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Nene is set to officially become a free agent.
The Nuggets starting center will opt out of the final year of his contract and, as a result, become an unrestricted free agent, a source said Wednesday night. It means he can sign with any team he wishes without the Nuggets getting a chance to match the offer when free agency begins after the expected NBA lockout, which should begin on Friday.


Read more: Nene will opt out of Nuggets contract, enter free agency - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_18 ... z1Qj2LW5ev
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I strongly believe the Nuggets were offering more pre-lockout than they or anyone else will post-lockout. I think he's gone. Let the roller coaster ride begin.....

i think he's gone, but he made a poor choice imo.

I still doubt he leaves. Who can offer him more money that is a more attractive situation for him? The Kings, Pacers, Nets, or Wizards? Those are pretty much the only teams that can offer him a contract anywhere near the $12 Mil he just turned down for next year and none of them seem like a great fit for him. I'm still very skeptical that he comes close to leaving.

That sucks, definitely a blow to the team.

Already a shortage of real centers in the NBA and ours was one of the best..

Oh well, I think he's making an idiotic decision unless he's teaming up with an all star going to a team like the Nets?

I would say it'd be between us and the Pacers. The other teams with cap space are still years away from even making the playoffs.

There is nobody who can offer what we are offering him right now. We've done a lot for the guy, so I hope he's keeping that in mind while he makes his demands.

There are a couple quality free agent bigs, but they might be a stretch. It'll be interesting to see what the lineup is when the season finally starts.

almost famous wrote:There is nobody who can offer what we are offering him right now. We've done a lot for the guy, so I hope he's keeping that in mind while he makes his demands.

There are a couple quality free agent bigs, but they might be a stretch. It'll be interesting to see what the lineup is when the season finally starts.

Hard to anticipate anything now.

DAMN! Had a feeling.

I like Nene a lot but I can't imagine paying him much more than $12 million/per, particularly in light of what the new CBA is likely going to look like. Does anyone have any clue what we offered him? It might end up being a good move to wait and see what the new CBA actually looks like before blowing all of our cap space on Nene. It seems dangerous for both the Nuggets and Nene to wait, but more dangerous for Nene IMO.

If there is a $45 million hard cap, is anyone going to give a 14/7 player $15 mil/year or whatever he's trying to get?

i must be the only one happy about this?

KidNine wrote:i must be the only one happy about this?

Why are you happy?

Nene wasn't great but his skill set won't be easy to replace if he leaves. Lots of cap space doesn't matter if there's no talent to sign.

KidNine wrote:i must be the only one happy about this?

I think I might understand what you mean, you think Nene is soft... and he can play that way... however, we don't have ANY size at all at the 4 or 5 that are proven quality NBA players. While Nene plays soft sometimes, he has skill and can be beastly if he gets mad, but it's not consistent. Now, if he goes, you have to rely on Mosgov and Koufous (spelling) and let's be honest, they aren't ready for for big time, big production NBA minutes yet. It would be very difficult to get a Marc Gasol, but maybe with a hard cap and salary reductions it could be done, but that's a huge if. I wouldn't say it's over for the Nuggets and Nene, but it does but a damper on things. Who knows when we will see the NBA again... sucks

Nugologist wrote:I like Nene a lot but I can't imagine paying him much more than $12 million/per, particularly in light of what the new CBA is likely going to look like. Does anyone have any clue what we offered him? It might end up being a good move to wait and see what the new CBA actually looks like before blowing all of our cap space on Nene. It seems dangerous for both the Nuggets and Nene to wait, but more dangerous for Nene IMO.

If there is a $45 million hard cap, is anyone going to give a 14/7 player $15 mil/year or whatever he's trying to get?

The 6 years, $52 million contract that Brendan Haywood signed is what I believe the number is to obtain Nene. I doubt anyone is going to pay him $12 million a season unless the contract is more upfront and dramatically decreases after each season. Masai Ujiri will possibly be able to carrier to Nene and help Denver benefit with a S&T, if not he walks, but I can see him possibly returning.

