Closeout: Nuggets 2010 Offseason Forum:

The Bulls won’t suddenly wake up and decide to trade Noah. The only way would be if the Nugs offer equal or near equal in value (like Nene) and be willing to take back one of their bad contracts.
I’d rather take back Hinrich than Deng.
Fair point on Korver. I just see him as being healthier than Mike Miller.
And I agree about Anderson

except my deal is Bosh and Turk for Martin and JR… not Nene too

I see the following as possible trade partners for KMart’s expiring contract:
Knicks reload for FA Fest 2011
Nets(ironically) same reason
Clippers – same reason
Cavs – if Shaq retires, LeBron stays & they don’t get another top player, he’d help & then give cap relief
Charlotte – cost cutting
Chicago – FA Fest 2011
Detroit – if they decide to blow up their team

Unfortunately.

though the money won’t match and I wouldn’t pay Landry $16mm just so we could get him & get rid of KMart.
Throw out the injuries and attitude issues, the big problem from day 1 on KMart’s contract was so over paid for his skill set. He should be at best be a $10mm player, not a $16mm player.
Kiki needs a rolled up newspaper swat on the head for that move… and I didn’t even mention the 3 first round picks we threw at the Nets so they wouldn’t match the offer.

You find a team wanting to re-load or gear up for the 2011 FA class, you package KMart & JR ($22mm in expiring contracts) for young replacement players. Or you trade Nene for 2 players or comparable salary.

Here’s two scenarios (sadly fictional):
1). Memphis’ owner decides to sell the team and needs to cut salary to do so. The Nuggets send Nene, JR & the 2011 1st round pick to Memphis for Marc Gasol and Rudy Gay. Rudy Gay is a Restricted FA and signs a deal putting the whole package within 80% of the Nugs contract… the Nugs get long term solutions at C and starting SG, and actually save money this year.
2). Knicks decide to reload for 2011 FA so they agree to send Lee & Duhon to Denver for KMart’s expiring contract and a 2012 1st round pick. Lee signs a contract for $10mm year so the total incoming package is $16mm, almost a straight swap for KMart.

Denver gambles on its future by giving up 2 future 1st round picks but in turn have now acquired a starting Center, Power Forward, Shooting Guard and backup Point Guard while actually saving a little money this year.

Welcome to Fantasy Island… though not as crazy as one may think.

You already attempted this and I rec’d yours so it would get up there….

I don’t care which one makes it on the front page as long as one of them does, in fairness this one does have all the info laid out in the post which is nice.

Without any real flexibility I’m not sure we can land Bosh, Scola, Haywood and Hinrich, looks good otherwise, minus JR though.

If I were able to pick and choose (within reason) players to start a new team with Josh Smith would be one of them (I’d try to swing Duran and Rondo and fill the rest of the roster with whoever I could get). I just don’t see ATL giving him up, even if they do blow it up, Smove is the one guy i see them keeping.

and then resigned for less money. And fuck no to Boozer. I hate that guy, not to mention he’s a dick to franchises like when he screwed Cleveland when he told them he was gonna resign then bolted for Utah.

But can he run point? or is he a SG? If he’s the third stringer, I don’t know that it matters but I was just curious.

I don’t like Boozer either. And Big Ben, I’m pretty sure he resigned with Detroit last season and then called it quits. I hope we can resign Graham to a reasonable contract; I like the toughness and ethic he brings to the team, even if he’s not an offensive power house and a bit foul happy.

He’s already said he’s not going to do it and you can’t blame him. Either he’d lose a lot of money or the restructuring end up in too-high salary and too-long contract length again for a player at the back end of his career and continuing health problems

either make do for one more year and let him walk or better yet trade his expiring contract now for younger players & re-load

way too many holes, you’re real weak in legit shooters and real weak at the Center position, you have one big with any kind of offensive skill and you’re bigs a a whole are still too small.

his ugly mug on my tube every other day.

Imagine:

Jason Williams
Manu Ginobli
Noah
Boozer ’
Kaman

The all ugly team.

But I suppose if I was 1 year away from a title I’d get him, get the title then dump him before he does the same to your team

It would be stupid on KMart’s part to opt out & re-negotiate because nobody will pay him near what he’s earning. It would be stupid for the Nugs to give him an opt-out & extension because the new contract would have to be 4years at $8-10mm a year to make it worth it for KMart to opt out. That is way too long and way too much money to give to a defensive specialist and has a huge history of injury… bad business.

