The Denver Nuggets have been a mess this season.
Some of it has been injuries, some of it a lack of expected development, some of it general poor play from a roster that just can't hang in the loaded Western Conference. Some of it may also be due to a brewing mutiny.
Head coach Brian Shaw dropped a bit of a bombshell on Sunday, suggesting that he suspects his players are trying to lose games. Here's Shaw – in an article from Nick Groke of The Denver Post – following a 90-minute practice and 30-minute team meeting, on the heels of their ninth loss in 10 games:
I think it's hard to try to lose, try to tank, try to go out there with guys who are competing with you and not compete back. It's harder to do that than to just put forth the effort in the first place.
It just looks like you almost have to try to lose as bad, and in the way we've been losing. At that point, something gives. The decision-makers at some point are going to make a decision. And everybody is going to have to live with it. Then it's out of our control.
The only thing I can control is doing my job to the best of my ability. And that's what I expect them to do. Do I feel like that's always been the case? No. Do I share responsibility in that? Yeah.
This isn't the first time Shaw has been heavily critical of his team in his second year on the job. Last week, he said he wished players would tell him if they didn't feel like playing so he wouldn't play them, making himself a martyr for the team's poor play. In November, he openly talked about getting fired if the team continued to play as they were, which they have.
That's something he hinted at again on Sunday, though general manager Tim Connelly and president Josh Kroenke told The Denver Post that any changes coming – and the franchise is being aggressive ahead of the trade deadline – would be to the roster, not to the coaching chair.
The Nuggets are 19-29, eight games out of a playoff spot, and their season is effectively over. Short on veteran leadership on the roster, if culture changes are needed, it's going to take a pretty major overhaul in the offseason. Shaw's players quitting on him would certainly be cause for removal, as would his continued throwing of players under the bus, but the organization may be holding off for more wholesale changes in the offseason.
But damn, does this look and sound bad. The Nuggets are eight-point favorites on the road against the lowly Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, a game that should be a good measuring stick for just how much effort the Nuggets are putting forth.
