"It's picking between kids," Warkentien said by phone last weekend. "Trust me, the world is alluding to the Chauncey deal, and we've gotten major kudos on that. But the unsung pieces, our lesser names, it is fabulous what they've done."

The Nuggets, after all, aren't merely the hottest team in the Western Conference. After routing the Mavericks 117-105 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 series lead, they're a team that's becoming increasingly difficult not to love - a team full of hotheads and former malcontents that's putting on an inspiring show, much like the "We Believe" Warriors of 2006-07 did.

It's also a team the current Warriors could see as a blueprint for adding much-needed defense to a high-octane offense, for cutting payroll while building a legitimate contender.

Start with Anthony, the franchise anchor whose supreme talents often have been overshadowed by immature incidents, like getting arrested on suspicion of drunk driving just before last year's playoff push.

Move to Smith, who was suspended for the start of last season for assault charges stemming from a nightclub incident, but has become one of the league's best sixth men this season.

Kenyon Martin, where to start? Three years ago, he was suspended during the playoffs after a fallout with Karl, and would've been shipped out of town had the Nuggets found any takers for a malcontent with a maximum contract.

Now, his makeover is as complete as any Nugget's. Well, almost. Martin's bad-boy rep helped earn him a $25,000 fine and flagrant foul for shoving Dirk Nowitzki during Game 1 of this Dallas-Denver series.

Martin is the only NBA player to come back from dreaded microfracture surgery on both knees, but he's competing with a teammate for medical-miracle honors. Nene lost the better part of three seasons, wiped out by a devastating knee injury followed by testicular cancer.

And that's not even mentioning Anderson, arguably the NBA's feel-good story of the year. Andersen was banished from the league in 2006 for violating its drug policy before cleaning up his act for a second run with the Nuggets.

So rejuvenated is Andersen's game that he would be a shoo-in for comeback player of the year if such an award still existed. It doesn't anymore, partly because too many people with drug and/or alcohol offenses were taking home the honor, like Bernard King did with the Warriors in 1981.

Warkentien credits Karl and his assistants, a staff that includes Tim Grgich and former NBA players Stacey Augmon and Adrian Dantley, for molding the Nuggets' pieces together.

"George and those guys can take the dirty dog of personalities and throw it back together, so the pool of guys you can look at is greater," Warkentien says. "I'll take that stray pup and we'll go play."

He believes his best moves this season were ones he didn't make. After all, it was just a year ago when Denver was swept out of the playoffs by the Lakers, marking its fourth straight first-round exit with Karl and Anthony at the helm.

Unhappy Nuggets fans wanted one or both gone, wanted to blow up the team. The Nuggets stayed the course, and in the process, became a model of not simply surviving, but thriving, within an economic crunch.

Denver had one high-priced player too many with Allen Iverson, Martin, Anthony, Nene and Marcus Camby all set to earn more than $10 million this season. So Warkentien dealt Camby to the Clippers. For essentially nothing.

Suddenly, the offensive-minded Nuggets lost their best defender - and the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 2006-07.

The move was widely ridiculed at the time: Who would stop opponents from running a layup-and-dunk parade now?

As it turns out, the Nuggets replaced Camby piece by piece.

Andersen was signed to a one-year minimum deal and became the NBA's second-leading shot-blocker. Guard Dahntay Jones was signed out of the Development League and Renaldo Balkman added for their defensive edge. Anthony Carter also came back for the league minimum. And, of course, the Billups-for-Iverson trade with Detroit made everything go.

For Warkentien, the challenge now is keeping together a group that has played itself into bigger contracts. Not that he's worried. He has star players, refurbished talent and a $10 million trade exception from the Camby deal, to boot.

"We figured it worked last year," he said. "We'll figure it out again."

Nene C-FJanuary '08, has malignant testicular tumor removed; missed all but one game of '05-06 season after knee injury.Averaging 31.1 minutes, 13.4 points, 7.1 rebounds FNovember '06, has microfracture surgery on right knee had same procedure on left knee in summer of '05Averaging 31.4 minutes, 10 points, 6.1 rebounds per game F-CJanuary '06, banned from NBA for 2 years for violating drug policyAveraging 23.7 minutes, 8.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game