Two UNC legends that won two separate National Championships are killing it back in the baby blue uniforms together...
Ty Lawson in the last 3 games ins averaging 19.7 points and 10.7 assists per game, and kills the opponents PG's night in and night out because of his blazing speed, and feisty and physical defense. Him and Nene are developing and incredible chemistry that will be very dangerous for a long time.
Ray Felton is an extremely solid leader, and is also lighting quick that sets guys up with extremely easy shots. He struggles for the first few games in Denver, but has come on very strong as of late. He and Ty seem to really enjoy playing together.
When the 2 are on the floor at the same time it brings an element that the NBA hasn't seen for a long time. 2 very good PG's that make very good decisions, and set their teammates up with easy baskets all night long.
The other night in New Orleans Lawson had 23 points, and 10 assists, and Felton had 21 points, and 12 assists.
What are your thoughts on this tandem going forward for the Nuggets?
We have more than enough defenders to throw at guys like Kobe
Arron Afflalo is one of the best Kobe defender's in the league. Haven't seen Wilson Chandler matched up with him yet, but he is a very underrated guy when it comes to defense.
The Nuggets got younger and taller with this deal... They are now one of the youngest teams in the league, and it's scary what they could eventually do. Remember they are doing all this without Danilo Gallinari. Who scored 30 in his only full game as a Nugget.
Guys like Birdman, and KMart and have been rejuvenated by this trade... Both of those guys have become the players you saw when Denver went to the WCF in 2009. And George Karl has shown more enthusiasm than he has in his entire tenure in Denver. You can tell he and Melo did not get along at all...
That's two small guys who seem to play better together. Seems like lots of teams have two good small players whose games are less than the sum of their parts when they play together. Nuggets got off to a slow start when it was just Lawson, but as soon as Felton came in the Nuggets turned unguardable. Whoever was in the mismatch was running circles around the Hornets SG and they are both passers and shooters so they upped each other's games. A lot of the passes/assists were directly between the two of them.
Really starting to warm up to the lineup. I use to hate it when Karl ran 2-3 guard lineups. Seems to payoff now depending on the matchups tho. Don't like how when you run 2 PG set's it turns one of them into a spot up shooter basically but with the great ball movement going on in Denver right now it isn't a big deal at all. Previously tho with Chauncey\Melo whenever Billups\Ty ran together one of them would almost always be stuck standing by the 3 point line when the other dumped the ball or tried to create something.
Either way in transition these guy's are a blur. Best part about both of them to me, is even tho Felton is stuck behind him and Lawson probably knows he wants to start they still have great chemistry. One game you saw Lawson give the ball to Felton near the end of the game because of his experiance. You'll see Felton pass the ball to Lawson and take turns setting things up. Lawson\Felton connected about 4-6 times last game for 3's. Taking turns hitting eachother wide open on the perimeter.
Was worried you'd see Ty try to force things, or Felton try to step up and freeze him out abit. GK seems to be doing good evening out there minutes tho.
I really like Ray. He has a great heart and is a pretty good point guard to boot. I think he'll be a lot better once he gets his inevitable 2 bone headed passes a game out of his system. He was playing injured for much of the year which I think had a lot to do with his jumpshot going south.
This UNC point guard duo is fun and all that but I kind of hope for Ray's sake that he gets traded. He signed a very team friendly contract with New York over the summer, probably with the hope that he could increase his value in time for his next contract. He's too good of a point guard to have to share the starting role, and it's not going to help him get a better contract the next time he needs one.
Ray's not starting, but he's getting a ton of minutes.
Denver is the most exciting team to watch in the NBA since the Melo trade. The athleticism, shooting, fast pace, and unselfishness makes for entertaining basketball.
I love watching Lawson and Felton together. I only wish Lawson had Felton's confidence and Felton had Lawson's J. Still they make up the best penetrating backcourt in the league together. The only problem is against half court tall teams but that just really means they need to be hot from range.
Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton UNC Combo.
