Don't know. But there were rumors of a "big deal" going down July 1st, and as soon as Miller was traded, those rumors stopped.
Najera signed with the Nets. 4 years, $12 million. That's it. $3 mil a year. Seriously. Kill me now. This Nuggets off-season is going downhill fast. Another year of Camby not bothering to chase through screens or actually guarding a guy while having the national media ride his nuts. Another year of failed PG play. Another year of JR Smith being horribly misused. Another year of frontcourt players being hurt constantly. I'll say it now -- if the team doesn't do something dramatic, they're missing the playoffs next year.
Wow,I'm surprised that the Nets gave him that much. I'm not implying that his presence wasn't of value to the Nuggets.Do you guys have J.R.Smith's Bird Rights? If yes,the Nuggets can use their MLE on another defensive forward,but getting one would be a hard job.
Feel you pain. Najera is really worth it. Guys who can defend bigs, rebound and shoot the 3s don't grow on trees. Wish the Rockets had the guy. Rockets had been looking for a 3pt shooting 4-man for a while.. but none of the ones they tried lately (Padgett, Shane, Novak) could defend the paint and rebound well enough to not be liabilities on D.
Ugh. I'm getting drunk tonight. JR's restricted. I honestly can't see a scenario where he's not playing for the Nugs next year. I'm hoping we get him long-term, but would settle for the one year qualifying offer. Yeah, not to mention the fact that Najera & AC were the only two players that I NEVER worried about dogging it on the floor. I have no inside info on this, but I firmly believe that the Nugs had a few deals in place that would have sent Camby and AI (among other things) out for Mike Miller and Hinrich (among other things). When Miller got traded to Minnesota by Memphis' owner, our plans fell apart. Now we're in a really bad spot. You're starting to see articles saying "We're happy with the team we have" already popping up. I know we're just days away from the "Getting Atkins and Nene back healthy will be good for 5-10 wins next season" articles showing up. It's not true. We're in trouble. If you look at the West, there are 4 teams who are locks for the playoffs (LAL, SA, NO & Utah) and two more who I would say are very very very very VERY high probabilities to make the playoffs (Pho & Hou -- and before you attack me, the only reason you're not 100% is because of TMac's back which scares me). That leaves Denver, Portland and Dallas fighting for 8. I think Portland's in, which leaves us and Dallas. Honestly, I'm not sure I like our chances in that race. I wish I was a Trail Blazers fan.
Great thread; nice for Rox fans to get a little perspective also, in terms of ownership and management. Nuggets4, I like your picture of the west and mostly agree, except for that plucky bunch from Excremento. If they keep Ron Ron, they could make noise around position 8, don't you think?
As good as the kings are I Highly doubt the three headed monster of ronron, kenvin martin and beno is going to cut it in the west.
Nugs4, so I guess you would agree now that AI is coming back. Your team will miss the playoffs next season. The chemistry with Karl as coach is long gone. It will get ugly. I felt like ownership gave up on next season when they announced Karl was coming back.
WOW! I thought Najera would stay with the Nuggets! I think thats a good deal for Najera. I will look the last page of tomorrow newspaper, to see a little square thats says that, I hope they would cover basketball a little more.
Dude, KD, I honestly am not sure there's a player in the NBA I hate more than Marcus Camby. God willing, we'll still trade him this off-season. I will then celebrate by drinking large quantities of alcohol. But that's what I do most days, so to differentiate it, I shall drink with a party hat on. Because I'm classy like that. Honestly, I still think there's a chance the Nugs pull off a deal that sends AI and/or Camby out of Denver. The window is getting smaller by the day though. Honestly, I think the front office is starting to toy with the idea of re-signing JR and then filling out the roster with league minimum players. Because, you know, that's worked oh so well in the past. We're officially in "Worst Case Scenario" position right now IMO. Which means we need to look for cheap improvements from within. I would hope the team would give Bobby Jones a legit shot this training camp. I've said repeatedly that I love JR in the Ginobili role off of the bench, so let's put AI at the point (which is a potential disaster, yes, I know this) and let Jones start at the 2. It immediately improves our defense (Jones would be our best defender in our starting lineup with Kenyon a close second), and I think he can get his shot going. His form is solid, it's just not falling. Besides, his shooting isn't that much worse than Anthony Carter's (Carter's AFG% is 50.5, Jones with the Nugs was 47.7%, PPS went 1.14 for AC, 1.31 for BJ -- yes I realize limited minutes, but you get the point). Let JR and LK back up the swingman positions. Let Steven Hunter actually PLAY this season. Let Taurean Green develop. Trade Atkins for a jock strap. Go with the following rotation: * AI / AC / Green * Jones / JR * Melo / LK * K-Mart / Nene * Camby / Hunter I've heard rumors of the Nugs bringing in a former big man retread for the minimum that will cause me to drink heavily, but without a hat. If so, he'd be the fifth big man in the rotation. And I would drink heavily. But no, I'm not cryin'.
Who? Please, don't come with the ol' "I can't tell you or I'll have to kill you" scenario. Just drop the names!
There are too many damn cooks (not chefs) in the kitchen in Denver. Between Stan, George, Rex, and Mark's voices, nothing can ever be agreed upon. So big deals are hard to come by unless they seem obvious at the time (AI for spare parts + Dre Miller).
This has been the pattern everywhere Karl's been. Granted, the group of players he's coached have all been headcases at one point or another. Payton running his mouth in Seattle. Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen, Sam Cassell dogging it for him in Milwaukee. Now, Anthony and the rest are tuning him out too. I hope that they find a coach that suits their talent before they blow up this team. But that don't seem possible at this point.
And the greatest part of this is - fire Karl...and he'll land on his feet coaching another band of headcases.
Nah. Karl is done. I think everyone realizes that he no longer has the fire in his belly. My theory is the Nuggets knew this coming season was likely a lost cause (or at least knew they wouldn't be a contender) and decided it was a waste of time to subject a new coach to a wrenching transition period. They may as well make Karl suffer through it and hire the new coach and make a fresh start next summer. Karl is at a time in his life where he might enjoy the free time. His jerky mean-streak is gone and he's mellowed some.
That's my big fear. Scary part is you forgot arguably the most powerful cook in the kitchen - Bearup. There were rumors that Wark was going to NY before they hired Walsh. First off, Wark has a horrible track record for building teams. Secondly, if he left, I think it would have fallen into a natural pecking order of Bearup in charge with Rex having input. As for Karl, I'm pretty certain they're officially ignoring him now on personnel requests. There were rumors he was adamant about getting a first round pick two drafts ago so the Nugs could draft his son. 100% correct. BTW, Sonny Weems (who I hear plays a mean set of vibes for Art Blakey's Messengers...) had a pretty nice start to his summer league. The front office is pretty high on this kid and had him as a potential lottery pick on their board. When he slid to the second, they had to get him. Dahntay Jones had 21 points as well. On the downside, Taurean Green was pretty damn horrible.
