The Nuggets will look inside the organization for potential replacements for Kenyon Martin, with George Karl also asking more of Nene.

"Having Kenyon with Nene was huge," Karl said, "but that doesn't mean we can't do it with team concepts and philosophies and giving guys pride and responsibility to do it on their own. ... He was a veteran, defensive-minded guy who was a big part of our toughness. Filling Kenyon's minutes is probably the most difficult to do, but in the same sense, I think it can be done."

Karl hinted that Nene will have to exert more energy defensively.

"Nene was basically always the B defender. Now he has to be the A defender. Nene can be in a similar category. The only problem is when you had two of them, you didn't worry about foul trouble. Now can we get a team concept to camouflage that (by rotating in other big men for short snippets)? We also might jump in the pick-and-roll rather than switching all the time."