A lot of coaching in the NBA is fixing holes

If something seems different in Denver this season -- where the Nuggets are 17-7 and winners of eight of their last 10 -- it's because DEN coach George Karl "has returned to a few principles he admits he let gather too much dust. Defense is at the top of that list."

"I enjoy who we are now. I enjoy that we have to be a team-oriented defensive team. I enjoy that our bigs are so talented we can be aggressive and allow roaming and double-teaming and more rotating than we have in the past. And then the big thing is I went back to coaching from the defensive end of the court. It sounds very minimal, but I had forgotten the security blanket that comes with defense."

According to this article, "the Nuggets, once known for a Mike D'Antoni/[Doug] Moe-inspired run-and-gun offense, now are identified with defense and execution on offense."

Coach Karl describes the recipe for a good team:

"To be a championship team, you have to have playmaking mentality in your offense. I think I talked about that in a lot of different ways — pass the ball, more assists, weakside basketball. A lot of coaching in the NBA is fixing holes. This team is not as much fixing holes as how do we make it better, because you know it can be better. The power of the NBA can scare you at times. Do you coach being fearful, or do you coach being optimistic? I think we're coaching being optimistic this year more than we were in the past."