RealGM

to play in the olympic qualifying tournament for brazil?

last year he spent the summer in brazil, got fat, went into their training session fat, and was so fat he was missing fastbreak dunks left and right, and then (in my estimation) because of that he strained his calf....which lingered on into training camp, and then everything else came about (torn thumb ligament, testicular cancer).

do you take your chances that that won't happen again....while honoring the wishes of a man who just survived cancer and one who i'm sure would be very proud to play for his country.

or do you lay the hammer down and deny him playing for brazil to try to keep him in denver with steve hess and get him ready/slim/injury free for next season. of course that could backfire, because he might lose respect for the organization (causing further laziness, a trade demand...etc)...and i don't think you can really force a player to workout during the summer (i'm sure its in the cba that its optional).

No!
He will get fat right away.
He will injury himself and he will not be useful for the Nuggets next season.

It all depends. One thing you could hope the olympics would do is help keep him in shape. IIRC, he came into the qualifying tournament overweight and their coach was complaining about it. Playing would actually help keep his weight problems under control. The only way not allowing him to play for the Brazilian team helps the Nuggets is if Nene allows Hess to help him with his diet. And I'm not sure he would be happy with that.

Yes. Its important for him to be healthy to play for Denver, but thats his nation. His home. No one should tell him he can't play. I think its disgusting what the Raptors are doing to Garbajosa.

Nene should be allowed one month off, then bring his ass back to Denver to begin his training early.

Absolutely not.
Keep him within 10ft of Steve Hess at all times.

Peanut wrote:Yes. Its important for him to be healthy to play for Denver, but thats his nation. His home. No one should tell him he can't play. I think its disgusting what the Raptors are doing to Garbajosa.

What did the Raptors do to Garbajosa? He got badly injured, and needed surgery but opted to play for his country even though they were already qualified for the Olympics and it wasnt healed. They let him play if he wanted to but said Team Spain had to take out an insurance policy incase he got further injured and couldn't play for the Raptors because of it. His injury still wasn't healed and needed surgery when he showed up so the insurance company has to fill the policy. Raptors didn't injure Garbo or not let him play for his country.

no way...work his ass, get hime to drop as much weight as he can, then trade him with AI on draft day.

KidNine wrote:no way...work his ass, get hime to drop as much weight as he can, then trade him with AI on draft day.

I was with you till you said trade him. AI can go but i actually want nene here cus everyone knows were not getting anything we need in return that is actually close to what nene can bring. no one will want his contract along with his injury history. I say we get his ass in shape and see what he can do for us because when he's skinny (well skinnier) i dont see him AS injury prone..

Edit: I do think he should be allowed to play for brazil.

all this living in hope on what Nene may one day bring....aren't you guys sick of it yet?

Well Melo will play for Team USA, so, if Nene wants to play with Brazil, thats his decision!

I'm a bit torn, but I think that Nene needs to play some basketball. He hasn't played consistently for a long time, and essentially lost a season's worth of development. Not that it's his fault, but I'm getting frustrated with seeing the flashes of brilliance that we've all seen only to see him get hurt, year after year. It's really time for that potential to start paying off, and maybe playing in the Olympics will help his progress a bit.

If he were making 4 million, I would let him do it. He, at his level of pay, has a high degree of responsibility that goes beyond "he wants to" "he should" "let him" .....at 10 mil, we're talking about 20 mil after luxury tax that could go down the drain without the proper care.

And we obviously need Nene more than we ever thought we did....without a post presence and someone who knows how to set a proper pick like Nene we suffered in the regular season and that carried over.

The cancer is not his fault......but as a professional next year he should be beyond that and take every step with care. There are things we know about and can take action on, and things we don't know about, and at this point if Nene or the Nuggets organization don't understand the risk involved Stan Kroenke deserves to lose 20 mil.

I hope that ain't true.

We've got insurance on the guy, so the bottom line won't really effect Kroenke (unless insurance doesn't pay for the luxury tax portion... any CBA experts venture to guess???). I'd say let him go for it. He needs to play competitively, and international competition can do a lot for a player (mmmm Team USA 'Melo).

Give the guy some freedom at this point in his career. He's pretty much a bust at this point, so you might as well take a different approach in his development-- nothing else has worked thus far.

I agree with everyone that says NO. I don't think he should be able to. Nene's real team needs him and needs him to be healthy and ready to go (can't risk no more injuries ). Enough is enough.

PeTBuLL wrote:Well Melo will play for Team USA, so, if Nene wants to play with Brazil, thats his decision!

I get what you're saying on that...but Melo also played the entire season for his real team as well.

I voted yes. If anything it will cause him to run and work on his game, which might get him healthy enough to come into Nuggets camp in shape for once. He could still have his minutes and action limited/monitored.

Ballin02 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



I get what you're saying on that...but Melo also played the entire season for his real team as well.

Melo has cancer?

Nene has to be a pro, play for Brazil, get into a diet, and work out during this offseason.

We need him to workout this off season and come to camp in shape

nene shouldn't be allowed to cross the street by himself let alone play for team brazil...who I might add has no shot at winning a damn thing this summer!

nene should take a month or two off and then move in with steve hess.he can play on the summerleague team and crap on everybody to build his confidence back up.I know the summerleague is not the ideal competition but those are some hungry ass guys who want into the league and will at least play very hard.