The 2000 Portland Trail Blazers were one of my favorite teams of all time. They had a host of athletes on the roster that allowed them to get out in the open court but they also had a dominant frontcourt that allowed them to execute in the half court. And should they face injuries or foul trouble, well they had starting caliber players on the bench to come in and contribute, and thus they rarely missed a beat.

The 2002 Sacramento Kings as well as the 2004 Detroit Pistons were a little similar but they lacked the depth on the bench to truly compare to that Blazers squad.

This season however, we have seen a Denver Nuggets team that has come fairly close to being a copy of that Pippen-led squad. Now to be fair, the Nuggets do not have a Hall of Fame type player on their roster nor do they have a player that will be making an appearance in this year’s All-Star game, but they still have a roster stacked with talent at just about every position. Just have a look:

Point guards: Ty Lawson, Andrew Miller.

Shooting guards: Arron Afflalo, Rudy Fernandez.

Forwards: Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington, Corey Brewer, Nene

Centers: Nene, Chris Andersen.

Given that the Denver roster has talented players at every position (it’s quite possible that Nene and Gallinari will become All-Stars in the near future), they can afford to play at the fastest pace in the league and not even worry about their players getting fatigued since they have the depth to handle the regular season grind, even with the condensed schedule (also, Wilson Chandler may end rejoining the team once his basketball season ends in China).

In addition, because the Nuggets do not have any superstars on their team much like other teams do, the ball rarely finds its way into the hands of a player who then refuses to share it with his other teammates. Instead, George Karl’s squad prefers to get into their offense and look for the open man, just like high school coaches teach basketball. The end result is that these Nuggets lead the NBA in assists, with 23.4 dimes per game.

But, not only do they share the ball, they get out and run, run some more and afterwards they keep running. Indeed, between Lawson and Miller, Denver has two floor generals to run out and direct the break. And just in case some teams feel that’s unfair because they barely have one starting caliber point guard, well the Nuggets often play both at the same time on the court. Hence, they simply outrun their opponents and score a league leading 21.2 fast break points per game.

Further exacerbating problems for their opponents, the Nuggets love to get the ball inside to get easy opportunities at the rim. Indeed, between Nene, Al Harrington and Andre Miller, this Denver ball club has players capable of playing down on the low block and bullying their defender for easy scores right at the basket.

On the season, the Nuggets generate 32.8 field goal attempts right at the rim (most in the association) and score a league high 51.6 points in the paint per game.

They are a potent scoring bunch, but the toughest thing with the Nuggets is truly being able to match up with them for 48 minutes. When the game commences and the starters take the floor, George Karl rarely has huge mismatches where opponents can exploit his team; thus for the most part the starters are generally even when Denver faces off against quality opposition. However, teams typically downgrade in terms of talent when they go to their bench, but the Nuggets just seem to reload.

On the season, Denver outscores teams by a margin of plus-5.3 points per game in second quarters; but more impressively that figure jumps up to plus-8.2 on the road according to Team Rankings.

And essentially, these factors make the Denver Nuggets one of the most dangerous teams in the league.

Last night, they were defeated at home by the Dallas Mavericks, but they will still stroll their way into Oracle Arena tonight and try to run the Warriors off the court thanks to their team speed and willingness to run the ball nonstop.

Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry will be in for quite a challenge at both ends of the court as they will most certainly be matched up with Ty Lawson, Arron Afflolo and Andre Miller off the bench. They will be challenged when trying to score and they will most likely be taken advantage of on the defensive end when called upon to guard the Denver backcourt.

It will be interesting to see if the Warriors play at the same pace as the Nuggets or whether they try to tone it down and play at a far more relaxed tempo given their ball securities issues.

Expect Denver to go their bench early and often tonight, and the game will be probably be decided then and there; if Golden State can match or somewhat contain Denver’s second unit, they will be in it until the end; but if the Nuggets bench has a great night, give the win to the road team. And that’s exactly what they are…

A team.

Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them in the comments section or you can contact me by email at [email protected].