I completely agree with your feelings. The way things have developed so far, Elston and the Nugs are naturals for each other.
I have no problem, NONE, with the Nugs going cheap this year. We're paying the third most money in the league for first round exits. We need to rebuild. That's obvious. So if we're going cheap, why not bring in some D-League guys with potential?!? God I hate Birdman. He's always been one of my least favorite players. I need to drink.
There were rumors of the Rockets going after the Birdman. If that was true,then I'm glad you guys got to him first. I'm joking,honestly you guys need a strong low post up player on offense and defense IMO. It would be nice to see Chris make a comeback.
i don't think the nuggets really needed to rebuild. they had the talent to contend for a title. i think what they needed was better coaching. they had no direction on offense or defense and i don't think you can blame all that on the players. this team won 50 games in west last year off pure talent alone, just imagine if there some some kind of structure. they had all the tools to be great on both ends of the floor. just imagine if someone like rick adelman was coaching the nuggets.
BTW, Birdman is the player I referenced in this quote: Yeah. No hat wearing tonight. Agreed, but Birdman isn't a strong post player on either offense or defense. He's a high rising athletic freak of nature, but he's a horrid defender. He's the exact same defender as Camby -- he'll let a guy get by him to get a blocked shot instead even if it only works 25% of the time. Congrats guys, you saved 2 points. Too bad you gave up 6 trying to make it happen. As for offense, Bzdelik used to say that if Chris wasn't touching the rim, it was out of his range. Sadly, I think he was being generous there. My biggest fear is coming to life. Adelman...damn. Yeah. Rub a little salt in the wound now. Seriously though, this team needed to be tweaked. With the right moves, they could have been a championship contender next season. I have no proof, but I firmly believe that when Memphis' owner decided to overrule their GM yet again and trade Miller & Love to Minnesota, it killed the Nugs off-season. I really do think that there was either a 3 team deal or a series of deals in which the Nugs would get rid of Camby and AI and get back Mike Miller and Kirk Hinrich (obviously, more involved because cap, but you get my point). That would have given the Nugs two good to great outside shooters to surround Melo with. I know you guys aren't necessarily fans of Melo -- and honestly I don't blame you. I can see how it'd be hard to cheer for him when you only see the national media stuff (i.e. him being stupid), but he really is a good guy. He really is a hard worker. He's great in the community -- both here and in Denver. And honestly, he's one of the more underrated players in the league IMO. Does he dog it on D? Yeah, no one's ever going to argue that. But he's a big SF who will score 25+ every night. He'll grab 7+ rebounds every night (and with Camby gone, I honestly think he might hit 10+ this season). If we had ANYONE on this team that could shoot, I really do think he'd get 5+ assists a game. I know some of you think that I've gone off of the deep end here, and I don't blame you. You're reading this going "Why is he flipping out? Birdman's going to get MAYBE 15 minutes per game this season? What does it matter?" My biggest problem with this move is that it sums up EXACTLY what is wrong with this front office. If you look at all of the great teams, they have 2-3 great players and surround them with smart, talented players who know their roles. Celtics this year - Garnett, Allen & Pierce surrounded by Posey (defender who hits outside J), Rondo (facilitator who defends and keeps the offense moving), Perkins (big man who can rebound), etc.. The Nuggets are convinced that talent wins by itself. It doesn't. I was hoping Warkenstein learned his lesson in Portland putting together arguably one of the most talented teams of the last twenty years, but it's painfully obvious he didn't. Just once, JUST ONCE, I'd like to see the front office pass over the guy who is a "freak athlete" and go for the guy who is "solid". Instead of signing Chris Andersen (who will give you 10 points and 6 boards one night, and then 0-for-4, 1 rebound and 4 turnovers the next), sign a Francisco Elson (who will give you 4 points and 5 rebounds every night). Instead of drafting a Sonny Weems, draft a Richard Hendrix*. Constantly giving shots to players like Boykins and DerMarr Johnson who are athletic freaks, but don't know how to play the game. Signing guys like Byron Russel who are over-the-hill instead of signing a younger player and developing him. It's just insane. The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. The Nuggets front office is insane. * - I'm not bashing the Weems pick. By all accounts, he's been really good for us and could be a legitimate steal, but it fits the front office's MO. I've had 3 different plans for the Nugs this off-season. The first one was the big splash one where we got Miller and Hinrich. The next one was a modified splash. The last one I wrote up involved us keeping our core and signing young players to see what they could give us. The D-League has guys that can play. Why give a Jelani McCoy another damn shot when you can see what Elton Brown can do? Why sign a Damon Stoudamire when you can try to get Bobby Brown from the Hornets? Or in my perfect world, sign Shaun Livingston and let him sit for a year and see what happens? I'm going to be watching a lot of Hornets games this year. I'm going to be watching a lot of Kevin Love! this year. I'm going to be watching a lot of Toronto this year. I'm going to watch (and welcome) our Trail Blazer overlords this year. I'm still going to watch all 82 games the Nugs play, but I'm ready to write this season off. I'm just tired of it.
