FanHouse KenyonMartin

The term "revisit" might be a little inaccurate for this one. Re-miserating -- if that's a word -- may be more appropriate. The 2000 NBA Draft is perhaps the worst of all time. Of the 13 players picked in the lottery, only one has made an All-Star Team, Kenyon Martin in 2004. Nine years after the draft, four of the 13 lottery picks are out of the NBA, four averaged double figures in points and none has won an NBA title.

It's not as if a number of gems were passed up -- this was just a poor crop players coming out, filled with collegians who made putrid mistakes in leaving school early such as Erick Barkley, Donnell Harvey, Jerome Moiso and Khalid El-Amin.

If that wasn't enough evidence that this was a forgettable draft, the best player in this group was drafted 43rd, Milwaukee's Michael Redd, perhaps the biggest oversight in recent draft history.

The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.

Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, George Karl, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith and Joe Dumars changed that. The opening week trade for Mr. Big Shot completely transformed the spirit of the team, as did Karl's summer decision to focus on defense, even at the expense of his stars' allegiance. Everything else went right, for the most part.

But the franchise sit has payroll cuts to consummate, and little in the way of burgeoning youth to fill the holes. By trading the promise of cap space (in the convenient form of Allen Iverson) for Billups, the Nuggets trade a minor rebuild for contention. It worked -- the Nuggets were legit contenders. But what now? How can they possibly get better?

There's a good chance that at some point during the NBA Finals -- or likely before they even start -- there will be talk of whether or not the Lakers are tough enough to win a championship.

And there should be that kind of talk. But it wasn't even an issue against the Denver Nuggets.

The Lakers are going to their second consecutive NBA Finals because their big players were more skilled and more talented than the Nuggets' big players were tough and physical.

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There's no other way to say it, really: the way that Dahntay Jones has chosen to play against Kobe Bryant in the last two games of the Conference Finals has been dirty. The first play in that video clip is the intentional trip from Game 4; the second is a two-handed push in the back from Game 3. The former wasn't even ruled a personal foul at the time, but the latter was upgraded to a flagrant-one a day later.

Bryant took the high road when asked about it post-game, while Kenyon Martin proudly (but not surprisingly) welcomed Jones to the "dirty player" club.

In both of the Lakers' Western Conference finals victories over the Nuggets, Trevor Ariza stole an inbounds pass late in the game that effectively sealed things for L.A. Since there were different players involved on the Denver side of things each time -- Anthony Carter was throwing to Chauncey Billups in Game 1; in Game 2 it was Kenyon Martin trying to get it to Carmelo Anthony -- maybe you just look at the one constant, which was Ariza, to figure out the reason why.

Or maybe, you look at something else -- like history. Because the fact is, before the arrival of Billups, George Karl and the Nuggets didn't believe in running plays to get the ball inbounds.

It seems apparent the Denver Nuggets are in the Western Conference finals for the long haul. But whether or not they can beat the Lakers and advance to the NBA Finals may hinge on a few players who haven't done much yet.

The Nuggets have every right to feel pretty good about Thursday night's 106-103 win that evened the series at one game apiece. But the Nuggets will be long shots if Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups have to keep carrying a disproportionate part of the load.

Specifically, the Nuggets are going to need more out of their front line: Kenyon Martin, Nene and Chris Andersen.

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LOS ANGELES -- The Denver Nuggets survived the Los Angeles Lakers down the wacky stretch Thursday night at Staples Center.

This isn't good, by the way.

These athletically gifted and suddenly relentless Rocky Mountain folks are standing in the way of everybody's dream -- the one featuring Kobe versus LeBron during the Mother of All NBA Finals. Just like their heartless counterparts from Orlando, the Nuggets couldn't care less.

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FanHouse previews every round of the NBA Playoffs.

The Lakers took long enough, but they finally dispatched of the pesky Houston Rockets, and were able to advance to the Western Conference Finals. And now that they've gotten there, they'll face a team that has been patiently waiting for them over the last six days: the two-seeded Denver Nuggets.

Denver has arguably been every bit as hot in the post-season as the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers. But their style of play is simply a bad matchup for this Lakers team.

In hindsight, Monday's gut-wrenching loss to the Mavericks in Game 4 was a blessing in disguise for the Nuggets, allowing them to trade the hostile crowds of the American Airlines Center for a more welcome environment at the Pepsi Center. And in front of an appreciative fan base that hasn't seen the hometown team advance past the second round since 1984, the Nuggets took care of business with a 124-110 win.

Just like they've done the entire postseason, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups led the way with obscene efficiency: Anthony poured in 30 points (13-22 shooting) while Billups added 28 (10-16 shooting) with 12 assists. The Nuggets jumped out to a 14-point lead at halftime and matched every run Dallas made in the second half.

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The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

There's a lull in the sporting world in terms of exciting things to talk about (well, OK, that's only because we refuse to talk about Manny Ramirez or Brett Favre and the NBA crew has Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban pretty much sewn up) so we did what anyone else would do: we invited* Tiger Woods on the show. Tiger declined* but we forged on and just talked about him behind his back instead: specifically, are top 10 finishes good enough for El Tigre. Also, Ryan and I discuss David Feherty's aggressive writing style as well as what sort of characteristics define a hateable professional athlete.