In retrospect, George Karl would run a different kind of training camp.

The Nuggets coach made this unsolicited admission Wednesday night when I asked him what he would tell fans who wonder how his team can look so good some nights and so bad the rest of the time.

This was just before it illustrated the point by losing at home to the struggling Sonics two nights after dominating the Cavaliers, a much better team, on the road.

"Blame it on whoever," Karl said. "Put me on top of the list. I think somewhat of how we ran training camp, and how we wanted to be fast, fast, fast, we cheated maybe at the defensive end of the court because of that. . . . And now we're a team that probably needs defense and needs to run plays."

In short, the Nuggets' fundamental problem is one of identity. Their lone consistent characteristic is uncertainty. To some extent, this is to be expected in the season in which they fundamentally changed the nature of the team by trading for Allen Iverson.

Through trial and error, Karl has learned that the helter-skelter plan of September no longer makes sense because it doesn't play to Iverson's strengths, even if it appears to.

"A.I. runs plays better than he probably - I know he probably would say he runs better, but you give him good spacing and a crisp pick, he feels a little more comfortable than just the openness we had before," Karl said. "You would have found that out in training camp. Took me about 25 or 30 games."

Wednesday's loss dropped the Nuggets back to .500. Their talent says they should be better than that. But everything they do when they're playing well goes against their natural instincts.

Last fall, if you recall, they were going to be the Phoenix Suns 2.0, running and lobbing, subduing opponents by beating them up the floor. That was when Andre Miller, one of the game's best lobbers, was running the show. This is not Iverson's game.

Gradually, that plan has morphed into a pick-and- roll-based offense that gives Iverson and Carmelo Anthony the freedom to create or find open shooters on the weak side.

When the Nuggets are playing well, as they did in blowing out the Lakers and Suns prior to the recent Eastern swing, they defend aggressively and share the ball. When things start to go sour, Iverson and Anthony revert to their one-on-one instincts, and J.R. Smith, following suit, becomes a bad shot machine. The Nuggets go from unselfish to selfish faster than any team in basketball. "The personality when we play poorly is soft defense, don't pass the ball to the weak side," Karl said after Wednesday's loss.

In fact, Karl suggested it was karma that caused Linas Kleiza to miss a three-pointer to tie the Sonics in the final minute. Anthony made the unselfish play, drawing the defense and kicking to Kleiza on the weak side. If the Nuggets make that play consistently all night, maybe Kleiza makes the shot.

What is happening here is a fundamental shift back to Karl's basic instincts. Ever since arriving in Denver, he has done his best to buy into the Nuggets' fast-paced tradition, emphasizing speed over fundamentals. This is not his normal inclination.

Karl's best NBA teams - the Sonics of the mid-1990s - were ferocious defensive teams that loved to trap. Of course, those teams had some outstanding individual defenders, among them Gary Payton and Nate McMillan.

The Nuggets have two accomplished defenders in Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin, but with Martin out for the year and Camby dependent on teammates to cover his back, Karl's attempt to emphasize team defense on the fly has been mostly a failure. The Sonics, without Ray Allen, shot an embarrassing 73.7 percent in the first quarter.

None of this is cause for despair. Acquiring A.I. in midseason made this a year of transition. Next fall, when Iverson joins his first Nuggets training camp, Karl will have a chance to install a system that makes sense for the personnel. If K-Mart is healthy, this could be a pretty good defensive team.

In the meantime, the Nuggets' best bet is a postseason shootout with the Suns.

"There are certain (team) personalities that make it, I think, harder for us to be successful," Karl said. "And there are other personalities I think we can handle."

In the Nuggets' current confusion, the Mavericks and Spurs are not teams they are prepared to handle. Against good defenses like those, the Nuggets get frustrated offensively and revert to the selfishness that ruins them.

Phoenix, at least, gives them a chance to get into a shootout and gain confidence. To meet the Suns, all the Nuggets have to do is stay right where they are in the conference standings.

Next fall will be the time for them to establish a new identity. For now, the best they can do is make the most of their old one.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

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