The Denver Nuggets entered last season with playoff aspirations, but were quickly laid low by struggles both on the court and off it. Brian Shaw never quite could get the most out of a Nuggets roster stocked with contributors but light on stars — a stepped-on version of the 10-deep crew that soared in George Karl's uptempo scheme, but stagnated and stalled after the regime change. Of all the Nuggets, it was Kenneth Faried whose development seemed most arrested.

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After a breakout performance for the iteration of Team USA that won gold at the 2014 FIBA World Cup, the Nuggets offered the undersized power forward a four-year, $50 million contract extension, banking on continued growth that would make the 24-year-old one of the foundational pieces of Denver's hoped-for return to postseason play. But while Faried's per-minute productivity and box-score stats mostly held fast last season, his on-court impact and the Nuggets' results often underwhelmed, leaving "The Manimal" looking less like a transformational talent and more like trade bait.

With his extension kicking in and the TV-revenue-fueled spiking salary cap making his deal less onerous to move, Faried's name remains in the rumor mill. But with the Nuggets coming off another regime change — in comes new coach Mike Malone; goodbye, former starting point guard Ty Lawson; hello, new starter Emmanuel Mudiay — Faried's eager to wash away the sour taste of last season. He also, however, would like to remind us that he and his teammates weren't the ones who cooked the struggleplate.

From Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post:

I like the Manimal for the same reason so many Nuggets fans do. He cares. Really cares. That's his rebound bouncing off the rim. Get out of the dang way or risk being eaten alive.

But behind the ferocious Manimal mask, there's a raw vulnerability, perhaps the result of Faried being told so often he wasn't good enough to be a big-time college recruit or learn to shoot in the NBA or make Team USA. So when former Nuggets coach Brian Shaw picked and poked at each little negative aspect of his skill set, Faried blew up. The Denver locker room got slimed in the explosion.

"If you don't have a coach that believes in you, then what's the point of going out there and playing?" Faried said. "If your coach doesn't have faith in you and puts you out in the fire against all these great players, you're going to get torched."

You could probably think of a couple of reasonable responses to the question — personal pride in your individual performance, for one; a responsibility to earn the money you're paid, for another. And yet, Faried's comments serve as a reminder that even in a bottom-line-oriented, results-above-all-else business, interpersonal relationships still matter. A lot.

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The Nuggets got torched plenty last season, finishing 30-52 — the franchise's worst record in a dozen years — while ranking in the bottom third of the league in both points scored and allowed per possession. Now, though, the only one getting torched is Shaw, who waited a while to get a shot at a top job, only to watch his maiden voyage wind up on the rocks in less than two years.

A respected assistant during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers, Shaw was installed after the firing of reigning Coach of the Year Karl and the exit of reigning Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri, and promptly saw excellent swingman Andre Iguodala decamp for Golden State in free agency. After overseeing an awkward attempt to turn a run-and-gun roster into a more measured half-court attack, leading to a disappointing 36-46 campaign by that ended a decade-long playoff streak, Shaw sought to switch things up in Year 2. He reportedly consulted literature about how best to communicate with millennials, and tried to connect with his players by rapping scouting reports to them.

These efforts failed.

Shaw didn't hide his displeasure with the mounting losses. He wondered aloud whether his team was actually trying to lose in a kidding-on-the-square sort of way. He clashed with his players and questioned their effort as the season circled the drain.