EIGHT-MAN ROTATION
Pos	Player	Key Stat	Skinny
PG	Nick Van Exel	.398 FG %	With more weapons should shoot better
SG	James Posey	rookie	Big preseason translates to starting role
SF	Ron Mercer	17.0 PPG	Slasher will thrive in up-tempo West
PF	Antonio McDyess	21.2 PPG	It all came together for him last year
C	Raef LaFrentz	12 games	Proved he was legit before knee injury
SG	Chauncey Billups	.386 FG %	Three-point guy may start, but will play
SF	George McCloud	69 threes	Likes to shoot, so will fit right in here
PF	Popeye Jones	18 games	He will rebound if he gets the minutes

		Dan Issel has taken over the team and is an experienced coach. He will get the respect of the players right away. They will play an up-tempo style because Issel hails from the Doug Moe school. So I look for the Nuggets trying to be a running and exciting team. They will probably fare well at home but have problems on the road. Antonio McDyess is an outstanding player. They are big upfront. Raef LaFrentz was doing an outstanding job until he was injured and out for the season. He is a good pick-and-roll player who can hit the outside shot and does good things on the floor. He and McDyess are a good big-man tandem. They still lack at center; I see LaFrentz as more of a shooting power forward. They should win more consistently this year, somewhere from 30-35 games.

That's why -- even though the Nuggets have players with marquee names such as Antonio McDyess, Ron Mercer and Nick Van Exel; even though a healthy Raef LaFrentz is back at full strength at center; even though Dan Issel is back on the bench; even though new owner Donald Sturm has deep pockets; even though the Nuggets now play in a state-of-the-art arena -- no one is gushing with optimism. Not even the Nuggets themselves.

Guard Bryant Stith's season preview: "I'm cautious."

Issel's thoughts on making the playoffs this year: "We're probably still a ways away."

And of anyone in the organization, Stith and Issel are probably right to hedge. Stith has been behind the scenes for virtually every Nuggets horror show this decade, and Issel has seen the unguarded positivism of his predecessors haunt them through to their bitter ends.

That's not to say the Nuggets don't have hope. For the first time in ages, they have NBA-caliber talent at more than just one or two positions. They have worthy contributors coming off the bench. They have reason to believe they can compete every time they take the court.

But they also have perspective. They've won just 25 games in the past two seasons combined. They've been hit with freak injuries. They've repeatedly set their sights on improvement only to end up in further decline.

The Nuggets won't make promises this season. First off, they have to make believers out of everyone, including themselves.

Issel plans for his team to pull it off not just by scoring points, which should come easily given the athletic scorers it has, but by playing better defense, which has been nonexistent for the Nuggets in recent seasons.

Only then, maybe, will they see their names up in lights, or at least up in the standings. And fans won't write off this incarnation of the Nuggets as just another bad sequel.

	Player to watch
	LaFrentz It was only 12 games, but Raef LaFrentz did some nice work last season before a knee injury took his rookie season away from him. LaFrentz has an outside game, one which he showed off at Kansas, and he makes up for a somewhat small build for a center with quickness and smarts. Will the speed still be there after the injury? Based on his preseason, LaFrentz is fine and a blooming star.

Point guard
Van Exel is Issel's do-or-die guy. Van Exel either will do as well as Issel expects this season, or Issel's reborn coaching career will die somewhere near the starting gate. Issel expressed his faith in Van Exel, punctuating it with more than a few zeros, when he signed the mercurial guard to a contract worth at least $60 million in August.

Rookie Chris Herren, whose pinpoint passing will pave his way in the NBA, is expected to be Van Exel's everyday backup. But Issel also would like to develop Chauncey Billups at the 1-spot, so Billups will see time at the position as well -- especially when the Nuggets need his defense against the league's bigger point guards.

Shooting guard
Billups opened the preseason as the incumbent starter, but his spot is far from secure. Denver wants to see him show more dedication to his game preparation, which the Nuggets hope will lead to better decision-making and better shooting before Billups is written into the starting lineup.

Surprising rookie James Posey has impressed Issel, and his playing time likely will come at Billups' expense. The Nuggets could choose either to send in Posey for Billups or to put Posey at small forward and move Mercer to shooting guard.

With such possibilities looming, it's clear Billups is playing for more than just a contract this season. Ultimately, he might find himself being used as a backup at both guard positions or even being shipped out of town.

Small forward
Mercer returns to the position he played in college-the position, not coincidentally, that he was playing when he led Kentucky, Issel's alma mater, to victory over Syracuse in the 1996 national championship game.

Now that Mercer is in Denver, no one is certain for how long. Mercer will be a free agent this summer and said he'd "definitely be renting" once the Nuggets refused to give him a contract extension immediately after trading for him.

But Mercer might find that he likes it in Denver, especially since he'll be one of the Nuggets' primary options on offense. Mercer already says he feels unshackled in Issel's system, which allows him to improvise inside as often as he sets up for jumpers.

When the Nuggets need perimeter scoring from this position, they'll turn to George McCloud. When they need to suffocate the opposing small forward on defense, they'll turn to either Posey or Stith, both of whom are expected to swing between the 2- and the 3-spots. They also plan to play wiry, 6-11 Keon Clark here, helping to give them the most depth they have at any position.

Power forward
How certain are the Nuggets that McDyess is on the verge of becoming a superstar? When McDyess is practicing free throws, assistant coach John Lucas positions himself under the basket and taunts him, saying things like: "C'mon, McDyess. The MVP's gotta make that one. The MVP's gotta be able to handle pressure."

McDyess has a personal goal of making this season's All-Star team. To do so, he merely would have to repeat his performance from last season, when he ranked among the league's top 10 in scoring (21.2), rebounding (10.7) and blocked shots (2.3), all while averaging a career-high 38.7 minutes a game and guarding opponents' best big man night after night.

After McDyess, the Nuggets fall off dramatically. Popeye Jones, still carrying questions about the health of his left knee, played through the preseason as McDyess's backup. Having only Jones as insurance leaves too much of the burden on McDyess and leaves the Nuggets dangerously exposed should he get hurt. That's why Issel has made finding another big man a top priority.

Center
LaFrentz is back, running, jumping and banging without so much as a knee brace to remind him that he tore an anterior cruciate ligament eight months ago. If his game is back as well, LaFrentz will be pulling defenders outside, giving the Nuggets another perimeter scoring option and allowing McDyess and Mercer to do their thing inside.

LaFrentz is bigger and stronger after his injury layoff. However, no amount of rehab will ever make him the kind of dominant defender the Nuggets need for matchups against the league's bigger centers. For that, Issel is desperately seeking another big body. The Nuggets brought 6-10, 235-pound Roy Rogers, 6-11, 250-pound Shawnelle Scott and 7-2, 285-pound Dwayne Schintzius to camp, but none of those players provides a long-term solution to the Nuggets' lack of frontcourt depth. Issel insists LaFrentz can be a center in this league, but he certainly can't do it without a banger coming off the bench for him.

Coaching
Nuggets fans are about to learn whether Denver's stunning upset of Seattle in the 1994 playoffs was the only coaching miracle Issel has in him. Even with a rebuilt roster and a newly built arena, the Nuggets are heavy underdogs in the Western Conference. Realizing this, Issel has avoided making any specific playoff promises.

The team is fully under his direction. Unlike Issel's last coaching stint, when he had to try to win with whatever and whomever the owner and general manager gave him, he has all the control. Sturm, the Nuggets' new hands-off owner, is letting Issel right this ship on his own. If Denver sinks again, Issel will have no one to blame but himself.