Fast Break: Nuggets Management and Coach George Karl are Often Not on the Same Page

The Nuggets have never decided for sure about just how much they want to worship George Karl. On the one hand they obviously worship him much more than most other franchises would. To the Nuggets, Mr. Karl's inability to win playoff games is a relatively minor demerit. The average franchise does need to be concerned about being successful in the playoffs, so the average franchise would have let Mr. Karl move on no later than this past off season.

On the other hand, Mr. Karl has never had a large amount of say over key player acquisition decisions in Denver. If Mr. Karl was always so dependent on having a good, traditional, veteran point guard who doesn't need any coaching to speak of, then why on earth did the Nuggets ship Andre Miller for Allen Iverson? They kind of pulled the rug out from under poor Mr. Karl with that move, didn't they? They left the poor man with nothing but an easy path with which to make a fool of himself with.

Similarly, Mr. Karl wanted to get rid of J.R. Smith, whereas the owner and the general managers said no way Jose and gave him a very good contract and pretty much every dollar that Smith could have received if he were starting for another team rather than being vindictively prevented from starting by Mr. Karl.

Yet another example of a big difference between Mr. Karl and Nuggets management would be that management was always much more keen on Nene and less keen on Marcus Camby than was Mr. Karl. Until this year, Nene could get good playing time from Mr. Karl only if either Kenyon Martin or Marcus Camby were not available. Were Karl in charge of the dismantling of the Nuggets, he would have gone out of his way to try to keep Marcus Camby.

So for a franchise that worships Mr. Karl, they have not allowed him to share in the management moves anywhere near as much as you would think.

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