All week I've been deluged with emails and comments either proposing trades for Carmelo Anthony (as Woody Paige did in the Post earlier this week when he ludicrously offered Melo, Marcus Camby and Linas Kleiza to the Nets for Nenad Krstic...huh?) or asking me what trade I'd propose.
First off, I'm not sold on parting with Anthony as a mandatory offseason move unless we had the ideal Herschel Walker-type trade in the works. And secondly, as stated in my offseason analysis of J.R. Smith, I think it's premature to start concocting Melo trades (or trades for other big time Nuggets players like Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby) until we see how the Draft Lottery gets rigged...errrrr...shakes out. For example, a lot of you are taking a cue from Bill Simmons and want to see a Melo-to-the-Grizzlies deal in return for Mike Miller, Hakim Warrick and Mike Conley. Even if you thought that was reasonable, it's not plausible unless the Grizzlies get a top two pick (and thus draft point guard Derrick Rose, making Conley expendable).
Since the Draft Lottery is next Tuesday, DenverStiffs.com will wait until next week to get into the nitty gritty of the possible deals or non-deals for Melo, A.I., Camby and the rest of the squad. In the meantime, I'd like to continue our mini-series on current Nuggets' players whose fate has nothing to do with the Draft Lottery, and that brings us to the consummate role player, Eduardo Najera.
The Situation: Like Smith, Najera is a free agent. But unlike Smith, he's unrestricted, meaning any team in the NBA can sign him and even if the Nuggets match (or exceed) the offer, he can walk. Najera is on record as saying he wants to come back, but I put no stock in this whatsoever. Athletes always say "I want to come back" but the bottom line is they'll sign with whatever team pays them the most. Especially in Najera's case who, at almost 32 years old, is probably looking at his last big contract of his career.
The Good: Given the makeup of the current Nuggets' roster, head coach and management - big egos, suspect attitudes, inconsistent work ethic (to put it mildly) and bizarre off-the-court behavior - it's hard not to love Najera. He selflessly accepts his role, sets mean picks, fights for loose balls and rebounds, cuts to the hole and drives hard to the basket when he actually gets the ball on offense. He can even make a three-pointer occasionally as evident by his career-high 36.1 three-point percentage and 53 three's made in 2007-08. Frankly, Najera runs the Nuggets offense better than head coach George Karl and "point guard" Anthony Carter combined. And according to 82games.com, a Nuggets lineup featuring Najera consistently produces the most wins for the team.
Oh, and my friend Laurie from Boston thinks he's "hot" and Eduardo, if you're reading this, she's available (I promised her I'd mention that in this post, sorry).
The Bad: At his current salary of $5 million per year, Najera is just about even with what other solid role players make such as Cleveland's Aleksandar Pavlovic, Indiana's Jeff Foster, the Lakers' Luke Walton, Milwaukee's Desmond Mason, Phoenix's Raja Bell and Sacramento's John Salmons, and yet a little pricier than others like Houston's Luis Scola (approx. $3 million per year), New Jersey's Nenad Kristic (approx. $2 million), New York's David Lee (approx. $2 million), Portland's Steve Blake (approx. $4 million) and San Antonio's Bruce Bowen (approx. $4 million). So Najera's $5 million per season salary shouldn't bother the Nuggets.
The problem is that the Nuggets have the NBA's third highest payroll and are already paying into the league's dollar-for-dollar luxury tax for going over the salary cap. And while the Nuggets might be willing to exceed the cap even further to lock up a potential All-Star in Smith, it's highly unlikely they'll do the same to retain Najera's services.
The Verdict: While the Nuggets "brass" has been busy fielding an All-Star team these last few seasons, their Western Conference superiors have been fielding actual teams. And in spite of what the Nuggets' "GM" Mark Warkentien might think, role players like Najera don't grow on trees. If you look at the teams currently competing in the NBA Playoffs, they each feature one or two selfless role players who are critical to their team's success on both ends of the floor. Imagine the Utah Jazz without Matt Harpring, the Lakers without Walton, the Spurs without Bowen, or (gasp!) the Detroit Pistons without Tashaun Prince.
But most unfortunately, unless the Nuggets can move a big salary (like Camby's) or two before Najera gets a competing offer, it's likely that Najera - a critical part of whatever success the Nuggets had in 2007-08 - will be gone.
Hasta la vista, Eduardo. We hardly knew ye...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Nuggets Offseason: Eduardo Najera...
