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The Nuggets have to be one of the most frustrating teams to watch. I just do not understand how they can play as poorly as they do. Their talent is above and beyond many of the teams in the league, but for whatever reason, they simply do not play as a team on either end. The offense is one pass, dribble around and launch a jumpshot. Their defense is porous unaccountability defined. If they would execute the way the Spurs and Jazz do, they could be scary good, but why they can't is a mystery to me.
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A couple points here. One, talent alone only means so much. The question is complementary talents. On offense, the one commodity you need the most with scorers like AI and Melo is guys who can shoot. The Nuggets have few, and none of them particularly reliable. Plus AI has always been a player that has to dominate the ball to be effective, which makes it impossible for them to executive above a certain level as a team. Offense is actually their biggest problem.
Defensively, they are a lot better than they are given credit for. Denver is NOT a bad defensive team. Read that as many times as you have to until you accept it. They tied for ninth in the league in defensive efficiency this year, in a group of teams tightly bunched from 5th on down(behind Boston, Houston, SA, and Detroit, the elite defensive teams) that includes LA, NO, Orlando, Dallas, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and the Nuggets. Not a whole lot of difference in how those teams performed defensively this year. It's their inability to get good shots, particularly when one of the two stars is out of the game/having a bad night that kills them.