Nuggets Make Move to Strengthen Themselves

The Denver Nuggets are investing $10,000 in a weight-training facility at McNichols Sports Arena here, and they are considering hiring a strength and conditioning consultant.

The Nuggets will join the Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Detroit Pistons as the only teams in the National Basketball Assn. with their own weight rooms.

Director of player personnel Pete Babcock said the weight room should be completed before the regular season begins.

Babcock said the facility will be made available to Nuggets’ players as a service. There will be no mandatory weightlifting program.

“The purpose of having our own weight room is convenience,” Babcock said. “The whole approach is to provide this as a service for player enhancement. Weight training will in no way be mandatory. It is not in place of anything. It is in addition to.”

A number of Nuggets’ players have been involved in vigorous off-season weight training programs, including centers Wayne Cooper and rookie Blair Rasmussen, forward Bill Hanzlik and guards Lafayette Lever and T.R. Dunn.

“This will be a convenience for the players who want to be on a (strength) maintenance program during the season,” Babcock said. “They can finish practice and go right in for a 30-minute maintenance program. There is not going to be a tremendous commitment program that is going to tear anybody down during the season. If all 12 players want to do it, fine. If five players want to do it, fine. We do have a group that is hooked on weight training now.”

Babcock said that when it is determined how much the weight room will be used, a determination will be made about hiring a strength and conditioning consultant. Babcock has put together programs for some Nugget players with the assistance of Steve Oramas, a conditioning specialist.