At a time when most NBA teams are getting down to the serious business of making themselves better, are the Nuggets out to lunch?
With a jaw-dropping, wallet-busting commitment of $72.5 million to its top six players for the upcoming season, Denver currently has zero chance of winning the league championship.
The strongest reason to believe the Nuggets will make a major trade before their next game? Because doing nothing is not a viable option.
From Boston to Los Angeles, at least 10 NBA teams must be taken more seriously than Denver as legitimate contenders.
In return for his generous investment in a sport he genuinely loves, Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke has a team with credibility issues.
Denver is a savvy basketball town, and folks around here are no longer buying what the Nuggets are selling.
With a track record that includes the relentless pursuit of a trade for Allen Iverson and the willingness to take a risk on J.R. Smith, the Nuggets’ front-office team of Mark Warkentien, Bret Bearup and Rex Chapman has shown no fear of cutting a big deal.
That being acknowledged, there’s no polite way to put this.
Since they were broomed from the playoffs by the Lakers, the Nuggets have done little except test fans’ patience and insult their intelligence.
It has been a dry summer for the Nuggets.
By trading out of the first round in this year’s draft, disgruntled customers watched as Denver gave away an important symbol of hope, and also had to listen as Warkentien scolded any doubters by bragging how a two-season stretch in which the Nuggets won exactly one playoff game was a great, historic accomplishment for this franchise.
Excuse me? The team David Thompson and Dan Issel brought into the NBA during the mid-1970s was more exciting and successful than anything produced by Carmelo Anthony and Iverson. From 1984-86, Doug Moe won three playoff series and booked a trip to the Western Conference finals, far outstripping the performance of current coach George Karl.
While Philadelphia was adding all-star Elton Brand on Wednesday, the Nuggets were reaching an agreement with journeyman Anthony Carter, dropping another notch in the league pecking order before sundown.
And do not be surprised if the next significant offseason roster move is hardworking Nuggets forward Eduardo Najera’s departure to a new NBA town after signing as a free agent with a different team.
With the contract of Kenyon Martin and the health issues of Nene making those two players impossible to move, plus the promise to Melo that he’s here to stay, if the Nuggets want to get better in a major way, they must consider trading Marcus Camby or admit the addition of Iverson was a bold experiment that has made for failed chemistry.
As an unabashed admirer of Anthony’s undeniable skills and Iverson’s to-the-last-breath competitiveness, I feel compelled to issue them a friendly warning. While Denver fans are wonderfully big-hearted, this is a meatier sports town than Los Angeles or Miami, where gawking at celebrities passes for a spectator sport.
The problem is these Nuggets have been all sizzle and no steak, with too much tinsel and not sufficient toughness, resulting in five guys on the floor who look better individually, because they seldom play as a team.
So it would be a major mistake for the Nuggets to dim the lights on opening night and ask the crowd to cheer the same underachieving players and same excuse-making coach who have failed to deliver anything of basketball substance to this city.
If Karl trots out a starting lineup of Melo, A.I., Camby, K-Mart and a point guard plucked from the NBA’s bargain bin, the applause from the audience would be mixed with groans of here we go again.
The Nuggets better do something far more substantial and dramatic with this roster than hope for the best, or there are going to be some very unhappy ticket buyers in the Pepsi Center on opening night.
And the guy who would have the right to feel the most cheated?
Mr. Kroenke, who is paying for a Nuggets coach and players who have yet to deliver on a single significant promise.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
