Nuggets Find A Blueprint For Ignominy Rebuilding Plan Goes Awry, Leaving Climate Of Ridicule
Opponents laugh on the court as if they were older siblings taunting a hopelessly overmatched little brother. Other coaches shake their heads at the quality of basketball.
How has it come down to this for the Denver Nuggets?
In three-fourths of a season, the Nuggets have gone from being a young club with hopes of winning maybe 20 games to being perhaps the worst team in NBA history.
“You go out there and play your heart out, but the harder you play, it seems, the worse it gets,” said Nuggets guard Bryant Stith. “And to be booed by your home fans is a low point for me.”
Denver has won just seven of its first 65 games and threatens the NBA record for futility, set 25 years ago when the Philadelphia 76ers went 9-73.
Despite a win over Portland on Saturday, the Nuggets have a .108 winning percentage. Philadelphia’s was .110.
Using 20 different lineups, the Nuggets have had losing streaks of 12, 23 and 16 games - the latter snapped by Thursday’s win. The 23-game streak tied the single-season record set by Vancouver two years ago. Cleveland lost 24 straight games over two seasons in 1982.
Other teams use Denver’s record as a rallying point. The Los Angeles Clippers, who lost to the Nuggets twice this season, trailed them at halftime last Sunday.
“You wouldn’t want to be a team that lost to them three times,” Clippers coach Bill Fitch told his players.
Los Angeles avoided such embarrassment, rallying to win 100-89.
Put simply, Denver’s problem is lack of talent.
“Playing Denver is like playing a highschool team,” Chicago’s Dennis Rodman said. “This is the worst team in the history of basketball.”
Atlanta coach Lenny Wilkens, who has won more NBA games than any other coach, sympathizes with the Nuggets’ Bill Hanzlik, who was a Hawks’ assistant before taking the Denver job last May.
“He’s doing the best with what he has, which isn’t a lot,” Wilkens said.
Center Dean Garrett said having opponents “dunking on you and giggling is hard to take.”
“Against the Bulls, I thought they were kind of playing with us, just to keep the game interesting,” he said. “They were out there talking and laughing, then they said, ‘All right, had enough fun? See ya.”’
Denver, which trailed 77-74 late in the third quarter, ended up losing 118-90.
The Nuggets’ shameful season is the result of a grand plan gone terribly awry.
Rather than remain mediocre, Denver’s brass decided last spring to rebuild by casting off most veterans, making room under the salary cap and acquiring draft picks.
In a series of bad personnel moves that followed the loss of center Dikembe Mutombo in 1996, Mark Jackson, Dale Ellis, Ricky Pierce and Ervin Johnson departed last spring. Promising forward Antonio McDyess was shipped off to Phoenix in October for draft picks after the Nuggets balked at his salary demands.
Those who remained included LaPhonso Ellis, Eric Williams, Stith, Garrett and Johnny Newman. Ellis, however, has been slowed by his recovery from a torn Achilles’ tendon. Williams blew out a knee in the fourth game of the season, and Stith missed 44 games with foot and ankle problems.
Rookies Bobby Jackson, Danny Fortson, Eric Washington and Tony Battie were forced into significant playing time.
Allan Bristow, the vice president who devised the failed scheme, became the fall guy and was fired Feb. 4.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Bristow said. “We knew we had to get worse to get better, to rid ourselves of some contracts. But we never thought it would be this bad.”
With Bristow gone and the team still struggling, will Hanzlik last?
“I will not quit and I will not resign,” the coach said.
The players say Hanzlik deserves a better opportunity to prove he can coach.
“He’s not getting a fair shot because he doesn’t have the horses to go out there with,” Garrett said. “I don’t think even Pat Riley could do anything with this team.”