Mr. January: Karl enjoys month to remember

Individual accolades were not among them.

The Nuggets were on a three-game losing streak and Karl was trying to figure out how to win a tough road game against the Utah Jazz without his two leading scorers, All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony and indispensable point guard Chauncey Billups.

Undermanned and underestimated, the short-handed Nuggets had their way with the Jazz on Jan. 2 in Salt Lake City, setting the stage for an impressive month in which they won 12 of 15 games and put together an eight-game winning streak that solidified their standing among the NBA elite.

The surge left the Nuggets (32-15) with the second-best record in the Western Conference and earned Karl the honor of coaching Anthony and the West at the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 14 in Arlington, Texas. The Los Angeles Lakers are No. 1 in the conference, but coach Phil Jackson is not eligible to coach in the All-Star game this year because he did it last year.

“I’m pretty amazed,” Karl said. “I had not thought about it this year. The team put in a great January. It’s been a little shocking.”

The honors continued Monday when Karl was named Western Conference coach of the month. It was the 10th time in his career – and third with the Nuggets – he has received the award.

Karl typically spends the All-Star break relaxing in mountain resort towns such as Steamboat Springs or Breckenridge, but those plans changed as Denver kept putting up wins despite playing the first three games of the month without Anthony and Billups and the last four without Anthony .

Karl, who also was the West coach in 1994 and 1996, is looking forward to being part of All-Star Weekend, but he deflected much of the credit to his coaching staff of Adrian Dantley, Tim Grgurich, John Welch, Chad Iske, Jamahl Mosley and Stacey Augmon.

The younger coaches – Iske, Mosley, Welch and Augmon – have taken on more responsibility in the last two seasons after the departures of former assistants Doug Moe and Mike Dunlap.

“It was a concerted decision when we lost Mike Dunlap and Doug that this is the way the system was working. We decided to upgrade our young guys and give them a chance,” Karl said. “I think they’ve been wonderful. On a monthly basis someone surprises us in that they’ve become stronger and more assertive. Coaching is not an easy thing. They’ve taken the opportunity and made us proud and made themselves into first-class coaches.”

Karl still has top billing, and his biggest challenge in Dallas will be distributing minutes in a democratic fashion. Not an easy task with superstars such as Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Amare Stoudemire and Deron Williams.

“It’s hard to do with 12 guys,” Karl said. “You want to give everybody at least one shot on the court and then maybe the second half you coach a shorter rotation. The scoreboard tells you a little bit. You just want to keep the stage clean of pitfalls and bad basketball.”

Even though the gig was an unexpected surprise, a victory wouldn’t be bad, either.