The Nuggets came into this season with optimism. Kenneth Faried had a good summer with Team USA and signed a big contract extension. Arron Afflalo returned, and the bad luck of injuries a year ago couldn’t happen again, could they?
Unfortunately, this season hasn’t gone the way the organization or Nuggets fans wanted. Losses have piled up. Timofey Mozgov and Afflalo were traded away. Head coach Brian Shaw has wondered if players are trying to lose games on purpose. Even general manager Tim Connelly went as far as to say Ty Lawson needs to “grow up.”
At this point, the Nuggets are clearly looking toward next season as this one is a lost cause. It’s so obvious the team even counted down to the last game when they broke a team huddle during a recent game, according to The Denver Post.
A fourth-quarter huddle late in the Nuggets’ 104-82 loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday broke with this phrase: “1-2-3 … six weeks!”
Denver plays its last game of the season on April 15 and that day cannot get here soon enough for nearly everyone involved. The Nuggets have already jettisoned pieces ahead of what will likely be a roster rebuild this summer. They’ll probably never admit it, but there are probably one or two players in that huddle who wish they were shipped away prior to the trade deadline.
