The Denver Nuggets have tons of youth, boatloads of athleticism and point-producing potential for days. They've also got a three-year streak of being knocked out of the Western Conference playoffs in the first round, and while the team's gone through quite a transition over the past two years from the Carmelo Anthony era to the present, Nuggets fans would be forgiven for wanting to see the promise of all that youth and athleticism translate into more concrete postseason success. Head coach George Karl thinks that could, and should, be coming along shortly. During a chat with Scott Hastings of KKFN-FM in Denver (as transcribed by Chris Fedor of Sports Radio Interviews ), Karl discussed the Nuggets' run of nine straight playoff appearances, eight of which have ended before the second round, and how the team can take that much-ballyhooed "next step" to the upper echelon of the Western Conference: [...] "We have gotten higher at times and then we haven't gotten as high as we wanted at times, but expectations and excellence is defined by the fan and/or the sportswriter and/or the commentators, like you guys on the radio. We can't do anything about that. We are excited about this season and we think we can be a top four team in the West. If we get to [be] a top four team in the West, we should expect to try to win the first round and see what happens after that." In case y'all forgot, Denver finished sixth in the Western Conference during the 2011-12 season, three games back of fourth place. The top four spots in the conference went to the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies. For what it's worth, Karl's projection is shared by Basketball Prospectus statistical analysis guru Bradford Doolittle . His recent ESPN.com Insider forecast of wins out West pegged Denver's magic number at 51, which would slot them in behind the '11-'12 conference champion Thunder and the Steve Nash-and-Dwight Howard-reloaded Lakers as the third-place finisher in the conference. Doolittle cited Denver's established offensive firepower (third in points scored per 100 possessions last year, the team's third straight top-three finish in that category and its fourth top-eight finish in the last five years), its enviable depth and positional versatility, and an anticipated improvement over their bottom-third-of-the-league defensive efficiency keyed by the addition of elite multi-position defender Iguodala as the engines of their ascent. That he thinks the year-older Spurs and Grizz will fall off some doesn't hurt, either. And that makes an awful lot of sense.
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