The Mystery of Kenneth Faried

The Mystery of Kenneth Faried

Aug 19th, 2018

Have you guys been wondering where Kenneth Faried has been? Probably not until you glanced at the title of this article. Within recent memory you can not find where Faried is and sometimes he is not on the team bench. Interesting right? Let's investigate the whereabouts of Faried.

Faried’s rise to glory began during his career at Morehead State University. The 6’8 Power Forward arrived and was a double-double machine. Faried was a conference leading rebounder during his sophomore and junior seasons at 13.0 rebounds a game and also put him top three in the nation across all conferences. After electing to stay for his senior season, Kenneth Faried finished his career as a two time Ohio Valley Conference Player of the year, three time Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the year, 2011 second team All-American and broke Tim Duncan’s career rebounding record.

Kenneth Faried’s decorated collegiate career led to his stock increasing and ultimately being drafted by the Denver Nuggets in 2011 with the 22nd overall pick.

In Faried’s rookie year, it began with him not getting a lot of playing time. He was playing behind and splitting minutes names such as Nene Hilario, Al Harrington, Kosta Koufos, Chris “Birdman” Andersen and Timofey Mozgov. However, after the George Karl led Nuggets experienced the injury bug, Faried began to see more floor time and began to impress with his highlight dunks and physical play that ultimately game him the nickname, “Manimal.” His performance impressed the coaching staff so much that they traded Nene to the Washington Wizards.

After the trade with Washington, Faried’s production only increased and was eye opening to the league. He finished third in NBA Rookie of the Year votes and made the NBA Rookie First Team. He finished with roughly 10 points per game and 8 rebounds per game. Faried appeared to be the future of the NBA .

During the next few years Faried hovered around low double-double averages but still showed promise in the midst of a Denver’s rebuild especially on the glass. Faried even played on Team USA in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and had high production for his role and shot a tournament best 63% and averaged 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Not long after his breakout performance with Team USA and a gradual development Faried locked in a four year $50 million dollar extension to stay with Denver in 2014. This is the point where the drama stirs. People around the organization began to wince and complain about Faried’s ego and team officials began to regret giving Faried the extension. During that 2014-2015 season, the Nuggets finished 20-52 and Faried, who averaged 12 and 9 that season, was often in trade rumors around the Association.

In the two following seasons, Faried began to lose minutes to a new bigs Darrell Arthur, Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic. Faried continued to hurt the locker room with this shift and at this point, Denver made a clear statement to Faried that the organization was going to move in a new direction without him.

In this previous season, Faried was out of the consistent rotation. After Denver acquired F Paul Millsap, reports say the Faried was not interested in coming off of the bench and was not happy with the way the franchise was going. With Paul Millsap being injured most of the season, Kenneth Faried still had DNPs in the box score. Even HC Mike Malone told the media that he could not play Faried over the guys they had in the rotation.

This led to Faried not even showing to games. During the midst of this rift, the Nuggets could not find a trade partner before the deadline and had to keep him on the roster for the remainder of the season. Faried went on to just average 14 minutes per game with roughly posting 5 points and 4 rebounds in the 32 games he played this season which are all career lows.

Kenneth Faried has an interesting journey during his current tenure in the NBA to say the least. However, this offseason we got to finally see Kenneth Faried move out of Denver. Denver moved Faried in part of a three team trade that sent him over to the Brooklyn Nets.

Please do not get me wrong, I do not think Kenneth Faried is a top big in the NBA as of today, but he should be contributing to a team with solid rotational minutes. Faried has not been a top tier NBA player simply because he never improved his all around game. In today’s league we expect bigs to have a shooters touch and to play on both the perimeter and in the paint and Faried is limited to just paint play. That reason alone is the reason why he has not grown into a star in the league. An undersized PF at 6’8 that is not a good shooter and doesn't excel in low post scoring is a tough sell to some teams. Nevertheless, Faried is well suited to be your energy guy off of the bench but he will have to embrace that roll and cut back on his ego.

With a fresh start in Brooklyn, this is the year that Faried needs to bounce back. With a frontcourt comprising of a lot of young players trying to keep a NBA spot, Faried should excel next to Jarrett Allen. Of course nobody expects the Nets to get a playoff spot but I do see Kenneth Faried, Jarrett Allen, and D'Angelo Russell all having solid seasons together next year despite Faried's recent marijuana arrest.