Brian Shaw is still the coach of the Denver Nuggets as I’m writing this. I’m not sure that will be the case much longer. The Nuggets are playing some pretty horrendous basketball right now and it seems like a mere formality at this point that Shaw is going to get canned.
Once that happens, we’ll hear the usual responses. The former coaches now doing media work will all defend Shaw. The current Denver players will pretend to take the blame but most of us will know they’re just mouthing the words. And so on. It’s almost invariably the same routine when any coach or manager gets shown the door.
I have been anti-Shaw for this particular job since he got hired. My primary motivation was simple enough. I think part of any job is realizing any built-in advantage that’s already in existence and trying to improve on it. I certainly can’t endorse a coach who decides that the benefit that already is in place isn’t of any merit, and that seems to have been the case with Shaw from the very first day he got this job.
That advantage is, of course, the Denver altitude. Doug Moe figured this out way back when with the Nuggets and his basic game plan was to run the opposition out of the building. And it worked. The Nuggets consistently overachieved based on their rosters. Opponents heading into Denver with no rest, or late in lengthy road trips, were frequently crushed. Once the late stages of the season rolled around, road trips to Denver and Utah were bad news for tired teams.
Moe was not the only coach in Denver to realize what he had. George Karl sure knew it and used it to his advantage. But Brian Shaw didn’t, and in fact he pretty much changed the offense enough to neutralize what has been a long documented plus for this franchise.
I guess this has always been a pet peeve of mine as far as coaches go. I understand wanting to input one’s own system, but when it’s attempted with the wrong type of personnel or in this case, an ignorance of the past, I consider this to be poor coaching. We’ll see if whomever is the next coach in Denver does a better job of capitalizing on what is already in place.