Karl: Nuggets playoff wins or purge
Coach is a realist when it comes to job security
By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published September 25, 2008 at 8:50 p.m.
Matt McClain © The Rocky
Nuggets coach George Karl knows his time in in Denver might be limited if his team doesn't produce in the playoffs this season.
Photo by Eric Gay / Associated Press/2007
George Karl scowls during a playoff game against the Spurs in May 2007. During his coaching tenure, Karl has seen the Nuggets lose four straight first-round series.
How secure is the job of Nuggets coach George Karl?
Nuggets coach George Karl, 57, says he has "three things I dream about" as he winds down his NBA career.
1. "Winning a championship."
2. "I love Denver. I would like to finish my career in Denver. Whatever that means. In coaching, management, whatever."
3. "I'd like to coach Coby (Karl, his son, who is entering his second season with the Lakers)."
Nuggets coach George Karl doesn't deny he pretty much was kept in the dark during discussions in July to trade center Marcus Camby to the Clippers.
After arriving in Denver in January 2005, Karl initially had a strong voice in player-personnel decisions. That hasn't been the case lately.
"Some months, it seems like I'm more involved, and other months, it seems like I'm less involved," Karl said. "Does it affect me a little bit? Yeah, I can't deny I wish my opinion would be heard and respected more than it maybe has been. But I don't think it's a problem. The organization, they hired me to coach, and they've allowed me to do that 100 percent."
Still, Karl agrees with something an old football coach once said.
"Bill Parcells' comment, 'If you want me to cook the meal, why don't you let me buy the groceries?' makes a lot of sense," Karl said. "It doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense to the NBA."
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George Karl says if you want to call the Nuggets a "playoff flop," he won't argue. If they flop again, there's no certainty he'll still be around.
The Nuggets coach won't go so far as to say it's win in the playoffs or bust this season. Still, he recently quipped that if the Nuggets, who have lost five straight first-round series (four under Karl) don't finally break though, he doesn't know if "any of us" will remain.
"If the edict is changing the face or changing the coach, we can live with that," Karl said about his job security entering Tuesday's start of training camp. "We all know that that happens. There are very few lifetime coaches in the NBA."
Karl heard rumors in the spring his job could be in jeopardy. While there might be pressure this season on Karl, who has two years and $6 million left on his contract, he said it's not coming from the front office.
"I feel that pressure (of job security) from the basketball world of rationalization," he said. "I don't feel that from my organization. Last year, when all that stuff came up, I never felt that.
"(Nuggets owner) Stan (Kroenke) was highly complimentary of our coaching. Amazed at times. He thought last year was a great year. Disappointing in losing in the playoffs, no question. But from the standpoint of what we were dealt and what we delivered, it was a big-time year."
Despite center Nene missing 2 1/2 months because of testicular cancer and other injuries, the Nuggets went 50-32, their best record in 20 years. But they were swept 4-0 in the first round by the Lakers, that coming on the heels of four straight 4-1 exits.
"If the evaluation is success in the playoffs, we haven't done that," Karl said. "And I can live with that. I agree 100 percent. I hate losing in the playoffs. I hate being on this losing streak."
Something else Karl hated was the loss in July of two of his favorite players. With the Nuggets well over the luxury tax and Kroenke seeking to cut costs, center Marcus Camby - and his $10 million salary - was dealt to the Clippers for the right to swap second-round picks in 2010, and the Nuggets made no effort to match the four-year, $13 million contract that forward Eduardo Najera got from New Jersey as a free agent.
"My disappointment and depression was in about a five-day period," Karl said. "We lose Eddie Najera and Marcus Camby and get nothing. I'm paranoid and scared. But you recover. The (Renaldo) Balkman trade . . . we give (New York) basically nothing (two players with nonguaranteed contracts who were waived). We get another guy, Chris Andersen, a pretty good basketball player, for nothing (the minimum salary as a free agent)."
Karl said Kroenke was honest in offseason discussions.
"I think he rolled the dice a little bit on the (Allen Iverson) situation," Karl said of the December 2006 trade for the high-salaried player. "He's a businessman. . . . He doesn't like losing money. . . . His (goal) is probably making money, and I respect that.
"We had a tough year from that standpoint and financially, I think he wants to change that. . . . He's been very honest on how he wanted to build in the summer, being financially limited."
Karl might have lost two key players, but you'd better believe there's still pressure to win. There's talk in the NBA that Karl is being set up as the scapegoat if that doesn't happen.
"I don't deny that's out there (in the NBA)," Karl said.
Still, Karl is "excited about our team," saying it is "faster and quicker."
Players seem committed to making up for the loss of Camby, who was the top defender on a team that sometimes offered little resistance.
"We've got to definitely pay attention to detail when it comes to the defensive end of the floor even more now," Iverson said.
"Guys have to step up," forward Kenyon Martin said.
If the Nuggets are indeed more focused, that could be half the battle. Their talent rarely has been questioned.
They have two All-Stars, Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, and two steady big men, Martin and Nene. J.R. Smith, who signed a three-year, $16.5 million deal in the only big offseason expenditure Kroenke allowed, is a rising star.
