GET OUT OF MY HEAD! Agreed with most of this. I was telling people that we weren't as good as we appeared when we went 16-4. That said, we're not as bad as we looked against Houston, Cleveland and Phoenix last week. That was f'in pathetic. Honestly, right now, I think we're going to win the division and finish as a legit 4 seed. LA's #1, NO & Hou fight for #2 & 3. Hopefully the Nugs can take advantage of extra games against Minn & OKC and bump up to a 3 or (INCREDIBLY unlikely) 2 seed. I honestly see #6 as a worst case scenario. I realize some here are going to call me a homer for this, but I have a pretty strong track record of being level-headed (for the most part). That said, if Melo's not better after taking these three games off, we're going to drop quickly. Melo was brutal in that Phoenix game. I'm really hoping it's the elbow. He hasn't been "Melo" this season. I'm thrilled with his rebounding (tops among SF's in the NBA), but his scoring has been pretty bad except for the 33 point quarter. Agreed 100%. Even this off-season when we had no answer at the 2 guard I wanted JR coming off of the bench in the Ginobili role. Dahntay's been solid. Honestly, Karl's done well coaching this year. The only beefs I have with him is that there are two players who are getting too much PT (Carter & Kleiza -- Carter needs to top out at 15-20 mpg) and two players aren't getting enough (JR & Balkman -- apparently Balkman stabbed Cobe Karl or something because that's the only reason he's not getting PT). I still think the Nugs move LK & other assets for a big man. I heard a few names mentioned this off-season on players the Nugs would like to get. Of the four, one would be an absolute steal, two would be valuable assets and one would be more of a "hope for the future" move. We have LK, Chucky Atkins (although I think the team holds on to him because he has a cheap buy-out they can use this summer a la the JR Smith trade and Balkman trade), our 2009 first round pick and a future Bobcats first round pick (which I hope we keep for obvious reasons) all for use as trade bait. If LK is traded, I'm a little concerned about our 3 point shooting %, but we desperately need some help in the front court and this frees up playing time for Balkman.
Nugs4, I changed my mind. Karl not only has to remove Dahntay Jones from the starting lineup, he's gotta come out of the rotation. The guy is killing your team and doesn't measure up to getting ANY playing time. He's is what he is, which is a poor basketball player who is lucky to be in the NBA.
Ok! Let the AI a championship ring! But not now! First let the rockets have a!!!! Then the AI! Because t-mac and yao not much! We also have to consider the yao Ming and Tracy McGrady!
seriously.. on top of that, Atkins is up after this year, while Petro has another year after this. Well, that's only if OKC already picked up the option for his 4th year. Otherwise, all I see is Denver saving maybe about $1M this year in cash.. and getting a free look at a not-quite-so-young-anymore big. I mean, it's his 3rd year and he's shown very little..
It doesn't do much for the Thunder except get them a slightly earlier pick next year where they have to guarantee the contract. Sometimes having the first pick in the 2nd round is better than a late 1st round pick. Either they will keep Atkins inactive or a trade of Earl Watson is on the way. Petro is a warm, big body for the Nugs and they give up little to get him. It works for both teams.
Maybe something's up with Nene's health (or K-Marts)...because this seems like a knee-jerk reaction trade rather than one that is thoroughly planned to save them $1M.
You forget that Denver could easily miss the playoffs in the West. One team's gotta do it...it'll either be Dallas, Denver, Portland, Houston, or Utah in the 9th spot. I can understand why Petro would be expendable for the Thunder (with Krstic signing) in order to upgrade a pick...but just don't get the Denver side of this deal.
3.5 games ahead of Utah (9th) with Melo out for a couple weeks minimum. No chance they'll miss the playoffs? I'm not saying they will...but there is definitely a chance.
Bingo. We traded a guy who wasn't playing for another guy that won't play and in the process dropped ~10 picks to save $1.3 million (and get us safely under the lux tax). I know nothing, but I have a feeling the Nugs are up to something. I expect one more move before the deadline.