I’m not a fan of the trade deadline deal equals championship. I really hope the Nugs pull the trigger in the offseason, dump KMart’s & JR’s valuable expiring contracts & re-load to chase the title while giving the team the entire year to gel.

Last offseason I was concerned the Nugs fell to 4th or 5th in the conference with teams re-loading and young & younger teams like Jazz & Blazers maturing. I think that’s still the case and on top of that the Suns leap frogging over almost everybody by making the smart, reasonable cost moves to re-load that the Nugs should’ve done (and did try but blinked when the Suns upped the ante).

I am hoping the nuggets trade into the late first round or early second round and snatch up Alabi. He is a hard worker with a great attitude and I think he would be an upgrade from Petro backing up our bigs.

SURE, we got $2.25 million out of that, but Blair is worth at least $3 million. Plus, having an extra big (and a big that is a legit NBA player) would have given us an extra 2 or 3 wins, and we might have actually freaking made it out of the first round. Also, he’d be very cheap for the next 3 seasons, and we should have drafted Blair instead of giving that stupid extension to Renaldo “I’m just going to slack off and get $2 million a year sitting my fat ass on the end of the bench” Balkman.

The Kings wouldn’t worry about how well JR & Tyreke got along. They’d only be taking JR for his expiring contract. Anything they’d get out of him as a player not pouter would be gravy.

The Nugs would have to give up a player of value for the 5th pick. Give up someone like Lawson, AAA, Nene along with taking back garbage from the Kings is what it’d likely take.

Hopping up high in the draft will be tuff for the Nugs, they just don’t have the kind of pieces needed for that kind of deal.

But then I thought about it and yeah I like that. Brand finished the season stronger than he started and he scores and rebounds. Plus if we can grab Cousins I say do it. But I think it would take more than just K-mart for them to give them up even though Brands contract is horrible.

but didn’t realize Brand is already 31 and making ~$15M/yr… YIKES. How much longer does his contract run?

But what the Nugs do, or don’t do is paramount to being able to re-sign Melo.

From almost day 1, the team built around Melo has been greatly lacking.

If the owner & FO does not demonstrate commit to success through action and not rhetoric there is no reason why Melo would or should return.

To Melo’s credit, you’ve never seen him go diva and demand to trade him if the team doesn’t do a coach removal or player acquisition like La La LeBron does through insinuation & rumor. But make no mistake, Melo has that NBA power… As opposed to LeBron he appears to embrace the mentoring of another, in this case the mentoring used to come from his “Airness”.

In reality, the Nugs probably won’t do anything of any relevance this offseason.
I fear their they’re going to play the poverty card, the cancer card, the “we still really want to see this team together for a full season” card, the “we’ll you know we were thiiis close to acquiring player X three years ago but it didn’t work out” card.
They’ll likely use their full compliment of excuses and rhetoric and not either of the following:
1) Step up and admit Short Arm Stan “Sterling” has given them the primary directive of cutting cost
2) Not commit to pursuing a NBA title

Oh, by the way even though the owner & FO are in “Donald Sterling” mode, the customers still have to pay full price at the gate.

The Nuggets will already pay $92 million for next year. I don’t blame him for saving money.

but if they don’t want to use their cap space (reasonable)… we could add Humphries, Dooling (un-guaranteed) to the deal

but if I were him, I would go to Miami or Chicago

But on the Denver side I’d jump all over that deal.

I’d be nice to think someone in the Chicago office would be willing to make that deal… I can dream.

I just can’t see the Bulls give up Noah. He’s a legit 6’11", young, cheap, talks trash then backs up the talk by pulling down 20boards in the game. Only if the Bulls were in a full cap cut mode would I see them trade Noah; then only if you took some of the Bulls’ bad paper in return, like Hinrich or Deng.

