Milwaukee. We're way overloaded in the frontcourt right now, but I expect one or two to be traded for a SG. The way I look at it, we not only traded a small for a big (which is traditionally a plus in the NBA) but we improved our shooting. Nene, Camby, K-Mart, Najera, Evans and Smith along with Kleiza who will probably be our backup 3. EDIT: Now with a link. http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_4162791
I am not a huge Smith fan, but I agree he is a better asset than Patterson. But your guards do really, really stink (still better than our at this point, but that is another debate). Now if Kmart and Camby can fetch you the SG you need, you could be in business.
As bad as our 3 point shooting might be, I think there's might actually be worse. They lost their one half way decent shooter in Greg Buckner and I think technically JR Smith is now their best shooter which should be pretty worrisome
So how much does Denver have committed to their frontcourt? Didn't Nene get rewarded with like a $60 million contract for nothing?
This is a steal for Milwaukee in my opinion. Joe Smith isn't good anymore. But he can contribute to a team. http://www.nba.com/bucks/news/PattersonSmith_060810.html
Except that his contract, attitude, and knee probaly make him seem like a worse move then trading for someone like Chris Webber and there are only so many Billy Kings out there.
Didn't Patterson play well for you guys last year? If I remember correctly he even started several games and put up decent numbers.
Van Gundy sure thought highly of him. Praised him game last year, IIRC, and when the Rockets played the Nuggest, Van Gundy decided to make TMac guard Patterson and assigned David Wesley to guard Carmelo Anthony.
I seriously doubt we see a deal that both Camby and K-Mart are involved. I imagine the Nugs are hesitant to deal Camby. He's a pretty big vocal leader on the team and is one of the best defenders in the league (IMO at least). Plus, while he'll never play 82 games in a season, he's been keeping it above 65 the last few years. I'm fine with that. Now if Ray Allen were available... We have the worst three point shooting team in the league right now. I don't think that's up for debate. Only if the Nugs entire front office got really drunk and high at the same time. And then drank some more. Rumor has it that the front office is scared of his attitude. K-Mart bit us pretty hard, don't look for us to make that mistake again. That said, if a one year deal was an option, and there was enough tequila in the room... Ruben was decent for us. He was a great trade deadline addition because he brought a new energy to the team and gave us someone who could clamp down on our opponent's SG so Melo didn't have to. That said, he's pretty close to K-Mart and DerMarr Johnson, neither of which are popular with the front office/coaches/teammates and was starting to make a little noise there. But he couldn't shoot. He was our worst three point shooter, and we have Andre Miller for crying out loud. You put those two out there on the floor at the same time, and there's no reason to guard anyone outside of 15' from the hoop. Smith gives us a big man who can shoot. Not a three point shooter, but he has an 18 foot jumper. It's not often you can trade a SG for a PF and actually improve your outside shooting, but we just did it. Plus, this means we won't go after Keith Van Horn and can resign Reggie "Ballgrabber" Evans.
Extremely strange why Denver has been letting go of it's perimeter defenders without much compensation. Andre Miller, Earl Boykins, Julius Hodge, JR Smith, Carmelo Anthony... they have Najera coming off the bench but only 1 decent perimeter defender in Andre Miller. And a logjam in the post, worth around $37 million this year.
