Last season was always going to be a transitional one for the Denver Nuggets, but its eventual form was something more like a delay. First-year head coach Brian Shaw was brought in to improve the Nuggets' defense and make the already excellent offense more formidable in the halfcourt. He never really got a chance to do any of those things to their full capabilities, though, because so many key players missed time — Ty Lawson (62 games played), Wilson Chandler (62), JaVale McGee (five), and Danilo Gallinari (a big fat zero, although that was mostly planned) missed enough time to make the Nuggets' 36-46 record somewhat understandable. With all players back and ready to contribute, it's not nuts to imagine the Nuggets doing enough to earn a respectable playoff seed in 2014-15. However, claiming that the Nuggets were simply felled by bad fortune obscures some real issues for the club, many of which relate to Shaw. While well-regarded assistants often succeed immediately, it's not especially clear that he's the guy to usher the Nuggets into a fresh era. For one thing, Denver didn't actually play at a substantially slower pace under Shaw (third-fastest in the NBA) than in George...