The curious case of the Denver Nuggets continues. All season long the Nuggets have been such a weird team with different types of drama going on from the coaches to the players, there has just been a weird mix of things going on.
There was the issue with their coach at the time, Brian Shaw, and how hard the players actually played. Now the newest Nuggets drama involves the curious case of the Nuggets benching completely healthy players. Not just any players, the 3 best players on the Nuggets, Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Danilo Gallinari and new interim head coach Melvin Hunt gave some explanation.
Following from Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post.
Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried were held out with their health in mind, not for any other reason, Hunt said.
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “It’s part of the league. We’re no different. We have to have great vision. We have to be nearsighted and farsighted, and this is just part of that vision.”
Asked if he had ever been part of a non-playoff team that suddenly employed a rest rotation as the Nuggets have done, Hunt said: “Yeah, but we’re in a very unique situation here, having come off what we did last year with so many injuries. We had players with ACL injuries; our owner’s dog had an ACL injury. We had a little bit of everything going on. We have to be very, very careful. We have to be really wise, given the situation that we are in.”
It does seem like Hunt was taking a light-hearted jab at the front office as opposed to the players, who didn’t have many nice things to say about being benched. The players aren’t happy about it, the coach trying to prove himself isn’t happy about it so there is only one explanation to what’s going on.
The tank is in full effect in Denver and the front office apparently isn’t afraid to show it. They’re trying to secure the highest draft lottery odds possible by losing games at the end of a lost season. It makes complete sense, especially with the Nuggets being so good since Hunt took over so there was some concern they wouldn’t be able to get a higher lottery seed.
The players want to play, the coaches want to coach, despite how the ball bounces in their favor, win or lose – or in this case – how the ping-pong balls bounce.