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10 comments:
I wouldn't worry too much. There's very little chance Najera will be offered much more than the lower level exception from a team. There's certainly no way he'll get another 5mil a year contract.
The Nuggets don't deserve Najera. Nor do they deserve Iverson, JR Smith and Kenyon Martin. All of the actual hard working players should somehow find a way to leave the Nuggets this off season and let that organization and FO deal with the rest of that mess on their own. All they are doing is wasting these players time and energy with their nonsense.
They need to move Melo if they ever want to win and my guess is that the people inside know this. It will be interesting to see what shakes out in the lottery. Have to hope that the Knicks end up with the #3 pick or lower. That way, we could move Melo and Camby to the Knicks for their first pick and Jamal Crawford. Crawford can shoot it, but I would bring him off the bench. Draft Brook Lopez from Stanford who has some nice post moves and is a big body. Take Ty Lawson or Collison with the other first round pick, and there you have it….That team would have some mojo and some depth, and they would have paired their salary down a bit, but now have many young pieces moving forward and some better character as well.
That team would look like….
PG – Iverson
SG – JR Smith
SF – Linas Kleiza
PF – KMART
C – Lopez / Nene
Bench: Crawford, Lawson, Atkins, Hunter, Najera, Diawara
Since Najera is unrestricted, and we are over the cap, the only way we can resign him this summer is with the mid-level exception. Which limits how much we can spend on him, but also allows another team to overpay for him.
The mid-level will probably be somewhere in the $5.5-5.75m range this season. I am not sure if someone out there would be willing to offer him a contract starting a $6m, but they would need to be under the cap, and using that much of your cap on a role player would be a bad move.
With so many free agents out there to spend cap money on, and so few teams under the cap, the best Najera can hope for this summer is the mid-level, which is good news for the Nuggets if we want to keep him.
I am also puzzled why people think trading Camby is a good idea contract-wise. I am fairly certain that people don't realize that Camby has one of the best contracts in the league. It is a front loaded contract, so the cost goes down every year. It is an incentive contract, so it could be cheaper if he doesn't meet playing thresholds. There are only two years left on it. It won't even be a very good expiring contract since his last year will be the least valuable.
Camby has a 6yr/$45m contract with incentives that can boost him to 6yr/$57m. Here are what his yearly numbers look like.
6yr/$45m
2004: $9,000,000
2005: $8,400,000
2006: $7,800,000
2007: $7,200,000
2008: $6,600,000
2009: $6,000,000
6yr/$57m
2004: $11,400,000
2005: $10,640,000
2006: $9,880,000
2007: $9,120,000
2008: $8,360,000
2009: $7,600,000
So we're on the hook for $12-$16m over the next two season. Next season Keyon Martin will make $14,181,818, Melo will make $14,410,581, and AI will make $22,184,211.
I don't think that trading Camby to save money is an intelligent move at all. Not unless you needed to use him to unload Martin. Only then would I be okay with the move. I love Camby, he is my favorite Nugget, but if we can use him to unload one of the worst contracts in the league you have to make that move.
I was mistaken. I forgot that Najera has his Bird Rights so we can resign him over the cap without using the mid-level. We can match offers of other teams, but it is Najera's choice which contract to sign. This is how we signed Nene's super amazingly awesome deal.
BTW, I updated the spreadsheet I keep on the Nugget's salary situation if you're interested in more detailed info.
http://bluecork.net/nba/NuggetsSal.html
I'd hate to see eddie go. He really is one of the few nuggets I would pay to go see. Also does woody paige ever write a serious article? I always think that guy is joking when he writes something or says anything on around the horn.
P.S
Did someone really put kmart as hardworking? I know a little harsh but....come on now
not sure how much this stuff plays into it, but Eddie's best friend in the league is reported to be Michael Finley. Najera played HS ball in San Antonio, if memory serves, and he'd certainly be factoring in a shot at a ring if he is comparing offers for the same money. So, if he leaves, I predict that we'll see him in a Spurs uniform, possibly replacing Horry or Barry.
Did everyone see Westword's best of Denver this year. Najera was given the best Nugget award. He deserved it. I hope we don't lose him.
i reckon trade melo and camby to NJ for sean williams marcus williams and richard jefferson + first round picks.... even though i wnat melo here. i'd say yes to a deal like that ^^
jamal crawford wouldnt fit in with JR and kleiza AND iverson....
try keep najera. hes hustle of the bench. can hit an open three. great cutter and slasher. good passing ablity. hes a great role player. one of the best in the league!
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