The thing is... those early 2nd round picks can be more useful than the late first-rounders in some circumstances. Specifically, if you are targeting an European player already earning a decent salary, the first round scale contract will force the player to take a pay cut to come over. On the other hand, a 2nd rounder can be paid out of the MLE (or available cap space), and you get a little more flexibility. I am thinking about Tiago Splitter... Spurs drafted him, but he makes more in Euro than NBA would allow Spurs to pay him.
I'd love to get some opinions on this -- what do you guys think of Linas Kleiza. Some Nugs fans think he could be a future star and put him above JR Smith. Some think he's destined to be nothing more than a good bench player. I'd love to hear what you guys think on this one. I'm not going to post my opinion on this yet because I don't want to interfere, but if you've read my posts in the past it's pretty obvious where I fall on this one.
He is a very frustrating guy. At one point in his career I thought he would take off and be an above-average rotation player. Even now, when Kleiza puts his mind to it, he's very effective. The problem I see is inconsistent effort level and focus. My guess is the guy is a tease and his effort will drop once he gets his 3-4 year guaranteed contract this summer. He definitely has the ability to be a key rotation guy on a championship level team, but it makes me worry when he doesn't put out some games. His youth, size and skillset are very tantalizing. Didn't he kind of bomb out earlier for a few games when the Nuggets decided not to sign him long term? If he gets over that and pushes the pedal to the metal the final 40 games, Kleiza will be a rich man somewhere.
You & I are on the same page here. I honestly think Kleiza's potential taps out at "starter on a bad team". I could see him lighting it up for the T-Wolves for example. A Ricky Davis minus the crazy. My biggest problem with him is that he'll have stretches (like the last 4 games) in which he cuts to the basket and is awesome, but then he starts believing his own hype and will spend the next game shooting seven 3's and finishing 2-for-11 with 7 points or something. I honestly believe that the worst thing that happened to his development was the 40+ point game against the Kings 2 years ago. Before then, he knew his role. Now he gets a little crazy sometimes. Yeah, which always confused me. I mean, I can understand being a little concerned about an injury or something, but he was only getting a 4 year deal for roughly the MLE (I actually believe a little below it). If he played as well this season as he did last season, he would have probably gotten a better contract. It's all a moot point anyway as he's a RFA so he'll be back in Denver unless we do a sign-and-trade. I honestly go back-and-forth on him on a day to day basis. I would love to see him dealt for a big man who can come off the bench and provide a little scoring (even though the one that Denver was targeting this off-season is now playing at such a high level that we couldn't get him for LK) because I worry -- obviously -- about Nene & KMart's health. On the other hand though I'm never quite sure what we're going to get from JR on any given night and it's nice to have a bench swingman who can provide scoring when JR is off. Plus, as Kelly Dwyer has reprimanded me about numerous times in the BDL chat sessions, the Nugs have some pretty damn good chemistry right now. I'd love to see the Nugs get a young PG though. AC is playing too many minutes because George loves the 2 PG offense. Plus it'd be nice to get someone to groom under Chauncey. I've been pimping Kyle Lowry for years now but he probably would cost more than we're willing to give up. Sergio Rodriguez would be nice, but they're a division rival. Also, for those that don't know, Pickaxe & Roll is now known as the Roundball Mining Company. They're also part of the TrueHoop Network. I swear, I don't work for Jeremy or anything, but it is one of the best basketball blogs out there. I can't recommend it enough.
Jason Hart signs with the Nugs. If Karl plays him, I'm fine with it because it'll limit AC's minutes (dude needs to be stopped at 15-20 mpg). Not sure if Karl will pay him though.
Nugs4, I read an article yesterday about how close Kleiza was to signing that 4 year deal. Even though he said the opposite, I'll bet he's ready to kill his agent. They should have closed on that one quickly. He'll never get that money back. That was his career contract right there and his agent strung the negotiations out just a little too long.
