NBA Rumors: Rebuilding Denver With Trade Options for 'Other' Nuggets
After Miami's huge offseason, many players in the NBA want similar situations. The biggest suitor is Denver's Carmelo Anthony, who now wants to be traded out of Denver and into a miracle situation like King James and company.
But that leaves Denver in quite the pickle. At 26, Melo is one of the youngest players on the Nuggets. Chauncey Billups is 33, K-Mart is 32, Chris Anderson is 32, and Al Harrington is 30.
Denver has some younger talent in JR Smith and Ty Lawson, but if they do end up trading Carmelo, they'll need to figure out what to do with their other players.
Let's start with Kenyon Martin. His contract is $16,545,454 high, but only one year long. Expecting him to sit for the entire season, it's a safe bet that their won't be any great trade offers for his one-year deal. I'd say keep him and bank the 16 million.
Then there's Nene. He's 27 and has two years left on his $11,360,000 contract. Well, at his age, and with only two years on his deal, it's almost a better deal to hang onto him. If any relief for Carmelo comes in the near future, he'll still be a good asset.
Most important is Chauncey. He's arguably the team's best player along with Carmelo, and at age 33, he's not going to be helping a rebuilding team anytime soon. It's best to trade his two-year deal.
Chauncey isn't necessarily going to have to play for a big market team. I think he's just going to want to win at his age.
One newly competitive team that could really use his skill set is Memphis. Their team really started to shine last year, but was really lacking in a star point guard.
One trade that could send Billups to Memphis is giving Denver back Darrell Arthur, Mike Conley, Hamed Haddadi, and Hasheem Thabeet. All of these players are young, unproven players who, most importantly, have one-year contracts. Memphis is willing to give them all up for the right price, and Billups is definitely the right price.
If any of them start to shine in one year in Denver, I'm sure that extensions could be arranged for each of them.
Denver could also ship Billups to Atlanta, needing a new PG, for the $10 million expiring Jamal Crawford contract, along with the rookie Jordan Crawford and probably a few other future picks. They could also add Mike Bibby and JR Smith to the equation as well.
If you really want to get hypothetical as well, NYC could offer Wilson Chandler and Danilo Galinari to an Eddy Curry expiring contract and some picks. Portland would also be willing to ship off Andre Miller and their complainer Fernadez and some filler contracts for Billups.
Other teams that could use Billups, like the Magic, Lakers, and Heat, simply don't have any of the matching contracts or assets to acquire the 33 year-old vet point guard. So it seems like if the Nuggets do decide to rebuild, they'll have to take on some expiring contracts, young prospects, and draft picks with their other players.
A Carmelo trade would give the Nuggets a good, young asset, but don't expect that from many of their other players. If Carmelo is traded, expect one or two filler years for some contracts to expire, and then expect a brand new Denver squad.
