Lets face it, we weren't winning a championship next year or anytime soon. We might have had a chance with Iggy, Koufos, Masai and Karl, but nothing happened so we made changes. These changes were necessary and not as detrimental as some seem to believe.
Simply put, Golden State isn’t winning a championship with Iggy. Andre Iguodala was a strong defender, but was little else in my opinion. He averaged 13 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds per game with less than spectacular free throw and three point percentages. Letting him walk for nothing stings a little, but I'm happy we didn't give an average aging player big money. We did that once and it was awful.
Loosing Masai was a shame, but I'm not convinced his departure is the end of the team. As a general manager Masai was a warm blanket and macaroni and cheese after years of old newspapers and Ramen noodles. However, his genius was defined by a spectacular trade which was more James Dolan's stupidity than anything else. I think I remember their general manager at the time refusing to give much of anything for Melo, but was overruled by Dolan. Also In my opinion, his drafts only seemed great because it was the first time in a long time our GM actually participated by drafting players. I like both Faried and Fours, but until they become all stars I'm reserving judgement.
Our new coach is an unknown unlike George Karl, but Karl was never known to win in the playoffs on a regular basis. He did a hell of job while he was here, but after nine seasons it was time to change it up and head in a different direction. Koufos was what he was a serviceable big man, but nothing more. His loss is negligible at best
As it stands now, I think the Nuggets are in good shape, we're young, talented and have the pieces necessary to be competitive. Without Iggy's salary, we will have decent cap space to sign an impact player when the chance comes. Who that player will be remains to be seen, but in addition to 2014 being a strong draft class there will also be several free agents namely LeBron, but also Larry Sanders, Boogie Cousins and more.
At the moment we need to develop the players we have and hope for lighting in a bottle. We won't win 57 games this year, but the team will be fun to watch and the future will brighter looking into the unknown than it is looking at what didn't work.