"We've been a team that's had enough talent to win a championship, but there's probably 12 of them in the league a year," Karl said. "It's the chemistry and the talent that wins championships. And we haven't done a very good job of figuring out the right chemistry."
There's time for that to happen. Karl said he recently had meetings with his coaching staff, and "we're juiced" and "ready to go."
Still, Karl, 57, admits it's not as easy getting revved up for seasons as it used to be. He has overcome a diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2005 and hip-replacement surgery in May, has a 4-year-old daughter and spends plenty of time keeping an eye on son Coby, who is entering his second season with the Lakers.
"I've said the window I thought of not coaching has grown," Karl said. "Every summer, you wish the summer was a month longer. You wish you had another month of freedom before you go back into the rat race."
Now that Karl is back at it, he'd like to prove the critics wrong. With Camby gone, preseason NBA predictions have been less than flattering for the Nuggets.
"I love people saying that, 'They're awful. They're going to be bad,' " Karl said. "I don't see us as bad. My belief is we have enough talent to be ultrasuccessful."
If there were an NBA dictionary, ultrasuccessful would mean advancing in the playoffs.
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September 26, 2008
6:20 a.m.
Suggest removal
duboisb writes:
Stan Kroenke is an idiot. He's just an idiot with money.
George Karl has a lifetime losing record in the playoffs. He is a terrible coach.
_
September 26, 2008
8:44 a.m.
Suggest removal
mikeyg writes:
This will be, hopefully, the last season we have to look at this cadre of players, coaches and front office management at the Nuggets. They're lousy from the ground up. I don't mean talent-wise, they've got plenty of that in the players and coaches (front office, that's another story). But they are undisciplined and weak-minded.
They've got: three perennial malcontents in Iverson, K-mart and JR; a fragile porcelain doll in Nene; an extremely gifted kid who's never been exposed to what true team leadership in the NBA looks like and requires in Melo; and a coach who's "matured" from being an intense, type-A results-oriented competitor into a compassionate type-B buddy who gives group hugs after losses.
Then this off-season the front office drops the two best work horses, Camby and Najera for zilch in return. I don't envy Karl in trying mold this crew into a team that can win more than they lose, much less win in the playoffs. But he's been a part of those front office decisions to get the men they have in that locker room. And Karl's become a wuss.
The NBA (and MLB, NFL, NHL, etc.) gets the most physically gifted athletes in the world at any given position. These men are the top of the top, with the only difference being how they prepare for games and how mentally strong they are. The physical ability differences are minuscule from top to bottom in the NBA compared to the differences in work ethic and mental toughness.
That's why this composition of the Nuggets is doomed to failure, again. There is no way this chemistry of malcontent, fragile and immature men achieve their stated goals this season. Sadly it's so predictable to those of us who don't have a dime to make by being right, but it'll catch those who are paid to fix these things by surprise.
September 26, 2008
8:57 a.m.
Suggest removal
jmdeshazer writes:
George Karl isn't bad in the playoffs overall. Before he was in Denver, he coached the Seattle SuperSonics to the NBA Finals once and into the conference semis a few other times. As the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, he brought them to the Eastern Conference finals. In fact, the only time before he was in Denver where he didn't get past the first round was in 1994 against our Nuggets. Doug Moe never accomplished that here, neither did Dan Issel, Paul Westhead, Mike D'Antoni, Gene Littles, Bernie Bickerstaff, Jeff Bzdelik or any other coach we've had in the last 30 years.
George Karl has brought stability to the coaching position, which is something that hasn't happened here in nearly 20 years. That being said, this team needs a change, I don't know whether it's him or player personnel, but something needs to happen.
Carmelo is becoming the KG of the NBA. It took Garnett 7 years to get past the first round, and Carmelo is well on his way to that. I think the Olympics were good for 'Melo, and I'm hoping he plays the kind of defense he showed out there here with the Nuggets. He will be needed.
September 26, 2008
9:17 a.m.
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Bob444 writes:
If Karl thinks Kroenke took a gamble by obtaining Iverson, just wait until the gamble of relying on 2 big men with glass knees and other various injuries to be full time starters. With a bench that is not as good as last year, we'll see what happens when Kmart and Nene both play about 1/4 to 1/2 of the season. Let's hope that the true core of this year's team (Melo, AI, JR) can score about 130 points a game.
September 26, 2008
9:58 a.m.
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Bob444 writes:
jmdeshazer , I agree with your post. Just one comment: Doug Moe took the Nuggets to Western Conference Finals vs. the Magic/Worthy/Kareem Lakers in the 80s. And he did so with very little talent. So, if getting to the conf. finals is good enough, then Moe should not have been mentioned.
September 26, 2008
11:46 a.m.
Suggest removal
TheDenverB writes:
""Every summer, you wish the summer was a month longer. You wish you had another month of freedom before you go back into the rat race.""
\
while i get what he is saying.... most of us don't get an off season and are 'back into the rat race' every Monday morning. I'd take his "rat race" and accompanying salary over mine any day.
September 26, 2008
8:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
arl1281 writes:
Please, please, please fire karl. If you watch this team every night it is painfully clear he has lost the fire to coach and the team has tuned him out.