Traavis heath made a good point saying we might get him like we got AAA if the Bulls need some extra cap space

even though we would have to buy all of those picks… we did save Kroenke around 6.5 mil dollars in trading away Hunter… so if he buys a pick for 3 mill… he still saves a lot money….

btw, who has got a player preference for that range?

i know for an early second rounder i would like Jerome Jordan

I’d say yes. However, he’s more of a liability righht now and that’s something we simply don’t need.

it does look like the calm before the storm almost everywhere. there’s a little saber rattling by the occasional FA to-be such as Boozer today. most everything else though looks like just yesterday’s rehash.
agree about needing the talent for the re-sign. i hope that’ll be the Nugs sell job to Melo. don’t bother with “we’ll pay you this much for this long” because that’ll be the same everywhere. i hope they hit him with “here’s who we’re going after and we want your help to get these players signed, traded for or sign&traded”. i would hope that would motivate Melo.
because right now teams, wink wink, can’t talk to potential FA or players to trade for. but there’s no rule that the players can’t talk to other players.

I neither confirm nor deny the above comment is complete conjecture and not based on any hard facts.

Are you just being funny?
That can’t be healthy, even though it’s to help fight Cancer.

also idk if i want to give up JR for a younger more expensive and more injury prone version of Birdman… if we did this tho… i would insist on trading into the draft for Jordan Crawford

Some want Swish, some don’t. Most realize we need size in our frontcourt though.

Butch, Any big we sign as a rookie free agent, thee are guys that could somewhere down the line fill solid roles for us, but they are projects. Projects are good, they’re a relatively low risk endeavor but they do no satisfy Denver’s immediate needs. Denver has a small window open for a championship run (you figure that Chauncey has 3 good years in him). They only have a short period to win a title before they will have to accept the current formula is no longer a championship winning strategy and will be forced to rebuild. I truly believe Denver is a sold big away from a title run. It doesn’t even have to be an all-star, just someone who can put in quality minutes. What derailed this team’s season this year? The loss of George Karl and the lack of health of our bigs come crunch time. There was no way to foresee losing coach Karl and the likelihood of it happening to him again is slim. The health of our bigs was definitely a foreseeable disaster. We ran a three man rotation with two guys over thirty, one of which has had chronic knee problems (not to mention our guy under 30 also has chronic knee problems). K-mart and Birdman were both initially diagnosed with knee tendinitis and later it was revealed they both had tears in their patella tendons. These are not catastrophic injuries, they are chronic ones. They developed over time because of too much wear and tear. Adding a fourth big man helps eliminate this problem. If Petro can be signed for 3 million or less then he should be given a chance, but by no means should be the only option. The Nuggets need to bring in another big man and commit to a 4 man front court rotation next season. With that one move they stand a much better chance of entering the playoffs healthy, like they did in their west conference finals run. They have upgraded the backcourt since that run, but with the loss of Kleiza and the choice to not replace him with anyone in the rotation the Nuggets suffered a setback. Kleiza was not the ideal player either, and we can certainly upgrade that rotation slot, but we can not maintain the status quo and groom some project players for down the road. The Nuggets need a player who can play now.

With a JR Smith and Arron Afflalo for Jason Thomspon and Francisco Garcia deal. A deal that gives Denver a young center and another bad contract. Sacremento has plenty of incentive to do this deal, they shed Garcia’s contract for JR Smith’s expiring, they get a great bargain in Afflallo. I know Garcia isn’t a primetime guy, I know he’s not the best option to bring off the Bench, but he’s not terrible either. Consider the lineup as well

PG- Chauncey-Ty
SG- Rip-Garcia
SF- Melo-Daye
PF- Nene-Maxiell
C- Thompson-Bird

Thats a pretty decent lineup, a bit defensively handicapped, but Daye is the type of player who can develop into an excellent perimeter defender, he’s had a season under Tayshaun Prince and pretty much fits the exact same mold as Prince. The thing too is that lineup is built for the future as well. Lawson, Melo, Daye, Nene and Thompson all are still relatively young (Lawson, Daye and Thompson are all very young) Nuggets ride the old guys in the backcourt for two season, then rebuild through the draft and free agency once they all start coming off the books. Could be contenders for years. Another thing I like about that lineup is the veterans mixed in with the young talent. I think it gives you a good combo of leadership and explosiveness.

