Denver Nugget’s Coach George Karl’s player management has often been pointed to as his biggest weakness. Gary Payton and Carmelo Anthony are the two players that may define Karl’s long career in the NBA, but it is his homegrown talent that will dictate the future. Kenneth Faried and Ty Lawson’s ascension from middle first round picks to legitimate threats in the NBA show just how good of a coach George Karl actually is.
Ty Lawson was a well-known college athlete after he led the North Carolina Tar Heals to the NCAA championship in 2009. However, it was generally assumed that at 5 foot 11 he was too small to have a real impact as a point guard in the NBA.
George Karl, a Tar Heal himself, talked to UNC’s coach and friend Roy Williams about the guard. The Nuggets made a trade for the 18th overall pick and a season and a half later he was starting for the Nuggets. Karl pressured Lawson to drive and it resulted in a breakout performance by Lawson in the first round this year. His 19 points a game and general havoc against the Los Angeles Lakers shows that he is an up and coming star.
While Lawson is Karl’s most recent success, the current Nuggets roster that took the Lakers to seven is full of success stories. Kenneth Faried was the Nuggets first pick last year, at number 22. Karl slowly worked Faried into the game and he looks to be an up and coming power forward in the game despite his small size. Arron Afflalo, Corey Brewer and Javale McGee have all vastly improved under Karl. McGee was a joke in Washington, but after a couple of months in Denver, he has the makings of a dominant big man.
Now fans around the Denver Nuggets point to George Karl and see flaws. The Nuggets have only been out of the first round once in nine years even though they have made the playoffs every year. However, only six of those first round exits were George Karl as he was not the coach at the beginning of the run and was out for the 2010 because of Throat Cancer.
The only successful year for the Nuggets, 2009, was when Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony teamed up. The next year, the egos of the players that also included Kenyon Martin and JR Smith completely derailed the Nuggets with Adrian Dantley behind the bench. The Nuggets of the early 2009-2010 were scary good, by the best in team history. However, without Karl’s player management skills everything fell apart.
If in two years, the Nuggets have added two more first round exits to their resume, then it’s time for a change. However, who is going to manage a young team better than a coach with over a thousand wins. He has proven that he can develop young talent as the Nuggets look to compete and perhaps grow Karl’s next star.
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