The Nuggets — yes, the Nuggets — are now under the NBA’s luxury-tax line. At least for now.
On Monday, the Nuggets dealt D-League project Cheikh Samb to the Los Angeles Clippers for a future second-round draft pick. Samb made about $700,000, and the Nuggets, with a summer payroll of close to $90 million, had whittled down to within $550,000 of the luxury-tax line ($71.15 million). And so, Denver is now under the line; teams whose payrolls are more than $71.15 million must match each dollar they’re over and pay that amount to the NBA.
“(The trade) might open up a window for us to get another opportunity,” Nuggets coach George Karl said.
Indeed, the move gives Denver even more flexibility, and another pick to dangle, in their ongoing pursuit for another big man. Samb is a big man, but he is a work in progress. He averaged 12.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.8 blocks for the Colorado 14ers.
“I think Cheikh is a guy who has a chance of maybe playing in L.A.,” Karl said. “And we didn’t see him having a chance here.”
Saw it then.
When Chauncey Billups was a rookie in 1997-98 for Boston, current Pacers coach Jim O’Brien was a Celtics assistant. O’Brien felt that Billups should be a point guard in the NBA, but there was some question whether Billups should be a shooting guard. He was traded in February that season to Toronto.
About the trade, O’Brien said the coaching staff did have some say in the deal, but obviously not enough.
“It was not a good move to get rid of Chauncey Billups,” O’Brien said.
They said it.
“I don’t know of anybody in the NBA right now who takes on anybody at any position in the last five minutes of the game, and says, ‘He’s mine.’ ” — Karl, on Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
