And introducing the starting 5 for the Denver Nuggets

hey man, its ok. i like posey and bowen alot. howard is playing great (19/8). mccloud and cheaney arent great but hell, almost every team has at least 1 starter they dont like. so we have 2.

but its ok.

lots of first rounders coming up. lots of cap space. plus dice is hurt (gotta throw him in there).

after next year we could easily have 4 new starters. i mean lets say we draft woods (i wish) this year, and sign JUST ONE free agent in 2003 (lets just say andre miller for example sake...totally made up...wont happen...just a name).

after ONE SEASON we have:

andre miller, james posey, qyntel woods, antonio mcdyess, juwan howard.

our bench would be something like ryan bowen, kenny satterfield, menk bateer, donell harvey, plus most likely our 2003 first rounder, our dallas pick and our milwaukee pick and maybe a 4.5 mill exception player.

without even trying we have the most talented nugget team in over 10 years.

might not happen but you can see why its fun to be a nuggets fan again.

 

But then the question becomes - will they screw the draft up again? The regime may be different, but will the draft results fall in line?

 

NugzFan:

Just out of curiousity -- outside of the Griffin, Steve and Cuttino -- is there anybody on the Rockets for whom you would trade, particularly in regard to your draft pick? Would you trade for Cato, and -- being serious -- what Nugget would you trade?

 

The scary thing isn't that line-up. It's the fact that Denver was running that line-up out there and actually whipping some quality teams with it!

 

no. i wouldnt even do it for cuttino.

the rest is gonna waste cap space most likely or give us someone not as good.

guys, wait til the lotto! you guys are ONE spot behind us and like 20 balls less than us. its nothing.

 

haha yeah, we beat up on utah earlier and then beat minnesota in a couple games where those two teams were really trying to win!

 

nugzfan.. i may not be a nuggets fan.. but i love it when ANY team beats the jazz!

 

Me too.

 

yeah we try. anything for our midwest buds.

 

that lineup is in serious danger of screwing up the Nuggets chances for more lotto balls.

Please win your final two Denver.....

 

I think Juwan Howard can really help the Nugz.

 

well thanks to another injury, i think we just broke our record for worst starting lineup ever

mccloud at pg
cheaney at sg (got hurt 6 seconds into the game)
posey at sf
harvey at pf
hamitlon at cn

and we still WHOOPED the suns!

 

ok This is the worst staring lineup ever - and whats worse, they are kicking the crap out of us.

PG - Kenny Satterfield
SG - James Posey
SF - Donnell Harvey
PF - Calbert Cheaney
C - Zendon Hamilton

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Juwan Howard traded to New York for Sprewell and change. NY needs to knock down that grotesque salary cap. Like Chicago, but for its own reasons, Denver might not attract free agents, thanks to league-wide perception that no one wants to be there...and the way rebuilding hasn't seemed to work (thanks to Dice's injury and the 'tude of since-traded Van Exel and the since-fired bad coach, etc.)

 

league wide perception...we got dice didnt we? thats alot better than alot of teams recently.

great owner...great new arena...great fans...great city. we got some things going for us.

 

It is a great city....

well...

Except for all the

<b>FRIGGIN snow.</b>

No snow for me...I've had my share for a lifetime. actually, the more I think about it; you guys suck on all counts. Never should have traded away one of my favorite players for salary matching scrubs. No mercy for you.

 

....& the clock is running. They've got until January.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,107%7E529782,00.html


McDyess given room to panic

By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Columnist

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - The harsh sound of the final buzzer on another lost season for the Denver Nuggets better serve as a stern warning to this pathetic NBA franchise.

Time is quickly running out to keep star forward Antonio McDyess in town.

The only Nuggets player who really matters is so sick of losing that he will leave Denver and all its bad basketball memories, unless the team improves dramatically during the next 12 months.

McDyess can exercise an option to terminate his contract next year. Would the 27-year-old forward sever his ties with the Nuggets, if general manager Kiki Vandeweghe cannot conclusively prove that winning is possible in Colorado?

