In the 8 games since former head coach Brian Shaw was let go, the Denver Nuggets have somehow found a new resolve and have shaped up. They’ve had a solid record of 6-2, including a victory over Anthony Davis, despite ‘The Brow’s’ historic performance.
Now the Nuggets find themselves going up against one of the Western Conference’s best teams, the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis sits at second in the West but they recently had some of their own controversy by resting 4 regular rotation players against the Washington Wizards on national television.
Now the Nuggets are playing a little copycat from the Grizzlies and other top teams in the NBA by electing to rest their players.
The only problem is, neither the coach nor the players were the ones to pull the trigger on this move.
Following from Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post.
Three #Nuggets to be rested tonight: Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari. They will NOT play vs Grizzlies
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) March 16, 2015
To be clear: #Nuggets Interim head coach Melvin Hunt & his staff aren't choosing to rest players. Nor are players asking to be rested.
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) March 16, 2015
This is an odd move by the organization, as Dempsey is eluding too. The players nor the coaches didn’t choose to do this and there’s no reason too either. Why would they? They’re the eighth worst team in the NBA at this point and fighting for the lottery. It’s not a good look for a team that has garnered a reputation for being ‘quitters’.
That just might be the reason though. Why have 3 of your best players go up against a team fighting for seeding in the playoffs and risk the chance of them getting injured? Might as well fold it up, let the Grizzlies get an easy win and put your players back out there whenever you want.
The Nuggets’ primary goals should be securing the highest draft pick possible, developing young players like Gary Harris and Jusef Nurkic and keeping everyone healthy, especially the top players. This decision supports all three objectives and who knows, this might not be the last time we see the Nuggets do this.
This season is over for Denver, unfortunately. It’s for sure a sad sight to see after Denver was long considered one of the better teams coming into the season and they have underperformed for one reason or another.