Nuggets4, Is Kroenke starting to tire of it and considering a purge in the Front Office? Is this the last stop in the NBA for Warkenstein or will he get another shot elsewhere?
well if you make it through this year, next summer iverson's contract comes off the books and they can really start to rebuild.
I hope so, but doubt it. Wark and Chapman could be in trouble, but Bearup is an old old old old OLD friend of Kroenke's. I imagine he's welcome to stay as long as he wants. That said, of the three, Bearup is IMO the best of them. You want to hear a really scary rumor? ESPN the Magazine talked about how one more bad season and we might have Josh Kroenke as a GM soon. Yeah, Stan's 20-something year old son. The only thing keeping me from panicking on that one is the source of the rumor. You guys have no idea how jealous I am that you have Morey. Considering how stupid NBA owners are, you have to figure he'd get another shot. That's the thing, I'm not sure it helps much. I think next off-season, as of right now, we'd be ~$5 mil under the cap. Now, I'll fully admit I'm hardly a capologist, so I could be REALLY wrong on this one, but barring dumping Nene on someone, we're still up against the cap without AI. But once again, I suck at math and could be wrong.
Fun rumor that I absolutely love and (I'm betting) Kelly would absolutely hate. AI & Nene for (re-signed) Ben Gordon, Hinrich and Jakim Noah. It's bleacherreport so I have no doubt it's fake, but it's fun for me to dream. Let me dream, just for a while. Also, Dahntay Jones signed with the Nugs. I was hoping that Bobby Jones was going to step up this summer league and prove that he's our starting 2-guard (so JR can continue to come off of the bench), but Dahntay might have stolen the opportunity from him. He had a strong summer league for us scoring 18.4 ppg and providing lock down defense. Unfortunately, he's a worse three point shooter than Bobby, so we're still screwed there.
I know! No offense to George Karl, but how can they not see this? How can they not see that with a couple of trades, a new coach, and keeping their core intact, they are a team poised to make a deep playoff run. If you're the Knicks, yeah, you consider shedding salary to revamp your team. But with the Nuggets having the pieces lined up, they're right there! These recent Najera/Camby moves show a pure motivation for monetary goals in front of winning a championship (or making a lot of playoff noise). That's the best explanation I have. They know they're good, but they just don't care. They want the monetary fit. Of course, they also want in for the big free agent class, but they will be anyways since Iverson will come off the books. That's not an issue. Say goodbye to your playoff spot, Denver. The Trailblazers thank you.
Trail Blazers didn't need us to blow it for them to make the playoffs. They're legit. This team was more than "coaching" away from a championship. There were locker room problems. I honestly think there was a little resentment towards Marcus. He had a bit of a holier than thou attitude about defense, especially considering how little of it he actually played. Plus, that lineup -- even coached by Phil Jackson -- would not have won a championship. They needed to make some moves. The only question is, how big of moves did they need to make?
I am thinking Iverson may have to go. Not that it's all his fault, but if the team is reshuffling its deck, and things make take at least a year or two to settle down, then you might as well try to get the best you can for the star in his 30s.
I just don't know what the Nuggets are doing. A couple years back I thought they were really going places...I honestly wouldn't know how to reshape the team currently. I'd definitely dump Karl and probably A.I.
I was just about to come here and post that the Nuggets had two non-guaranteed contracts that could be used in a deal (a la the JR Smith deal a few years ago), and I just saw this article: http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix285780524jul28,0,7410321.story Balkman should fill the Najera role. I like the deal for obvious reasons.
