Interesting Article on Hoopsworld...

berserker · Post #1 » by **berserker** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:04 am

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=11243

Denver Has Set Up Next Move

The Denver Nuggets have positioned themselves quite well for the future by virtue of a couple of trades they recently made that flew largely under the radar. By trading Cheikh Samb to the Los Angeles Clippers and Chucky Atkins and a first round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Johan Petro and the Thunder's second round pick the Nuggets successfully got under the luxury tax threshold.

However, Denver is also now better positioned to make another move prior to the trade deadline for a few reasons. First, acquiring Oklahoma City's second round pick, which will likely be the first pick in the second round, is a more attractive trade chip than Denver's first round pick in 2009 that will likely be somewhere around 25th overall.

Why, you ask?

Simple, you can get a player about the same caliber but without the risk of having to sign that player to a guaranteed contract. Also, a player early in the second round would likely sign for approximately $450,000 while a late first round pick would be more likely to earn around $1 million. In this era of the luxury tax and an unstable economy, this is a big deal to owners around the league.

The Nuggets were also able to move Chucky Atkins, who is guaranteed approximately $760,000 next season, to the Thunder for an expiring deal in Johan Petro. This helped Denver immediately in the sense that they cut more money off their cap for the rest of this season and next. Furthermore, if the team opted to, they could trade Petro to another team before the deadline as he is a much more attractive piece than Atkins given the fact he is an expiring deal and doesn't have a broken down 33-year-old body.

The other advantage for Denver is that they were able to get under the luxury tax threshold without having to part with the conditional first round pick the team acquired last summer from the Charlotte Bobcats. This pick is highly coveted due to the fact that it could turn into the number one overall pick by 2014.

New York's first round pick in 2010 that belongs to the Utah Jazz is really the only other pick that has people around the league aiming to make noise in the summer of 2010 excited. However, it is widely believed the Jazz has very little interest in moving this pick. That leaves Charlotte's conditional first round pick as one of the most tradable and appealing assets on the market. And unlike Utah, Denver is open to moving this pick in a package if it returns the right piece or combination of pieces.

The belief in Denver was that the Nuggets might have to move Charlotte's pick to get under the tax, which was something the franchise was not totally against. The fact they didn't have to part with that pick means the Nuggets now have the perfect sweetener for a deal prior to February's trade deadline.

The name that continues to surface is David Lee. The Nuggets are well aware that defensive rebounding has been a problem at times this season, and members of the organization believe Lee could help solve that problem.

That said, Lee is far from the only option. One plugged in source told HOOPSWORLD the team has as many as 20 potential deals the front office could consider between now and the trade deadline.

That's not to imply the Nuggets feel like they have to make a deal, but they also realize they may be very close to contending this season. In short, expect the Nuggets to be very active in discussions between now and the deadline.

eathy · Post #2 » by **eathy** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:41 am

i'm not a fan of poopsworld.

can't they at least tell us what one of the 20 potential deals are?

pickIBL · Post #3 » by **pickIBL** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:01 am

Its not a bad article. I would suspect the Nuggets would like to add a big like Lee... but what they notice is a bunch of wings available. The wings are a buy now and the bigs will be a better buy when the Nuggets can use their trade exception this summer.

So despite the fact that the Nuggets could really use a good big... they should go after the wing first. We need to realize who we are chasing right now... the Cavs and the Lakers. Every poster on here will have a different opinion as to the wing we should go after.... some will say Anthony Parker and others. I say John Salmons. Linas Kleiza is probably not going to be back. So you move Kleiza, Hunter, and that first round draft pick for Salmons. Then you sign Courtney Sims. I've seen this guy on the Net and live this year. He can play and he's developed a lot since college. Then you can look to trade Petro (who is honestly a scrub). Petro for Sean Williams might make some sense.

Just a note... I'm all for adding David Lee. If it happens I'll be a happy dude.

almost famous · Post #4 » by **almost famous** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:01 am

That's not interesting at all. What the hell is in that article that we don't already know?

We've been hearing about "potential trade assets" since the off-season. I want to hear about rumors other than David Lee.

pickIBL · Post #5 » by **pickIBL** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:57 am

almost famous,

well this is the internet age. if you are interested enough in a topic the info is all out there. So it doesn't have to be breaking news to hold some level of interest or be a decent piece. It did make an decent point about the 2nd round pick from OKC. It brought up using the Cats first rounder and it also suggested that Johan "No Go" Petro could be moved for something useful. An ok article. However I will say what the hell is up with the 20 number. How do you pull that crap out of the air. If you can't and wont name the possible deals in the article we'll just assume thats a bs number.

almost famous · Post #6 » by **almost famous** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:34 am

Well I suppose, if nothing else, it can make for decent conversation.

pickIBL · Post #7 » by **pickIBL** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:44 am

who knows if hoopswords sources are credible. but if they are looking at 15, 20 trade ideas... whatever. youd think at least a few might involve wings.

JRS-One · Post #8 » by **JRS-One** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:38 am

GMs are on the phones constantly discussing trades....that's kind of their job. It's just that 95% of discussed deals never happen, and you generally don't hear about 90% of the ones that don't.

Of course they're looking to improve the team....as I said, it's their job. But that doesn't mean anything is anymore likely to happen. I'd be kind of surprised if we make anymore trades before the deadline, let alone anything major. We may sign someone to a 10-day contract or something, but probably not much more than that(now that we're finally under the tax).

almost famous · Post #9 » by **almost famous** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:11 am

It would be stupid if they didn't make a trade. We are one of the teams with the most upside because we are a very good team who can still get better. It would be stupid for he FO to not try to fill one of our holes like defensive rebounding, shooting bigs, and shooting perimeter players.