Amid the ashes of a lost Nuggets season, forward Danilo Gallinari stood tall, vowing to do whatever it takes to become an NBA all-star, while point guard Ty Lawson cleaned out his locker and quietly slipped out a side door to get on with his summer vacation.
And that little scene tells you all anybody needs to know about the first moves required by Denver to regain the trust of local basketball fans and return to relevancy in the league’s playoff race.
Trade Lawson.
This is Gallo’s team now.
“We don’t want to be a fringe playoff team. … We don’t want to rush back to being a team that’s fighting for the final playoff spot,” Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said Thursday, less than 24 hours after a 133-126 loss to Golden State tossed the final shovels of dirt on the worst NBA season in Denver since 2003.
WATCH: Are the Denver Nuggets now Danilo Gallinari’s team?
While the focus will be on finding a new coach for the Nuggets, in the NBA, it has always been about the players and always will be about the players. The playoffs are about LeBron James and Steph Curry, not Steve Kerr or David Blatt.
WATCH: Is Mike D’Antoni the right coach for the Denver Nuggets?
Although Nuggets fans living in the past pine for George Karl, it was Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony that led Denver to the Western Conference finals in 2009, and to think coaching made a huge difference in that playoff run is pure balderdash.
If the Oklahoma City Thunder is dumb enough to fire Scott Brooks, then Nuggets president Josh Kroenke should hire Brooks, a former Denver assistant under Karl, in no longer time than it takes to fax a contract proposal.
Should Brooks not become available, then fast break-loving NBA veteran Mike D’Antoni, Golden State associate head coach Alvin Gentry and the relentlessly positive Melvin Hunt are all fine candidates. None would be a bad choice for a Nuggets team that wants to run, just as no candidate could make the difference between 52 losses and 52 victories.
In re-establishing the franchise’s identity as a winner, the big question is which players will take the court for Denver, not which coach will sit on the Denver bench.
The Nuggets need a bona fide star. Can Gallo be an all-star in this league?
“It’s my goal. It has been in my mind since I came in the league. … There is something in my mind that tells me I have a chance to go to the All-Star Weekend,” said Gallinari, looking forward to next season after needing almost two years to regain his form after a knee injury in 2013 led to the downfall of the Nuggets in the playoffs and the nasty divorce between Karl and Kroenke.
It has been evident ever since Lawson couldn’t get his butt out of Las Vegas in time to show up punctually for the first practice with a badly struggling Nuggets team after the all-star break that the 27-year-old point guard doesn’t really want to be in Denver any longer.
Lawson can move at warp speed with the basketball and he’s not a bad dude, but he’s far from a leader. While he did not deem it necessary to make himself available to the media on the day his teammates cleaned out their lockers at the Pepsi Center, my educated guess is Lawson dreams of playing in a city with brighter lights than Denver.
So here’s a suggestion: Trade him to the Los Angeles Lakers. Use Lawson as bait in an attempt to move up in the NBA draft, in the likely event the Nuggets fail to get unbelievably lucky in the lottery and cash in on their 15 percent chance to land one of the top three picks.
While there is great temptation for any team in the lottery to blow up the roster and endure the difficult years almost always involved in a total team makeover, that would seem to be a foolish move for a Nuggets team that could spend heavily in the 2016 free-agent market.
Gallinari, who averaged 19 points per game after Hunt stepped in as interim coach, itches for the chance to lead Denver back to respectability.
“In my career, I’ve never had a problem with any coach, I’ve always played 35-plus minutes (per game), I was always the leader of the team and the best player on the team,” Gallinari said.
Gallo is Gallo again.
The Nuggets have a chance to be good again.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or twitter.com/markkiszla
