It’s official: The Denver Nuggets are a mess. Check that, the Denver Nuggets are a dumpster fire.

They’ve lost 12 of their last 13 games. The players are visibly checked out, to the point where head coach Brian Shaw is publically accusing his players of a mutiny. There isn’t much else that could go wrong at Pepsi Center.

With all of the problems, the blame game is soon to follow. And there is plenty of that to go around.

Multi-million dollar athletes quitting because of some squabble with their coach is childish. But for his part, Shaw is starting to resemble Josh McDaniels circa 2009. He has clashed with his stars since day one and it appears his act has finally cost him the locker room. Both sides are responsible for the current state affairs, but in reality, neither are 100 percent at fault.

Tim Connelly is the person who created this Molotov cocktail. Thus, the ire of Nuggets’ fans should be pointed directly at Denver’s GM.

When Connelly arrived in Denver, his task was to build a team with the capability to succeed in the playoffs, as fans and ownership had grown tired of first-round exits. His plan involved getting a coach that emphasized defense and a half-court offense and putting together a team that would buy into this philosophy.

All of that sounded great (hooray for fresh ideas), but there was one major flaw with the plan: Connelly only executed half of it.

The GM hired his defensive-minded, half-court offense coach and kept together the same team that’d spent four years not playing defense or a half-court offense. Who could’ve imagined that wasn’t going to work?

The Nuggets current roster can be traced back to the Carmelo Anthony trade. It’s the team George Karl asked for and Masai Ujiri delivered. They were designed to run, run, run and run some more on offense, while defense was never factored into the equation.

Why on earth has Connelly not attempted to overhaul this roster to embody his vision? He has essentially forced Shaw to jam a square peg into a round hole.

On a side note, Ujiri gets way too much credit in this town (another article for another day). He assembled a roster of junk parts and bolted to greener pastures before they rusted out. That said, Connelly has done little to reverse Ujiri’s mess and what he has done has been less than impressive.

Let’s start with the brilliant move of overpaying for a player everyone knew was never going buy into Shaw’s brand of team basketball.

It’s not a secret that Kenneth Faried and Shaw don’t get along. It’s also not a secret that Faried isn’t a favorite in the locker room. So what did Connelly do about that this summer? He gave Faried a $50 million contract.

What he should have done was maximize Faried’s value after his success at the World Championships and traded him. You sell high and buy low, not the other way around. Why negotiate a long-term contract with a player who had all of the leverage and still had a year left on their rookie deal?

Connelly caved to a fan favorite, knowing he wasn’t the right fit for this team. He killed locker room cohesion and forced a malcontent on his coach. This is a microcosm of Connelly’s tenure. He’s has yet to prove he can make the tough decisions when he has to.

Far more, Connelly himself has admitted that Shaw doesn’t have much to play with. Recently, Connelly told the Denver Post “Brian has been dealt a very difficult hand.” Who dealt Brian that hand, Tim?

Shaw can’t be blamed for having to play a crappy hand. Would you blame the cook for making a bad meal if the guy buying the groceries is buying rotten food? Not at all.

Shaw may one day turn into a very good head coach – by all accounts, he is still held in high regard by those in the Nuggets’ front office – but we’ll never know with the assembled roster. Connelly hasn’t done anything to build a team that can succeed under Shaw. In sitting idle, he has only set up Shaw, and this franchise, to fail.

It’s undoubtedly frustrating that the power struggle between Shaw and his players has spilled onto the floor. Neither side should have let it come to this and both sides need to take heat for the situation. But remember, this situation is the direct result of a GM creating a volatile environment.

Connelly’s inability to follow through with his plan was the spark that started this dumpster fire. All anyone can do now is sit back and watch it burn wondering how the arsonist is going to put out the fire.