GO NUGGETS!

Of course! But who are we rooting for in the other series? What storylines should we be aware of? Aside from the Nuggets topping the Lakers, are any other upsets in the cards?

Continue reading this post »

For hosting such a fun and entertaining evening for Stiffs Night Out. A big thank you, too, to the staff at Jake's, who rose to the challenge of a packed house but managed to keep the drinks and grub coming.

Continue reading this post »

1. David Stern

Vetoing trades, being generally meddlesome and presiding over the league during an ugly, protracted lockout that, apparently, didn't solve anything: Players still have a ton of leverage to collude and go where they want and owners are still overpaying. Stern's time is up. He needs to go.

2. DeMarcus Cousins

It is real tempting to covet Cousins as a pro basketball player. He's 6'11" and 275 lbs. of muscle and explosiveness and looks like he has a long and productive NBA career ahead of him. Yet teammates and coaches from Kentucky to Sacramento call him coddled and a bully, and the reports of his meltdowns and confrontations do little to dispel those whispers.

3. NBA schedule makers

Just past a week after the start of the regular season and the numbers are coming in: 2012 is looking to be ugly. Who wants to see a team play the third night in a row? Who wants to see bricks heaved up on the tired legs of normally steady shooters? No one. There is no need to have packed 66 games into such a compressed schedule, except to get more home games for the owners so they can make that concession revenue.

4. Tim Tebow / The Denver Broncos

Now, I won't capture in a few sentences the nuanced, media microscope / pressure cooker that Tebow found himself in after that crazy, statistically improbable midseason run. Suffice to say, Tim, and the rest of the Broncos, got into the playoffs in such an ugly manner that Denver sports fans are probably, like me, not excited at all about facing the 12-4 Steelers.

5. The Denver Nuggets from downtown

When you have Danilo Gallinari, Arron Afflalo and Ty Lawson all as notable and solid — if not spectacular — perimeter players and have the best passing big man in Nene to work the in and out game, you are not supposed to be this terrible. Bench player Rudy Fernandez was supposed to be a spark off the bench. Instead he's been dropping bricks. Thank you, Al Harrington, else Denver might be the worst 3-shooting team in the league.

Latest word is that the upcoming season will likely be shortened. I think this is optimistic and that there likely won't be a season at all.

Unlike the NFL, where the owners and players would be walking away from countless millions if there was no season, there is no urgency whatsoever in the NBA. A lot of teams are losing money, there is discord between small-market teams and the larger markets in terms of which revenue is shared and the players are finding no shortage of other, foreign leagues to play in while their representatives and the owners figure out a way to get a deal done.

Continue reading this post »

Greetings Stiffs:

Thank you for the overwhelming response in my initial plea to get you away from your laptops and televisions and onto the hardcourt for some friendly basketball. I just wanted to make my last update before the summer is upon us to start firming up some plans to meet and offer up an e-mail address in which you may contact me to show interest and get updates on times and locations. I know, I hate spam, too. But I don't think it is appropriate to clog up the Nuggets fan site organizing this, hence this will be my last post on the matter.

Continue reading this post »

We talked about doing this before. I think a year ago. The idea was to get together in the summer and play some hoops. Nothing ever happened with that. Well. I don't want to wait until summer. I'd like to start finding some pick-up games or organizing something now, so by the time summer comes we'll have some momentum.

Continue reading this post »

I think it is time to retire the quitting meme since the quitter quit — bless his soul — and the Nuggets are suddenly a deep team with some length and maybe a force in the west.

Continue reading this post »

We haven't had a stiff list since the season started a week and a half ago. As a trivia nerd and sports news junkie, here is my version of the stiffs list:

Continue reading this post »

.... that a lot of you have is funny.

We all know the Nuggets are an elite team capable of beating Cleveland, Orlando, Dallas, LA, etc. Good for the Nuggets. I even agree that the Nuggets are a better team than most give them credit for. I just disagree that the Nuggets are somehow entitled to "more respect".

Until Denver becomes more than an average team on the road and starts taking care of sub .500 teams, it is foolish for Denver fans to act like the national media is disrespecting the Nuggets.

The national media aren't the ones making the Nuggets lose at home to the T-Wolves and 76ers. The national media aren't the ones taking nights off in Washington and Sacramento following big wins against the Cavaliers.

Nuggets fans have no one to blame the the Nuggets themselves for the lack of respect in the national media. With the talent on this team and their record against league elites, the Nuggets should be a 60+ win team this season. But because of poor focus and uninspired play on the road Denver is looking at a solid but hardly dominating 55 or so win season.

Stop blaming the media. It just makes you all look like irrational fans of the home team. And there is nothing wrong with that: I love the Nuggets just like the rest of you. But you got to be able to see the league objectively.

PS: I agree that there is a pro-LA and Cleveland spin to a lot of the coverage. But a lot of that has to do with the fact that both teams have the top records, star power and, in the Lakers' case, championships. Do you understand that? Championships and winning games is what gets you respect. Not "talent" and "potential".

And that's exactly how it should be. Let Melo complain about being disrespected all he wants. That chip on the shoulder, however unwarranted, can only serve to help Denver in the playoffs. If Denver wants that respect, they need to win a championship. That simple.