At this point, there is precious little anyone can detract from the Denver Nuggets.  With every game, the traces of Carmelo Anthony’s vice grip on the organization become harder to identify. There is no time for what was in Denver’s fast-paced attack, only what is. If you stop to think, you’re already trailing behind.

Barring disaster in these last few games, the Nuggets should enter the playoffs with supreme confidence for what they’ve been able to accomplish and create since the trade deadline. But something that has been overlooked amid the team’s success is the fact that the players acquired in the midseason trade — almost all impact players — are new to this. Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, and Timofey Mozgov have no prior playoff experience. Raymond Felton, the wily veteran of the bunch, has never won a playoff game. When considering that Anthony has made the playoffs in every season he’s played, and that trade-mate Chauncey Billups — counting the Knicks’ latest berth — has a decade’s worth of consecutive playoff appearances, it’s obvious that the Nuggets weren’t banking on such immediate success. But success is pretty much the only thing the Nuggets have generated since the end of February, and the young ones ought to be ready if that success is to continue.

If Chandler, Gallinari, and Felton — all important cogs in the Nuggets offense — fold under the pressure, the team still has veteran leaders to compete, and more importantly, win. Alas, the uncertainty regarding Denver’s new players leaves the door slightly ajar, allowing that stupid back-climbing monkey to return:

Denver doesn’t have an elite isolation scorer! What do they do when they have no options left to exhaust?

…Which seems a little silly, considering how deep the Nuggets’ roster is. The team has nine players legitimately capable of scoring 20+ points on any given night. The odds of every single one of them struggling is far-fetched, but it happens. Great offenses collapse. And in that hypothetical Game 5 situation — with the series tied up, and the game deadlocked — do the Nuggets have someone who can be a game-changer on offense when nothing is going right?

How about J.R. Smith?

Under normal circumstances, this would be a stupefying proposition. But the Nuggets aren’t a normal team.  With so many options and so many willing playmakers, Denver doesn’t need to rely on any one scorer, which they’ve obviously proven through the last few months. But concerns are understandable given the nature of the playoffs. So if the Nuggets are able to execute their offensive for most of a playoff series, would it be reasonable to say that this iso-scorer would only be necessary for 1 out of every 3 games? Also, isn’t Smith the walking definition of a 1 out of every 3 games player?

Smith’s consistency issues are well documented, but so are his unhinged scoring onslaughts. At his best, he is clearly the team’s best offensive player. He’ll make the highlight reels with impossible dunks and three-point barrages, but his ability as a creator is perhaps the most intriguing element to his game. Some of Smith’s most brilliant plays have come from him running the pick and roll. The bounce pass is a criminally underrated facet of Smith’s game, and one of Denver’s deadliest weapons when Smith is in the right frame of mind.

At his best, Smith is a savant, skillfully creating what can only be construed as art, maintaining a balance between his own combustibility and the flow of the game. At his worst, Smith finds himself completely out of tune, either from extraneous issues, a lack of consistent playing time, or both. Smith’s predilection as a player is to shoot. It’s innate, and there’s not much that anyone can do about that. The difference between good and bad J.R. Smith is judgment. When the variables are all in place for Smith’s wacky algorithm, elements of his game open up. And it’s a beautiful thing.

Probably the thing you admire about him is his explosiveness and his athleticism as an offensive player. From the standpoint of one-on-one skills and individual skills, he’s a top-20 player in basketball.
But the ability to fit that into the team and fit that into winning basketball has been our challenge. I think J.R., this year, has probably had his best year as far as being a good teammate and committed to the team first. It’s going to be exciting.

George Karl: Nuggets coach on J.R. Smith, chemistry and go-to guys | Denver Post

George Karl’s relationship with Smith over the years has been tumultuous. With the new players capable of playing the wing position, Karl has more reasons than ever to play Smith as little as possible. But Karl is aware of Smith’s talent, and that’s the problem. You don’t let a genius suffer idly in the corner. You embrace him and his quirks as much as humanly possible. And while Smith can’t be happy with a few of Karl’s punishments this season, he should be grateful he wasn’t axed from the rotation entirely. Karl has tinkered with Smith’s minutes throughout the year, but maintaining a firm 25-30 minute allotment should prove to be rewarding with the playoffs only days away.

In last week’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, Smith’s potential as Denver’s closer was never clearer. Smith scored 13 points in the fourth quarter — seven of which game in the game’s last three minutes, including a three-point dagger with 23 seconds left in the game — making five of his six shots in the period. In a close game with clear playoff seeding implications, Smith was their best player down the stretch. Was it a taste of what’s to come?

Maybe what’s more impressive is Smith’s completely pedestrian performance in the two losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder, with one game before and one after the Mavs game. Momentum doesn’t appear to have much sway in the face of Smith’s lack of short-term memory. Every game is a blank slate with an equal chance of Smith setting himself on fire. In the playoffs, there are seemingly insurmountable highs and traumatizing lows. J.R. Smith knows the feeling too well. This team will have to find a balance between its veterans and its patches of inexperience in the face of stiffening competition. Smith has the chance to find the Nuggets’ absolute center by bringing back what it had lost; by finally getting that monkey off their backs.