I think not…. lol

there is a reason Hedo is considered the worst contract in the NBA, not only would i not want Hedo, but Im not even sure if i would except Bosh coming here if it meant we had to take Hedo’s contract… like his contract his on Elton Brand status… he also thinks he’s the shit, cuz apparently he’s too good for Toronto…
actually going to a basketball perspective, he does shoot pretty well and can inititiate an offense but also sucks at defense, requires the ball and plays the same position as Melo… he’s too weak for PF and too slow for SG…also he doesn’t even use his height to his advantage… JR plays taller than he does (if that makes sense)
the only way i even consider taking Hedo would some lopsided trade like
K-Mart, Balkman, Butch, Karl for Hedo, Bosh, their 2010 first (13th) and a second

like idk if i would even consider that above trade b/c Hedo is just a horrible fit on this team and his contract will cripple a franchise for the next couple of years

If we pull off another afflalo type move then wark would be hands down best GM in the league! I agree about the amount of talent in this draft. Especially bigs which is good for us. I think any of those MLE signings would benefit the team greatly aswell. All realistic scenarios to

1. Completely in favor of.

2. I think that’ll be determined by what the Nugs do, or don’t do, as well Melo would want to re-sign of not.

3. Haywood yes, Haslem yes, Warrick yes, Miller yes. But with Haslem & Warrick the Nugs continue to be an undersized front line. I’ve liked Haslem’s game but I think it’s safe to say his effectiveness took a hit when Shaq left.
The others… no. Frye has another year unless he opts out. That doesn’t mean he’s not a player, it just means he needs a legit big alongside. On the Nugs he’d be one of 4 undersized bigs without a legit big to play alongside.

4. I like both players but neither will have any impact next year; just good guys I’d like to see employed

5. That’s all well & good & we’d all love for that. But who are they going to find. And this year they won’t have Billups’ personal scouting report on a player.

6. This suggestion keeps getting thrown out but it’s not very realistic with Karl as the coach. Here’s the issues with #6 and my question is how do you resolve them. If the can be resolved then it could work:
Karl lays claim to being a defensive coach.
Karl has been an NBA coach for over 20years
Karl has coached 5 NBA teams
Karl has been fired by his previous 4 teams

I just don’t see Karl budging.

4.

Notta, zilch, zip, nothing. Prolly not even a Melo resign. I wouldn’t be too surprised if not a DAMn thing happens Nuggets-wise all summer. Maybe its just me thinking I can predict the future based on the past, but my gut tells me Wark and friends don’t make a steal by acting first, they’ll act last. Which may turn out to suck, but I’m sure prevailing logic will say that with as rich as the FA market is this offseason patience is a virtue.

if we didn’t sign him last year, when we need him more and he was cheaper… i doubt we sign him this year

eventho his contract could cripple a franchise, it’s not every year you could get the #2 pick for so cheap…. also the low amount we’d be paying for Turner/Cousins/Favors would mean that paying Brand’s large contract is just paying more for them… which is worth it considering the #2 pick makes like 4.5 mil a year for 4 years which is a great deal

but Bosh would have to want to come here…

What are peoples thoughts about Yao coming back, and how if he does seem healthy, the potentially dangerous combo of Ming / Martin changes the balance in the West?

Way off topic—> I still can’t believe the Nuggs went no further than the Thunder…

and considering the br article says MIL and DEN and seems to be pretty true

This complaint goes back 20+ years but the local beat writers & columnists for the Nugs have been traditionally horrible in feeding the fans rumor fix. Always the attempts at writing something about the league but not dishing the dirt on the locals….
Help the locals out… throw us a bone will ya!!!
We need our own Pete Vescey who can easily make something up if he doesn’t have anything to report.

A trade could work like this scenario though
Trade 1- Denver sends JR Smith, Renaldo Balkman and a first round pick to Golden State
for Corey Maggette
Trade 2- Golden State sends Anthony Randolph to Denver in exchange for 1.8 million of the Hunter trade exception

But their asking price continues to be high… that’s just wierd sending the message"we don’t want you but we’re not in a hurry to send you somewhere else"… not very healthy to a player’s psyche. But look at the team I’m talking about.

They would only dump him if it means they don’t take back any salary… Which if we still had big bertha we could’ve taken back Beaz, Jones, Cook while getting the #18 pick but it expired in Nov… so the only thing we could offer would be Balkman, Butch and Karl for Beasley …. it cuts around 3.5 mil for Miami but thats not worth giving up Beasley for…

also it should be noted that Beasley’s attitiude is a dangerous combination of JR smith and Kenyon Martin’s attitudes, which this team doesn’t need

no possible options at all

also… Lee sucks at defense and was the primary option on the knicks… just saying