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Kiki Vandeweghe is a shrewd man.

Kiki, the architect behind the revival in Rocky Mountain Basketball has decided that for now, interim head coach Michael Cooper will remain on board, at least for a little while.

Fans, however, should not be placing too much hope in Cooper bringing about a quick reversal of fortunes in the mile high city. While Cooper has groomed himself for an NBA head coaching position, the reality for the coach of a modern basketball team is that they are only as good as the players in their system. If you don't believe me, ask Byron Scott.

While Nuggets fans are hopeful that Cooper will be able to spark Denver back into action, the Nuggets future progress will be severely limited if they cannot find an answer to their outside shooting problems.

The loss of Voshon Lenard in the first game of the season has been devastating for Denver. Despite being a very one-dimensional player, Lenard was crucial to the structure of the Denver offence.

With Lenard on the floor, the Nuggets possessed a superior outside shooter who demanded constant defensive attention.

Lenard's presence also ensured that opposing defences were required to be spread across the floor, which enabled Denver to get easier shots close to the basket.

Without Lenard, Denver's offensive game has suffered massively and the ball movement is nowhere near as effective.

Lenard's absence has made the Nuggets a relatively easy team to defend. Opponents have consistently been backing off Denver's outside shooters and daring them to beat them. For this reason, Denver's low post players, Kenyon Martin and Nene, have found scoring harder to come by.

Carmelo Anthony has also been impacted by the loss of Lenard. Melo has found his trips to the basket this year contested more strongly and he has reverted more to becoming an outside shooter. This is one reason for his less than impressive shooting percentage. Despite this, Melo should not be criticised too heavily; when he is off the floor the Nuggets offence looks its worst.

Vandeweghe needs to find a solution to this problem. Any team that does not have a consistent outside threat will not progress far. San Antonio, Seattle and Phoenix all have the required outside shooting.

Michael Redd would be a perfect addition to Denver. Gaining Redd, however, would not come cheap. And if the Nuggets can't find anyone, the alternative is to expand the roles of DerMarr Johnson (who hit some big shots against Philly last week) or Nikoloz Tskitishvili (who surely could provide the Nuggets with some assistance if given the opportunity).

It is time for Kiki to re-scrutinise the talent he has at hand to overcome its offensive shortcomings.