Here’s the Denver Post blog reporting on the Nuggets and head coach Brian Shaw, who likes his players but doesn’t like seeing the squad give up when things look bad:
A new, potentially harmful narrative arose out of a couple of radio interviews Nuggets coach Brian Shaw conducted this week — one that he hates his roster and vice versa.
Not true, he insists.
“I can’t remember who it was that asked me yesterday; he said ‘Would you have taken this job with the roster, if it was just the guys who are healthy and playing right now would you have taken this job?’” Shaw said. “I said, after interviewing for head coaching jobs as many times as I did, 11 times prior to this interview, and not getting a job, I said ‘Yeah, I most likely would have taken it.’ But the expectation and everything else would have been different, knowing if there wasn’t going to be Gallo, JaVale (McGee), Nate (Robinson) for half the season and the situation be what it is.
“So, no, I don’t hate the roster. What I hate is having to beg guys to play. That simple. That shouldn’t be a part of what coaching should be. And circumstances are what they are. None of us asked for it.” …
Shaw: “I’ve always said I can live with the losses, as long as we fight. But what’s hard for me is when we go from a tie or something in the first quarter, to down 20 by halftime, and then we come out in the third quarter and we just give up. And I felt like that’s what some of our guys were doing. Now, it’s important for me to understand that those guys who are continuing to do that, going forward in the future, they aren’t going to get my vote of confidence to keep them here if that’s what they are showing when the going gets tough.”
