Until yesterday, the Denver sports world had a few slow news days. No big problems were grabbing headlines, and nothing much was happening.
There’s always some kind of excitement in the air when a trade deadline approaches. Rumors about unhappy players who want to be traded crop up every day, and fans can’t help but think about what their teams need and who might bring it.
If you combine a bunch of slow news days with an approaching trade deadline, the result is, at least in Denver this year, pure madness. Out of boredom (or maybe it’s just human nature), people started making up problems and suggesting crazy trades. The other day, one of the morning radio guys advocated trading Eduardo Najera, J.R. Smith, Marcus Camby, and possibly also Chucky Atkins (my memory is fuzzy on that one) for Jason Kidd. According to him, this is a trade the Nuggets should make.
If you’re smoking crack with my next-door neighbors, this might make sense. Otherwise, I hope you agree with me that this trade is a terrible idea. Why would you trade three guys who contribute to the team for one guy? What happens when that one guy gets injured (as Nuggets players often do)? Who will fill the empty roster spots? How do you replace Najera’s hustle? Even if you don’t like Smith and even if he’s inconsistent, how do you replace his out-of-nowhere, one-man-comeback offense and three-point shooting? And Camby? Well, let’s talk about Camby for a minute.
I’ve said this before, but getting rid of Camby would be one of the three biggest mistakes the Nuggets could ever make. Camby is a (the?) leader of this team. I suspect he’s really the glue holding everything together and that he brings a quiet strength and drive to a team that sometimes doesn’t know what it is. He’s like the wise, elder statesman on the mountain, sharing his wisdom with the younger and more volatile players. He leads the league in blocked shots and consistently is number one or two in rebounding. He plays defense as well as or better than anyone, and that is incredibly valuable to a team known for being weak to flat-out horrible on defense.
Getting rid of Camby would completely change the entire character of the team. The Nuggets are small and fast. They need to play an up-tempo game — running the ball rather than falling into a half-court offense. The keys to playing this kind of game are (1) having good speedy players and (2) rebounding. Without rebounding and, to some extent, blocked shots, there’s no running the ball. Camby is rebounding. Nobody the Nuggets might pick up in a trade could replace his rebounding. Also, I don’t see how it’s a good idea for a small team to get rid of one of the few big men it has.
If the Nuggets got rid of Camby, we might have to revisit the 1990s and start calling them the Enver Nuggets (no D).
If you think the Nuggets need to make a trade, I hope that you’re not losing sight of the fact that, according to what one of the TV guys said the other day, the team has the best record at this point in the season it’s had in 30 years, and the third-best record it’s ever had at this point in the season. They’re only a game and a half behind Utah for first place in the division. I’m not saying the Nuggets are perfect or there’s no room for improvement, but the team certainly isn’t a sinking ship that can be saved only by trading away key players and/or bringing in someone of questionable character like Ron Artest (who would bring with him an annoying resurgence of “Denver Thuggets” jokes, neglected dogs, and domestic abuse charges).
This is my very inefficient and wordy way of saying that the only trade I think the Nuggets need to make right now is no trade at all. Let these guys play together. Even without Nene and Chucky Atkins, these guys can win the division with a healthy Kenyon Martin.
I’ll even do my part by writing relatively complimentary posts about players who need it. Just look at what’s happened to J.R. Smith since I wrote about him the other day. I’m not saying I’m responsible for his ridiculous three-point shooting, but hey, I wasn’t wrong about giving him a chance, was I?