I could see the Nets offering 12million and playing him beside Lopez. It all comes down to how much Humphries wants in my eyes, if he is looking for 8-9million the Nets will look to sign Nene and play him PF.

I think a Nene Lopez front court playing with Deron Williams would be very good.

N Ireland Nets wrote:I could see the Nets offering 12million and playing him beside Lopez. It all comes down to how much Humphries wants in my eyes, if he is looking for 8-9million the Nets will look to sign Nene and play him PF.

I think a Nene Lopez front court playing with Deron Williams would be very good.

Who do you expect to rebound in that front court?

I've never held any faith in Nene as a center since the day he was drafted, never have, never will.

Why he has been our cornerstone C for the last few years is beyond me. Pairing him up with a true C was what i always hoped we would do, but it never happened, now, it's his time. i say let him go, let him show the league what he's capable of.

Let loose Nene, get your $$, and finally show the league the player you, I and every other Nuggets fan who put their faith in you, could be!

N Ireland Nets wrote:I could see the Nets offering 12million and playing him beside Lopez. It all comes down to how much Humphries wants in my eyes, if he is looking for 8-9million the Nets will look to sign Nene and play him PF.

I think a Nene Lopez front court playing with Deron Williams would be very good.

Kris Humphries will most likely receive the full MLE type of money.

I think Nene at the 4 with New Jersey along side Lopez is a bad fit.

He wants to come to Portland!

KidNine wrote:I've never held any faith in Nene as a center since the day he was drafted, never have, never will.

Why he has been our cornerstone C for the last few years is beyond me. Pairing him up with a true C was what i always hoped we would do, but it never happened, now, it's his time. i say let him go, let him show the league what he's capable of.

Let loose Nene, get your $$, and finally show the league the player you, I and every other Nuggets fan who put their faith in you, could be!

The problem with that is that now the Nuggets do not have a starting PF or center. If the Nuggets were not going to pay him what he wanted in a deal, then they should have traded him with harrington for young prospect from the Rockets at the deadline which was rumored to be offered.

PortlandForever wrote:He wants to come to Portland!

How are they going to pay him? He is not going to Portland for the MLE if it still even exists.

I hate to admit I seen this coming over the last few weeks, when the deal was not done by late may I figured the Nuggets were in for trouble. One thing I do not understand is that the Nuggets knew prior to the Melo deal, exactly what it was Nene was wanting to extend.

There was also several rumored offers for nene, including one with the Rockets where they were willing to give up some young talent and a pick, while taking back Harrington along with Nene.

Given that the Nuggets could not get an extension done with Nene(obviously they knew they were not going to get close in Feb), and the fact that Melo himself said that he thought he was going to New Jersey up until the night of the Knicks deal, why the hell did we go with the Knicks deal. Right now the Nuggets are on the verge of becoming and treadmill team, when they easily could have got some high potential guys, and plenty of picks (including the 3rd and 17th overall picks this year) to start a true rebuild and do it right. Now we are looking at becoming the Pacers, Bucks, Rockets, or Warriors. A team with some good talent, but not good enough to guarantee a playoff spot, and not bad enough to get a couple of good picks with which to grab a future superstar.

This all has Karl's finger prints all over it. karl is the one who was rumored to be lobbying for the Knicks deal to get done as he did not want to rebuild, he also was said to want to compete and did not want to trade Nene. So he can pad his win totals for his legacy, while this franchise ends up right where they were in 2000.

HMFFL wrote:

N Ireland Nets wrote:I could see the Nets offering 12million and playing him beside Lopez. It all comes down to how much Humphries wants in my eyes, if he is looking for 8-9million the Nets will look to sign Nene and play him PF.

I think a Nene Lopez front court playing with Deron Williams would be very good.

Kris Humphries will most likely receive the full MLE type of money.

I think Nene at the 4 with New Jersey along side Lopez is a bad fit.

Humphries reportedly wanted a deal in the $7-$8 million a year range. That was the last that was heard from him / his agent... I do agree that MLE money is the max you could pay him without boarding into insanely bad Travis Outlaw level contract territory, and that's assuming of course last year was not a fluke season for Humps.