What are the Denver Nuggets trying to accomplish now?

[JordansBulls]

They went out to trade for Iverson in hopes of trying to appease Melo and in hopes of trying to the NBA Title. However, the duo hasn't had the success that many would have thought.

Now they trade a DPOY guy who gives 9-12 ppg, 9-13 rpg, 2.5+ bpg for a 2nd round pick.

Simply put, what are the Nuggets trying to do now that they traded their anchor on defense?

[Test of Wills]

I see a big move coming. No joke they are trying to free up cap space for something big.

[dockingsched]

marcus camby's defense was the most overrated skill of any player in the entire league.

first and foremost they're saving about 20 mil this season. they're also putting themselves in a position to have significant capspace next offseason where they can effectively build around melo instead of putting bandaids on their sicking ship. trade ai for expirings/picks/youth and you just rebuilt in one season.

[Cevap]

You can all thank Guaranteed Contracts for this stuff....they're so pointless...

[JordansBulls]

They should just go ahead and trade Melo and Iverson to the Bulls for Rose, Gordon and Deng.

Lineup would look like this:

Bulls
Hinrich
Iverson
Melo
Gooden
Noah

Nuggets
Rose
Gordon
Deng
Kmart
Nene

[Schmooftie]

I wonder if the Nuggets tried to dump Martin on the Clips rather than Camby?
They must be confident Nene is finally going to be healthy this year to trade Camby

[El Turco]

why would bulls do that? so they can become the nuggets of east?

[kdot99]

failure.

[DEEP3CL]

Seeing Melo and AI get pissed by not making the playoffs. That's what they accomplished.

[Buck You]

Trying to give up the most points per game in NBA history.

[NO-KG-AI]

I don't even really expect a drop off, Camby is very overrated, but I thought a lot of GM's would think he was worth it, I guess they aren't as dumb as I thought.

I think people are going to be shocked when the Nuggets still ranked top 10-12 on defense.

I still think they could have got more for him, but it looks like they are making space for a big move....

[Spicy P]

Do they not have a trade exception from that trade they can use to sign a free agent?

[BillsGiants_Rep]

So I guess Nene is going to play center?

[dockingsched]

yes they have a trade exemption now for 10mil (camby's salary). its a TRADE exemption though, u can use it to absorb salary via TRADE, not free agency.

[Serpo]

Well if Denver re-signs Smith and goes out and uses the MLE on a backup big they'll be fine. Camby was just too expensive the way Denvers salary is structured . Nobody was going to take Nene or K-Mart with their horrible contracts off their hands . It had to be Camby.

[Blame Rasho]

They are trying to pay less in lux tax simply... AI is prolly gone next year and they are going to start over.

[oaf549]

The Nuggets weren't going anywhere with the current team. It was obvious to everyone. This allows them to keep JR Smith, force Nene to play more minutes and develop, gives them a 10 million dollar trade exception they can use in trades and starts the process of getting them out of cap hell.

Carmelo will average 9 rebounds a game next year now.

[lukeridenour]

trying to rebuild, appropriate move.

[giberish]

They decided that the weren't a title contender and that they didn't want to pay a huge luxury tax bill for a 6-9 seed in the West. It wouldn't be surprising if they trade Iverson (to Cleveland?) and look to rebuild around Mello + young players.

[Ballings7]

Denver's a strange basketball organization (in the way of not getting more for Camby, and other things in the past).