Adversity Piling Up For Nuggets
Nenê out six weeks following surgery
If you were a visitor last year you will remember that I am trying to coin a phrase. A phrase that, in looking at it now, really matches up with where the Nuggets are right now. Here it is: When it rains it pours and when it doesn't rain you get a sun burn. It fits so help me coin it. I could use some coin.
The Nuggets could use a little change in fortune. After I got the news late last night that Nenê would be down for a six week count, I tried thinking to myself: What do good teams do when there back is up against a wall and they have piles of yesterday's garbage raining down on them from three stories up? Well the good teams respond, usually in the form of close, hard-fought wins. Bad teams love the garbage. Bad teams embrace the excuses. Are the Nuggets A or B? Let's dish.
The Nuggets had a handful of games last year that they were expected to lose. But they didn't. Believe it or not, last year the Nuggets, I considered to be, more of a head strong team than people gave them credit for. The Nuggets won there share of back to backs last year when you really weren't expecting them to win. Does that same rash toughness - that grind sand in your eye raw toughness - translate to this season's team? It is going to have to. With Nenê gone for the better part of two dozen games, the Nuggets are going to face even more adversity than they already had.
On a team that is already rattled and battled by the lack of depth at key positions (see. point guard), will the Nuggets be able to withstand the blow of losing one of their most effective players from the end of last season. Yes Nene is somewhat "fat". Its sometimes humorous to call a 6-11 275 pound guy that he is fat. He's not Peter Griffin fat. But in terms of NBA standards, Nene is a little fat. A little out of shape. Extra bag of donuts here and there. Nene was not playing to his peak, but that does not mean that Denver is not going to miss him. My fear. Get ready. Is that Nenê has got six more weeks of getting fat on his plate. Steve Hess, the guy I refer to as the coolest man in Basketball, needs to make sure that he not only supports the big Brazilian's surgically repaired hand, but he also tapes down his other hand to prevent Nene from getting fork happy. Look nobody is perfect. I don't want to come down too hard on Nene. But at some point all this adversity is going to fatefully tip the scales and all of our Nuggets sadness is going to come spilling over the gates.
I surmise my confidence in this team right now by liking it to that of the City of New Orleans prior to Katrina. Might want to look into inflatable boats and flashlights.
