By Jerry Tarkanian · May 15, 2009 · 2:33 PM

I talked this week with Tim Grgurich and Mark Warkentien, two of my former assistants who are working in Denver, and both of them told me how much the Nuggets resemble our old Rebels teams.

‘Grg’ called me first, before Denver eliminated Dallas in Game 5 of their playoff series. He was real happy. Then I left a message for Mark, and he called me the next day.

‘Grg’ is an assistant coach and Mark is Denver’s vice president of basketball operations. When Mark called, we talked for a long time. He put together that Allen Iverson trade, to Detroit, that brought Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets.

That’s what did it for them. Chauncey has had a great year.

Mark really enjoys that team. They play hard and they play really good defense. They’re very aggressive and their attitude is a lot like the Rebels. They’ve got that swagger.

Like the Rebels, they play hard. They won’t back down from anybody. They’ve got a couple of guys that nobody expected to play well, and they’re doing well. That’s something we always tried to have on our team.

They have a guy they call “Bird Man,” Chris Andersen. What a great leaper. He has long arms and he’s a tough guy.

And Kenyon Martin is as tough a guy as there is in the league. He’ll knock anybody down. They’ve been playing hard all season.

I went to one of their playoff games a year ago against the Lakers, in L.A. I said on a radio show that I thought Denver might surprise the Lakers and knock them out.

But Denver got killed. Lost by 30 points. They didn’t guard anybody and didn’t play well. They didn’t play hard.

In the offseason I told Tim, You guys are really hard to understand. You have some great coaches. I think head coach George Karl and Tim are fine coaches.

And one of their assistants, Johnny Welch, played for me. Stacey Augmon also is on that staff. I told Tim, I can’t believe they don’t play better defense.

He said it was a real struggle to get them to play that way. They emphasized offense too much. I asked Stacey, How the hell are you guys so bad defensively?

He said they have to be willing. They’re not willing. That was a year ago.

This season they’ve been playing great defense and running the ball, playing with that swagger.

At the start of the season, I was really happy when Mark told me that Tim would be in charge of the defense. I knew, right away, they’d be a lot better.

Mark just raves about that J.R. Smith. He would have been a senior this season had he gone to North Carolina. He’s a young guy they basically got for nothing.

Scott Skiles didn’t like him at all in Chicago and got rid of him basically for nothing, and J.R. has become a real star in the league. He has unlimited range, he’s quick, he comes off the bench and gets 15 or 16 points. He’s a tremendous talent.

I think they have a legitimate shot against the Lakers, whom I like at home in Game 7 against Houston.

Tim always talks about guys like, “This guy would have been a great Rebel … ” He always talks like that.

They liked Allen Iverson. He played tough. He just wasn’t a point guard. Mark and I saw Allen at a bar at the Final Four in Detroit. Allen came over and talked with us. He was real nice.

I was shocked. He came up to me and talked to me, and I didn’t know he knew who I was. I had never met him.

But Tim never talks about himself. Mark told me that Tim’s handling the defense. I don’t think you can be a great team without playing defense.

I think the Lakers are the most talented team, but they sure got run last night at the start of that game. I was shocked at what Phil Jackson said at the end of the first quarter. Houston had them 16-1 or 17-1 out of the gate.

An interviewer asked him how they came out so flat, with no energy. He said he thought they played real well, that they just couldn’t make a basket. I thought, God, they didn’t play hard at all.

If Phil accepts that as a hard effort, they’ll have trouble.

The Runnin’ Nuggets? I’ll tell you what, it’s real nice that Mark, Tim, Stacey and Johnny, who backed up Mark Wade at UNLV, are doing well.

Tim said Stacey has been sent to do some advance scouting and he’s done very well. They’re impressed with the job he’s done. Mark told me ex-players are mostly regarded as ex-players, not as coaches.

But they respect Stacey as a coach. He works with them individually, and when Stacey talks during a game you can tell he has their attention. They all respect what a great job Stacey did defensively.

Mark said he thinks Stacey will be a head coach somewhere, that he’s head-coaching material. I believe him.