Chris Paul &The Hornets Shoot Poorly and Still Beat Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, &The Nuggets, 93-88

That article was too long, ranting, and mis-informed. The Nuggets offense can hardly be judged based on the third game of the season. Besides, unlike last year, the Nuggets do not have a healthy point guard. Wilks is doing much better than anyone could have hoped running that team, but he's not the guy. Atkins and Carter should be running plays and running the court -- unfortunately they're both hurt. Furthermore, Nene is out of shape. He can't run the court, so when he was in the Nuggets gave up some layups to New Orleans bigs. Finally, and most importantly, AI's defense was just terrible. He couldn't stay with his man, he takes too many risks looking for steals, and he doesn't close out shooters. I know that AI isn't going to be a lock-down defender, but he should have done a better job. Bobby Jackson was open way too many times because AI didn't cover him. That, in my mind, is why the Nuggets lost that game.

I didn't make any final judgments on the Nugget's offense, I just said it lacked a good style ior strategy. For example, I showed why George Karl is wrong when he says that the Nuggets don't need to run set plays because they are a running team. They were more of a running team a year ago, but changes from last year, especially the removal by Karl of J.R. Smith from the starting lineup, have made the Nuggets much less of a running team than they were last year. In tonight's Knicks game, only 10 of the Nugget's 112 points were fast break points!

Both Atkins and Carter are older, slower point guards, so the Nuggets are not going to be any more of a running team when they return than they are now, yet Karl is probably still going to think of the team as a running team, and fail to provide some good set plays in the half court, such as plays that involve Nene or Kenyon Martin in the low post.

As for A.I., no he's not a lock-down defender, but he's one of the smartest and hardest working guards in the game, and that's more than good enough for me. The Nuggets as a whole, so far, are still failing to defend the three-point shot well. I think Diawara and Najera are about the only two Nuggets who have a decent defense for the 3-point shot.

A.I. is the point guard and he is healthy, and he is almost leading the League in assists. If your team doesn't have a good strategy or system for A.I. to play in, you are going to fail, and it isn't going to be Iverson's fault if you do.