"Personally, I don't want to see myself in a losing situation again. That should answer the question right there," McDyess said Monday afternoon, after the final full workout of a nightmarish season in which he was reduced to being a spectator by a knee injury, coach Dan Issel resigned in shame and guard Nick Van Exel threw a tantrum that forced a trade.

Tonight's final home game of the season seems more like a mercy killing than a celebration. The Nuggets will miss the playoffs. Again. The same sad ending has befallen McDyess in every one of his six years during two stints with the team.

Repeat the same infuriatingly familiar failures in 2003, and Denver will lose something bigger: McDyess.

"The Nuggets have to show me a lot more than what we've been doing," McDyess said. "I've been here for four years, going on my fifth, and it just seems like nothing has got better yet. It seems like we've been taking a step back rather than a step forward."

Standing alone on the practice court while teammates ate lunch, his words were uncommonly blunt. It requires a mountain of frustration to move the naturally shy and uncommonly loyal McDyess to air his displeasure. But he left no doubt the burden is on the Nuggets to give him reason to stay beyond next season.

"I ain't getting no younger. And I've been to the playoffs only one time in my career," said McDyess, whose lone taste of the postseason was as a member of the Phoenix Suns in 1998. "I'm looking now to win. For me, it's not about anything right now except winning and being on a competitive team."

Winters in Colorado have grown too cold for McDyess, a Southern gentleman who loves nothing more than W's. Wins and warmth. He would gladly forsake the remaining money on his $67.5 million deal with the Nuggets to find happiness in an NBA city with higher January temperatures and better championship possibilities.

While Vandeweghe has diligently cleared salary-cap room to capitalize on a jaw-dropping free-agent class of 2003 that includes the two leading MVP candidates of this season, the Nuggets' most pressing concern is how to prevent McDyess from joining San Antonio center Tim Duncan and New Jersey guard Jason Kidd in an open market certain to start a league-wide bidding war.

Trying to empower McDyess as an active participant in Denver's latest rebuilding attempt, Vandeweghe has offered to give his franchise player a vote in choosing a coach.

"I'm going to be looking forward to that. I don't want to step into next year blindly," said McDyess, who condemned interim coach Mike Evans with faint praise.

Reading between the awkward pauses when asked about Evans, it is clear that the team's No. 1 player feels the Nuggets need a stronger presence on the bench.

"We have to start going in a better direction with winning, coaching, attitude change," said McDyess, who believes his knee is completely healthy for the first time since the October surgery that limited him to 10 games in a season he could not imagine being worse.

How can the team possibly improve fast enough to satisfy McDyess? The Nuggets are guaranteed one of the top seven picks in the upcoming NBA draft. "The easy part is getting the draft picks and drafting people who don't have a choice but to come to Denver. The hard part is going to be trying to get the free agents to come here," McDyess said.

Tempting the scorn of league rules against tampering, he has wooed former Nuggets player and Denver native Chauncey Billups about returning to the team.

"I already talked to Chauncey about it. But he kept on saying he's not going to come to Denver if I'm going to leave. And I think there are a lot guys in the league who will ask me about the same thing," said McDyess, who finds it difficult to sell the Nuggets when he is not sold on the team himself. "If I was 100 percent sure I was going to be in Denver, then it would be easy for me to recruit players. But I'm not 100 percent. I'm not going to be saying lies. I'm not going to sweet talk players and then leave 'em."

Although McDyess disagrees with the loud, heavy-handed methods Van Exel employed to get out of Denver, he felt the pain of his former teammate, now bound for a championship run with the Dallas Mavericks. "I definitely understand his emotions," he said, recalling Van Exel's fearful admission that McDyess would soon depart town through a contract loophole. "I truly understand what Nick was going through. He wanted to win. He got frustrated. He had been here, and things weren't getting any better."

The NBA plays on after the Nuggets finish. There are postseason tickets waiting in the name of McDyess, issued as a gift by Van Exel. He wants McDyess to hear, to feel, to enjoy all the sensations of playoff basketball. It was a nice gesture from a friend.

"But I don't know if I can sit up in the stands. I don't know if I could go. It might be too painful to watch," McDyess said.

After too many losses in Denver, McDyess is beginning to wonder: His best route to the playoffs might be a one-way ticket out of town.