Tag: Dan Issel

All-Time Sacramento Kings vs. All-Time Denver Nuggets

Our next match features two teams that would be really fun to watch. The battle between the All-Time Sacramento Kings vs. All-Time Denver Nuggets should be highly competitive, with an abundance of scoring and fast-paced action. Who would come out on top? Each team has several key advantages.

Sacramento’s Advantages

Dominant guard play: The Kings will be led by their guard play, with five Hall-of-Famers in their backcourt. Oscar Robertson and Tiny Archibald will dictate the pace for their starting unit, and Bob Davies, Bobby Wanzer, and Mitch Richmond will lead the bench unit. Expect them to experiment with three guard lineups, which will be particularly effective when Richmond is paired with two of the three lead guards, to help space the floor. Denver does have solid backcourt defenders in Fat Lever and Chauncey Billups, and the Kings do not have a good defensive counter for David Thompson. Despite this, Sacramento has a deeper backcourt.

Battle of the boards: Sacramento has one of the great rebounders in NBA history, Jerry Lucas, alongside double-double machine Chris Webber and Oscar Robertson, who can also dominate the glass. While Denver’s Fat Lever should be able to cancel out Robertson, Bobby Jones and Dan Issel will have a lot of trouble with the other two. Expect Dikembe Mutombo, Denver’s best rebounder and defender, to get heavy minutes in this series.

Three-point shooting: The Kings’ playmaking guards will have a field day when Richmond and Peja Stojakovic are on the floor. This team can experiment with modern NBA basketball for periods of each game, with Peja as a stretch four.

Denver’s Advantages

Defensive versatility: Normally, the Nuggets aren’t associated with defense, but they have several stoppers who will loom large in this series. Bobby Jones is the one of the great defenders ever, and will see time against Jack Twyman, Jerry Lucas, and Chris Webber. Dikembe Mutombo and Marcus Camby were excellent rim protectors who will each be needed to slow down the penetrating Archibald and the other Kings scorers at the rim.

Wing scoring: Sacramento doesn’t have the personnel to stop David Thompson, Alex English, Carmelo Anthony, and Kiki Vandeweghe. Denver can experiment with lineups where three of these individuals play together, which could be an excellent counter to Sacramento’s small ball lineups.

X-Factor

Sacramento’s defense: Can the Kings get any stops with a lineup that doesn’t include any all-NBA defenders? None of the Kings from the modern era were known for their work on the defensive side of the ball, so they may be forced to outscore the Nuggets to have a chance to win the series.

Results

Run-and-gun. This series goes back and forth, with many high scoring encounters. Sacramento struggles defensively, as expected, with Thompson, Issel, and English repeatedly burning them. In the deciding game, Oscar Robertson controls the action, and the Kings outrebound Denver in a close affair.

Sacramento wins, four games to three.

Next Round

Sacramento faces the All-Time Spurs.

All-Time Denver Nuggets Team

All-Time Denver Nuggets Team Infographic

Our next franchise is the embodiment of…mediocrity. That sounds harsher than intended; they have won almost exactly half of their games played, with a .499 all-time winning percentage. They started as a successful ABA franchise, winning 60 games or more twice, and competing in the only Finals in team history. Since then, they’ve been a frequent playoff participant (earning a trip in 24 of their 39 NBA seasons), but have never really emerged as a title contender, peaking as a Western Conference finalist twice. The All-Time Denver Nuggets team reflects their standing as a solid yet unspectacular franchise, with good to great players littered throughout the roster, without the all-time legends that many other teams boast.

The starting point guard is triple-double machine Fat Lever, a uniquely gifted all-around player who was a special rebounder for his size (6’3”). Lever was also a threat on the defensive end, ranking in the top 10 in NBA history in both steals per game and steal percentage. The two guard, Hall-of-Famer David Thompson, is a classic ‘what if?’ player, who still was able to dominate both the ABA and NBA in a short period of time before injuries and personal issues derailed his career. At his peak, Thompson was a two-time all-NBA first-team player, who was one of five players to ever score over 70 points in a single game. Off the bench, Chauncey Billups, who spent both early and late years of his career with the Nuggets, provides the team with its best three-point shooting threat (seventh ever in made three point field goals), and another excellent all-around option who can play alongside both starters. Ralph Simpson, a high scorer from the ABA days, will also see minutes at shooting guard.

The frontcourt has a mix of dominant scorers and defensive stoppers. Hall-of-Famer Alex English is a top 20 scorer in NBA history, and will combine with Thompson to form an unstoppable wing combination. He’s backed up by Carmelo Anthony, another deadly scorer with greater size to provide opponents with a different look. A third high-scorer, Kiki Vandeweghe, will back up both forward positions; while none of these three are defensive stoppers, they should be able to outscore most small forward pairings. The starting power forward, Bobby Jones, is best known for his work on the 76ers, but he started out as a three-time all-star on the Nuggets, and provides the starting unit with a much-needed dominating defensive presence. He’s backed up by the explosive Antonio McDyess, a high-flyer with a solid mid-range game whose career was also affected by injuries. The starting center, Hall-of-Famer Dan Issel, made up for his (relatively) small stature with a crafty offensive game and a relentless motor. He’s backed up by two defensive stalwarts, Hall-of-Famer Dikembe Mutombo and Marcus Camby, who each won a Defensive Player of the Year award with Denver.

This team should be tremendously versatile, capable of trotting out quality offensive and defensive lineups. Down the stretch of close games, Mutombo, Jones, Billups and Lever should form a stingy defensive unit, while their high scoring wings and Issel will help them to score on anybody. The 20th seed in our tournament, the Nuggets will face the Sacramento Kings in their first-round match up.

Coach: Larry Brown

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .499