The Nuggets‘ loss last night catapulted the team in the wrong direction. Denver went from the 7th seed out West to 9th place in the blink of an eye – or in the flash of another Al Jefferson uncontested dunk. Only half a game separates six teams out West as the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, and your Nuggets will be battling for the 4th-8th seeds over the next 18 games or so.
The big question, do you want to see the Nuggets make the post-season? Let's look at a couple different schools of thinking …
Make the playoffs wagon: The Nuggets need to make the post-season to get some good seasoning for the future. The experience a team can gain from playing playoff basketball is invaluable and something the young guys could really benefit from.
And not only do the players need to see what they are made of in a playoff battle, but the coaching staff could also use the experience and an evaluation as well. If these young Nuggets are to grow, it would be best to see how the coaching staff will prepare and do with this young squad. If a chance needs to be made, the post-season look will go a long way to showing Masai Ujiri and Josh Kroenke what decisions they may need to make or not make, sooner rather than later.
Even if the Nuggets don't get out of the first round, it would be good to get that playoff atmosphere into their blood.
Miss the playoffs wagon: The Nuggets don't have much of a chance to make it far in the post season. Even if the Nuggets draw a favorable match-up in the opening round, they might not make it out and would have to face an even bigger mountain in round two.
With guys like Andre Miller and Al Harrington getting older, and the suddenly thin power forward position, it would be best for the Nuggets to miss the playoffs and get a better draft pick. What if the Nuggets won the draft lottery? Ujiri could do some major damage in the draft and this team could use either another point guard, shooting guard, power forward, or center (that’s every position).
Another first round exit would do more harm than good to the young players mentality.
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