George Karl Addresses Nene, J.R. Smith

DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl about a month ago was hoping to play the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs. Of course that never happened. Now Karl thinks the Mavs are going to win it all.

That's life in the NBA and it's why Karl still thinks the Nuggets can become championship material.

Talking with CBS4's Vic Lombardi, Karl looked back on the playoffs.

"I wish we would have won one of the games that we kind of lost in Game 1 and Game 5. I think every coach second-guesses themselves on certain things, but I thought we were ahead of the curve where we were in that series," Karl said. "I wish we could have made it a longer series because the momentum was coming back to us a little bit."

Karl also addressed facing the offseason.

"Every summer you have to do something -- free agency -- but the thing the fans should be excited about; it's the first time in about three, four or five years that we've got the ability to make a move; to spend money," Karl said. "We are under the cap, we are under the tax, we are in a good place."

Karl said the Nuggets don't want to be called a rebuilding team.

"We want to be a reinventing team."

A newspaper article a couple weeks ago said that Nene feels under-appreciated.

"I think it was just at that time of the year -- end of the season, everybody is kind of trying to figure their feelings out," Karl said. "I think it was probably too early. I think Nene wants to be in Denver, I think he will be in Denver, and I think we need to get him to the next stage and get him to be an all star."

Lombardi asked Karl about what happened with J.R. Smith, who is now a free agent.

"I don't know. I would have no problem bringing J.R. back. J.R. is in a different stage. He made good steps this year. Now would he want me to coach him? That's a different question; you'd have to ask J.R."

Karl is passionate as ever about cancer research. He's taped a commercial for Step Up For Cancer's big fundraiser on Aug. 7 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

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