When the NBA's All-Star Game starters are announced Thursday, four of the five Western Conference representatives will be Clippers or Lakers. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum are locks to join Kevin Durant. And that doesn't even include all the former All-Stars on the LA teams like Pau Gasol, Caron Butler, Ron Artest and Chauncey Billups. That's some serious star power.
Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets don't have a single player on their roster who's ever been an All-Star, and that might not change this season. Yet when you look at the Western Conference standings, there they are in second place at 14-7, tied with the Clippers and ahead of the Lakers.
Which is why this week's matchups, with the Nuggets playing the Clippers on the road Thursday before returning home to face the Lakers the next night, are so interesting.
In a league dominated by stars, at least from a marketing standpoint, can a team without stars thrive?
So far, Denver is proving it can. Since trading their superstar, Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets have won 32 of 46 games. Already this season they have beaten the Mavericks, Lakers, Spurs, Heat and Knicks. Take that, Dirk, Kobe, Tim, LeBron and Carmelo!
How have they done it? Well, many people had the misperception that the Nuggets were in a rebuilding mode when they made the Carmelo trade a year ago. They weren't. They were retooling. That's a big difference. They already had good players, and they added three or four more in the deal.
Now Denver has 10 good players. How many teams can say that? Their strength is their depth. They start Danilo Gallinari, Ty Lawson, Nene, Arron Afflalo and Timofey Movgov. That's a good starting five. But their second unit is almost as good with Al Harrington, Andre Miller, Rudy Fernandez, Corey Brewer and Chris Andersen. They have six guys averaging double figures in points and 10 who average at least 13 minutes. They keep coming out at you in waves, and they wear you down, especially at home in the high altitude.
A team like this is a perfect fit for George Karl. He has a philosophy that doesn't rely on stars. He wants his teams to run and share the ball and play egoless basketball. His teams in Milwaukee and Seattle were like that. And he seems really happy now with this group of guys. He can use platoons, and if one guy isn't playing well, he brings in someone else. He has so many shooters, he can go with whoever is hot. They're really hard to guard.
The Nuggets lead the NBA in scoring and assists. They play aggressive, tough defense. It's a fun style of basketball to watch, if you enjoy basketball played the right way —guys playing hard with a lot of energy, sharing the ball, being unselfish.
It's different than the way they played with Anthony. And I'm not knocking Carmelo. The Nuggets got Anthony with the No. 3 pick in 2004 when I was the GM, and he turned around the franchise. The Nuggets went from a 17-win team to one that won 50 games pretty much every year. He's a superstar offensive player. The one drawback of having a guy like that is his teammates have a tendency to stand around and watch because they know he can get a basket on his own. They get mesmerized by the amazing things he can do. Without Carmelo, the Nuggets know they have to run and move and help each other score. They're sneaky that way. You aren't dazzled by their talent, but they're better than you think. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
They've split two games with the Lakers this season, with both teams winning at home. It's really a battle of styles. The Lakers want to play a half-court game and get the ball to their two big guys, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. And of course they have one of the greatest superstars ever seen in Kobe Bryant. But they don't have a lot of depth. They're close to last in bench points. And they don't have great three-point shooting, though they've improved that aspect lately as they've played together and gotten used to each other.
So it's really a test of wills and commitment. Who will establish their style? If the Lakers get into a running game with Denver, it's going to be a long night. If they can make it a playoff-type, half-court game, I think they can win because Kobe will find a way at the end. That's the thing about stars. With the game on the line, they make the winning play. They rise to the moment, and there's nothing you can do about it.
You saw that Tuesday when the Clippers won 108-103 in Denver. The Nuggets played their normal game and had five guys in double figures. But Billups went off for 32 points, Paul had 25, and Griffin had 17 points and 13 boards. They showed why they're stars.
And that's why I think it's fair when people wonder whether the Nuggets can succeed in the playoffs. In the regular season, teams can't prepare for you like they can in a seven-game series. Coaches are smart. When they have time, they learn all your offensive sets, your tendencies, and they scheme against them. You don't get as many easy baskets. So you need players who can't be schemed against.
It's the truth. NBA championships are won by teams with stars. People point to the 2004 Detroit Pistons as the exception, but I disagree. Rasheed Wallace, at that point of his career, was the best power forward in the game. Chauncey Billups has proven to be a star; he just showed it for the first time in those playoffs. Rip Hamilton would have been a great player on any team that year.
I'm not saying the Nuggets can't do it. They'll be in the playoffs. But to go far, they need players who will raise their games and give them great leadership. I think Gallinari is emerging as the kind of guy who can do that. Lawson has that potential.
It's funny to see history kind of repeat itself. The Nuggets traded me to Portland in 1984 after I was coming off two All-Star seasons. They got two draft picks and three players who ended up being really good for them: Fat Lever, Calvin Natt and Wayne Cooper. Denver got better because of the trade, but we also had some really good teams in Portland. It was a win-win.
Problem was, the Nuggets couldn't get past the Lakers in the West. Neither could we. Why? The Lakers had Magic, Kareem and Worthy. What did I say about stars and championships?
