George Karl, a man known to shrug his shoulders at practice as his offensive-minded players expressed no desire to play defense (even though, according to certain stats, they weren’t that bad!), suddenly has seen the light. He is a changed man. All it took was getting rid of Allen Iverson!

“It’s nothing complicated: You’re going to play defense, you’re going to play hard, you’re going to try. I’d forgotten how much better you feel when you coach defense. You’re more comfortable. The game is easier to coach when defense is your dominant personality.”

“I’ve always liked to shoot early, but we got irresponsible with it and then it became the only way we could play well,” Karl said. “We didn’t have the other option. We were too deficient — too many deficient coaching philosophies, too many deficient defensive players, too deficient a defensive commitment. You can blame everything and everybody.”

Yes George, get giddy – you beat four crummy teams with losing records (Dallas, Memphis, Charlotte, Minnesota), won at Boston and lost to Cleveland in your first six games with Chauncey Billups. This year’s fall is going to be much more sweet than last year’s epic no-show against the Lakers. Can Billups keep Kenyon Martin’s temper in check? Nope. Can Billups get Carmelo Anthony’s mind right? Nope. Can Billups help JR Smith determine what is and isn’t a good shot? Nope. Can Billups help Nene lose weight? Nope.

Change doing Nuggets good (Denver Post)