A letter to George Karl

Dear George,

As the new year approaches you find yourself in a tough, tough spot. I guess they call it the hot seat. While the Chauncey trade, loss of Camby and arrival of Nene have brought your team to an impressive and shocking new level, the positive progress begins and ends with the roster.

It is time for you to do your job and coach the game. Call plays. Run sets. Strategically substitute players. Manage the clock. Motivate players. Make adjustments.

In the past, you have not had the tools to contend. Thus, the shortcomings of the Nuggets were never really your responsibility and you always externalized the issues. Those days are over. Know it. The tolerance for your smug, sit back back and watch while the players mature mantra isn't going to work anymore. Management knows it. Fans know it. Players know it. Analysts are zeroing in on it nightly.

Last night must have been awfully embarrassing for you. Lebron and the Cavs were in town. Nationally televised game. Your roster was healthy. The gym was packed with a loud, over-served crowed. And while a positive result could have put the Nuggets' season into overdrive, the team missed the chance because you were terribly out coached. Actually, it wasn't clear that you coached at all, so maybe you were just "coached."

Your match ups were atrocious. (Lebron scored 12 of his buckets with a hysterically undersized Anthony Carter covering him. Huh?) Your use of timeouts was laughable. (No timeout when down by a 15+ in the second quarter, but a machismo timeout with 1.9 on the clock at the end of the half when the blowout was secured.) Shot clock usage was awful. Shot selection was up to the player. Switches from man to zone were messy and exploited. I could go on. Anyone of us at the game could add to the list.

The bottom line, George, is that you have to engage. You're now exposed by your solid roster and new found support. The only thing that this team is desperately missing is a game plan and effective x's and o's. Sitting there, leaning against the scorers table sucking cough drops and fashioning yourself as some sort of a old school Naismithian sage does very little for this team. They need a game plan. They need plays, not your philosophies.

If you don't get with the program, you will be the answer to a trivia question at the end of the season. The responsibility for previous failures has rested elsewhere in the past. Now, barring injuries, it is 100% on you. You refer to Dean Smith and Larry Brown as your contemporaries. That seems delusional and unfounded to many of us. Prove us wrong. We're looking forward to it, because opportunities to make a deep run into the playoff are rare in Denver.

Get to coaching.

- Butterfield