Rashad McCants likes the Nuggets.
“It doesn’t matter where I play as long as I can be part of the NBA, but it would be a great opportunity to play with my friend Carmelo Anthony,” the North Carolina shooting guard said of his chances of landing with Denver in tonight’s NBA draft.
The Nuggets like McCants. Whether they like him enough to try to hoist themselves above the 20th and 22nd picks in the draft to land him – or whether they need to – remains to be seen.
“He’s a talented guy,” assistant general manager David Fredman said. “He’s a guy that we’re discussing. I can’t really talk any more than that.”
Buzz around the league Monday had general manager Kiki Vandeweghe talking with teams picking in the low teens about a possible swap. McCants said Monday he has seen special interest from the Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota. Indiana also is interested in acquiring a shooting guard to lessen the loss of Reggie Miller. The Pacers, now slated to pick 17th, are reportedly trying to move up.
But Fredman said Denver is unlikely to pull off a trade before the draft begins and that the team has not necessarily set its heart on climbing up.
“I’m sure we’ve talked to every team in the league about various scenarios, but we’re not close to anything,” he said, adding, “We’ve always been active since we’ve been around here this time of year and around trade deadlines. It’s just exploring all of our options.”
Charlotte general manager Bernie Bickerstaff, whose team owns the 13th pick, suggested Monday that nothing was doing on his end.
“We have had plenty of inquiries on 13 – it’s a pretty valuable pick – teams wanting to move up to that area,” he said. “And we just haven’t found anything that we can get romantically involved with.”
If the Nuggets do stand pat, Fredman said he believes the team still can land a contributor, pointing to Josh Howard, the Dallas forward who went 29th in the 2003 draft.
“There is a great guy there,” Fredman said. “It’s up to us to identify him. But realistically, I’m talking personally and I’ve told Coach (George) Karl, I’m not sure there’s any more than 10 of these guys I could personally recommend in this draft and say, ‘This guy will be in your rotation, or any playoff team’s rotation.’ But that doesn’t mean there are not good prospects or not guys there who will later prove to be good NBA players.”
Cross off Cleveland?
Strong indications coming out of Cleveland’s news conference to introduce Danny Ferry as its general manager suggest the team will not consider Vandeweghe, Detroit coach Larry Brown or anyone else for a president’s position above Ferry.
“This is our team. Our team is in place,” owner Dan Gilbert said, sitting between Ferry and new head coach Mike Brown. Gilbert later added, “I feel great about these two guys without having a president position at all.”
Ferry said the job was presented as one in which he would make the basketball decisions. Vandeweghe’s agent, Warren LeGarie, said his client has had no contact with Cleveland in the past two weeks.
Footnotes
The Minnesota Timberwolves are in contract negotiations with Nuggets assistant Rex Kalamian for a similar position with their franchise. Kalamian has a long relationship with new Wolves coach Dwane Casey. …
The Los Angeles Lakers have asked permission to talk to Nuggets assistant Chip Engelland, a Los Angeles native.
“I know Kiki’s had a conversation with them,” Fredman said of the Lakers. “I think he’s going to deal with a lot of those matters after the draft.” …
Speaking from the NBA players association meeting in Las Vegas on Monday, Nuggets guard Earl Boykins said of the league’s new collective bargaining agreement: “I’m happy. The union did a great job of working things out.”
DENVER’S PICKS
First round
No. 20
No. 22
Second round
No. 52
TOP FIVE PICKS
1. Milwaukee
2. Atlanta
3. Portland
4. New Orleans
5. Charlotte
