Denver Post sports writer Adam Thompson posts his Nuggets Mailbag every other Tuesday during the 2005-06 NBA season on DenverPost.com. The next installment is slated for March 28.
To drop a question into the Nuggets Mailbag or visit DenverPost.com’s .
The Nuggets are in the midst of a long, difficult, seven-game road trip. Do they spend 10 days away from Denver? Or will they return home for any brief gaps?
— Matt Pesce, Denver
Matt – You want them to fly even more than they already are? They have one day off between games at Philly, Toronto, Boston and New York. I’m not sure zipping two time zones west would be an ideal way to rest up.
I’m sure this has been asked 100 times. I have never heard the answer. Where did George Karl get the scar just above his upper lip?
— Michael McConnell, Highlands Ranch
Michael – It is an old question, but it has never before been discussed here at The Mailbag, so we can all pretend for a minute that it’s fresh. George got the scar after a dog attacked him while he was a boy in the Pittsburgh area delivering newspapers.
Tell me this trade was to make cap room to re-sign Nene for the summer. We just traded what little 3-point shooting we had and, to me, the best point guard we had for a guy who hasn’t made a 3-point shot this whole season, another undersized power forward, and some guy I have never heard of in my life.
— Jeff Sarceno, Longmont
Jeff – I’m afraid I can’t do that. The Nuggets actually took on more salary for next year by trading Earl Watson, Voshon Lenard and Bryon Russell for Ruben Patterson, Reggie Evans and the (now-departed) Charles Smith. Besides, they don’t need cap room to sign their own free agent.
Without taking sides myself, here’s what I think they were thinking: They knew the two things they needed were outside shooting and depth/energy up front. Watson was their best 3-point shooter, but not good enough as to be indispensable. He and Lenard both wanted out. In return, Denver acquired a pair of energy players who are happy to be here and bolster their ability to rebound and defend. Patterson is especially important because he gives them something they haven’t had recently – a player who can bother a Manu Ginobili type.
As for their lack of 3-point shooting, it remains to be seen whether they make a run at a free agent like Wesley Person, though it’s hard to assume that anyone available now would be a silver bullet. If you look at the trades close to the deadline, very few shooters switched teams. Perhaps Vladimir Radmanovic was the only “major” one. That the Nuggets could not land him or anyone else in the past year with outside shooting an obvious weakness probably will come back to haunt them at some point during the playoffs.
What do you think are the odds that in the offseason the Nuggets may do a sign-and-trade deal with Nene for a shooter?
— Shawn, Longmont
Shawn – That’s hard to say. There are enough teams out there that will likely covet him – Atlanta, Chicago and Toronto, to name three – with cap room that will give them leverage. They can do to Denver what Denver did to the Los Angeles Clippers when they signed Andre Miller – front-load a deal to try to make the Nuggets blink before matching. It’s kind of a game of financial chicken. The burden then falls on Denver to scare the outside team into thinking it will match, thus prompting them to entice the Nuggets with a shooter so they back off. This could go in a thousand different directions.
Was Julius Hodge a first-round mistake? It sure seems like another Nugget disappointment. Is there any way you can tell us about how the handful of players drafted after Hodge are faring with their teams this year? I would love to see what the numbers show.
— Steve Luczak, Lynchburg, Va.
Steve – I would never judge a first-round pick, especially a late one, after three-fourths of a season. But it is fair to say that a few players drafted after him are contributing while he works on his game in the D-League. For starters, point guard Jarrett Jack, whom the Nuggets drafted for Portland so they could pick Linas Kleiza and Ricky Sanchez, is contributing for the Trail Blazers. Other late first-rounders making an impression are New York’s David Lee, Houston’s Luther Head and Sacramento’s Francisco Garcia. (None of their numbers are that great – we’re not talking about starters here). Ryan Gomes is looking like a second-round steal for the Celtics. The first pick of Round 2, Salim Stoudamire, is scoring 9.6 points per game for Atlanta as of this writing. Of course, the Hawks have also suspended him twice already.
As for Julius, I hear he’s happy in Austin and the numbers bear that out. He was averaging 16.5 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. He is clearly not a part of Denver’s rotation right now and happy just to be honing his skills. Of course, we all know there’s a big difference between how you do against the Roanoke Dazzle and how you do against the San Antonio Spurs. We’ll have to wait a year or two on that one to find out.
Hey, Adam. Who are the big-name free agents this year? Which ones will the Nuggets be targeting?
— Herby, Hutchinson, Kan.
Herby – This isn’t the sexiest free-agent class. The biggest names out there are probably Peja Stojakovic, Ben Wallace, Al Harrington and Jason Terry. The Nuggets don’t have the cap room to make a straight run at any of those guys. Their main concern this summer will be what to do about Nene, who is a restricted free agent, meaning they can match whatever deal another team signs him to. That might be a tall order, considering the absurd amounts of cash big men like Samuel Dalembert and Tyson Chandler raked in last summer. It would be crazy to imagine them paying $10 million for a bench player, no matter how good. If they do sign him, that may signal the beginning of the end of the Kenyon Martin era.
Adam Thompson is a native of New York City, where he spent his senior season in high school as the last man off the bench on a basketball team that won three games. To drop a question into his Nuggets Mailbag or visit DenverPost.com’s .
