Today across the SB Nation NBA sites, we’re playing the Word Association game. Our bloggers, across the sites, submitted one-word to describe each NBA team. Let’s see what was said about our Denver Nuggets …

SB Nation Bloggers Word Association: Denver Nuggets

Fast Rainbow Exciting Yay!
Unity Team Sprinting Middle
Wings TEAM Thuggets Skilled
Run-n-Gun Burritos Fun Exciting
Overlooked Superdeep Doughty Fast
Altitude Up-Tempo Points Cunning
No-D Thuggets Scrappy Different

Let's go through these words and I'll tell you what they mean to me …

  • Fast, Sprinting, Exciting, Yay!, Run-n-Gun, Fun, Altitude, Up-Tempo, Points: All these words sort of stem from the same thing. The Nuggets play fast, thrive on transition offense, and Ty Lawson really pushes that gas pedal for the team. Hopefully the Nuggets can put up a lot of points next season in the thin-air in Denver, but they’ll also need to again be a tough road team and play with the same up-tempo style on the road that they do at the Pepsi Center.

    Run-n-Gun is also one of the best arcade games of all-time!

  • Rainbow: Our logo features the old rainbow from the uniforms of the past. And we’ll have that same theme moving forward on Denver Stiffs to pay homage to some of the best uniforms ever. Now, if the team would just wear them as throwbacks!

  • Thuggets: Probably bitter bloggers that either don’t pay attention to the team anymore, are still upset about watching their team get their butts kicked by the Nuggets, or just can’t shake that catchy nickname (good or bad) from the Western Conference Finals team.

  • Burritos: Uh, somebody who went to a game at Pepsi Center, hit the bars after the game, and then bought a late-night burrito on the streets of Downtown Denver … my best guess!

  • Unity, Team, Superdeep, Wings, Different: The culture that Josh Kroenke, Masai Ujiri, George Karl, and his staff want. We’ve all been made aware that this team has been spending a lot of time in Denver together training this off-season. And many of them met up in Las Vegas during the Summer League in July to workout together and enjoy some time in The City That Never Sleeps. The Nuggets also are a deep team and a team trying to win a different way – as a team instead of with a couple big names and some spare parts.

  • No-D: The Nuggets gave up a lot of points last season and allowed their opponents to shoot very well from beyond the arc. With JaVale McGee patrolling the paint this season and Andre Iguodala watching the perimeter, we might see Karl’s team get back to playing some tough defense.

  • Middle: To me this indicates that perhaps the Nuggets will be middle of the pack out West. The Nuggets will likely battle with the Lakers, Spurs, Clippers, Grizzlies, and Mavericks for a playoff seed in the Western Conference. Maybe some others, as well? Perhaps the word is referring to Denver’s sudden length as a team in the middle with McGee, Timofey Mozgov, Kosta Koufos, Anthony Randolph, and Kenneth Faried?

  • Skilled, Scrappy, Cunning, Doughty: The Nuggets can be all these things and more for the 2012-13 season. They better be skilled if they want home-court in the first round of the playoffs. They must be scrappy if they want to win their fair share of road games to start the season. It’ll be up to the coaches to help design defensive schemes to be cunning. And if the Nuggets are doughty in the playoffs again, hopefully their courage and bravery will pay off with a winning series or two or three or four.

  • Overlooked: Hopefully the Nuggets will be overlooked by many teams and sneak up on the league this season. And it’d be great to see them get overlooked all the way to the NBA Finals!

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