nuggets in fact a better team minus Anthony? It's too soon to tell whether they are better, but they are certainly more of a team then when he was there. Carmelo Anthony is an outstanding individual player, but his at times lackluster defense hurt the club. He does some amazing things on the court few others can do offensively, but is it simply at the expense of other players? We'll know this based on how the Nuggets and Anthony's New York Knicks perform in the long run.

The rosters of the Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers are uncharacteristically common, as both lack a superstar. The Nuggets currently have eight scorers averaging double figures, and the Sixers have six. Neither has a player averaging more than sixteen a night. (Danilo Gallinari leads the Nuggets in scoring with 16 ppg, while Elton Brand for the 76ers averages 15.2, and is not even in the top 50 in the league in scoring.) And both of these teams are winning games at an unexpected pace. The team aspect prevails for these two clubs, and there are a number of different guys who could come up big every night. Both play tough D and hustle more than the average pro team. While neither are contenders just yet, the future is bright for both.

Is a superstar needed in order to win an NBA championship, as the past has suggested? Possibly. But to win games? A team can most definitely do that without one. Can the Nuggets take the next step, which is becoming a contender? Only time will tell.