The Denver Nuggets

There's a piece up on Hoopsworld arguing that the Denver Nuggets have a ton of talent but can't break into the elite because of a pick-up game mentality. I'm not so sure. One piece of alleged evidence in favor of this is the idea that Denver puts forth a "poor overall defensive effort." But according to Basketball Reference their defense is seventh in the league. That's pretty good. Certainly it's better than their offense, which is only thirteenth in the league.

I think people misunderstand Denver because, once again, of the pace illusion. Denver plays at the highest pace in the league, so if you look at points per game their offense looks better than it is, and their defense looks worse than it is. The fact of the matter, however, is that despite the fact that Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony are both alleged to be elite superstar scorers, their offense is distinctly mediocre because neither of them are actually very efficient scorers.