[Izulde]

I opt not to renounce either of the contracts on the team, as we're at $2 million over the cap and renouncing them would push us under the cap at a disadvantaged level.

Duez Walker, Steve Harris and Phillip Gill all get Summer League spots.

Summer League

We stumble out of the blocks with an 0-2 start but rebound to get a victory in the third game against the Hawks. Phillip Gill shows some real potential and Steve Harris is surprisingly effective off the bench the first few games, trends that continue as we lose to Chicago and beat Boston to close out the summer league session.

I really think Gill is going to surprise a lot of people this year with how much he's improved.

Free Agency

Looking over our team, what we really need is defensive punch on the bench and of course, we can always use a little more scoring there as well. Our starting five is pretty much set, barring a massive upgrade at SF that we couldn't afford anyway.

PG Johnny Willias, he of the superlative talent and four years of 9 points a game and a goodly number of assists as another underachieving Knick, highlights the free agent class, if only because of his talent and the fact that he's 24. C Narcyz Malinomowski, the great Polish sieve C who can score and rebound to make up for his defensive deficiencies, is a restricted free agent as well. Other than that, there's quite a few of the usual over 30 big names that are in their twilight.

We sign SF Shane Battier to our low exemption fairly early on in free agency. He doesn't have much left in the tank at 35 years old, but he still plays defense like a rock, can play 3 positions and is a smart player. A few days later, we re-sign Shaun Livingston to a 3 year min-sal deal, because Javaris Crittenton was demanding mid-level type money.

Paul Pierce is the first big name change, jumping from Detroit to San Antonio on a 1 year, $12 million deal. The Pistons recoup by signing Vince Carter to a 1 year, $10.5 million contract. I think the Spurs got the major advantage there. The Pistons also stole away Antawn Jamison for 4 years, $24.7 million.

But that was nothing compared to the incredulity that swept everyone involved with the league; players, fans, coaches, media, front office personnel, when Tim Duncan took 4 years and $24.7 million to go to the Charlotte Bobcats.

We tried our damndest to lure Allen Iverson back to Denver, but he spurned our mid-level exemption to take a 5 year, $32.2 million deal from the defending champion Toronto Raptors. I can't say I blame AI. He's 38 years old and he's getting some serious money to go to a winning team.

After that, there was no one really worth offering the mid-level to, so we inked PF Steven Caspers and C Pavel Podkolzin to min-sal deals on the same day that Zelipe Gama heads to the Heat on a 4 year, $30.4 mill. deal.

Richard Hamilton, who I considered offering the mid-level to, takes that to go to the Nets. Darko Milicic, who never did pan out, goes to the Clippers for 3 years, $12.1 mill.

I'm pissed when I find out Javaris Crittenton took a 2 year min-sal deal from the Chicago Bulls, because he's a lot better and younger than Livingston, but you live, you learn, I guess. Chauncey Billups accepted a min-sal from Memphis the same day. The next day, [[b]Starbury[ min-sals to the Duncan-less Spurs and two days later it's Ray Allen for $2.73 mill for a year to the Washington Wizards.

It was a pretty dull free agency this year, if you want to know the truth. No real high-level talent out there beyond the greybeards. Oh yeah, Ike Diogu min-saled to Detroit for a year, just as long as we're keeping tabs on ex-players of mine.

In the end, I opted not to sign Steve Harris to a contract. I decided it just wasn't worth that kind of money to invest in him.

Scary money situation two years from now, though. Barring trades, we're committed to $70.5 million right now for just 9 players. If we don't get out the gate fast, there's going to be some more changes made.

Training Camp

Dan Jacobson really turned heads in camp and Larry Brown believes he's still got some growth potential left in him. Counterbalancing that, Phillip Gill still has some nice ceiling, but Brown doesn't think it's as high as we thought when we traded for him, primarily because he showed horrible ballhandling skills.

But our starting rotation is set at least.

Denver Nuggets 2013 Opening Day Lineup
PG Kirk Hinrich
SG Mateen Yeaton
SF Patrick Pastner
PF Emeka Okafor
C Dan Jacobson
6th Mike Miller (SG/SF)
7th Phillip Gill (SF/PF/C)
8th Marcus Williams (PG/SG)
9th Shane Battier (SG/SF/PF)
10th Duez Walker (PG/SG/SF)
11th Shaun Livingston (PG/SG)
12th Willie Green (PG/SG/SF)

I'm thinking about sending Duez down to the D-League because it looks like he'll be struggling to find minutes in this lineup, but I'll keep him up for now.

The preseason mags have us tabbed for 7th in the West, which is more credit than what they've given us in years past. They have us 3rd in the division behind the Trailblazers, who are the conference favorites and who will probably underachieve again, and the Utah Jazz, who are the #2 seed. The Jazz, the #2 seed? HA!

What's even funnier--the Knicks projected as the top seed in the East. I'm sorry, but even though they've made a huge upgrade at C with Murray Alexander a free-agent signing and even though they've got Carmelo and a rapidly improving Jeremy Leach, along with the top rookie in the class in Pete Totten, this is still an underachieving team about to be on par with Portland. Then again, George Karl -is- the head coach...

Indiana's picked to just miss the playoffs with the 9th seed. Not really a surprise, since Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah are two of their frontcourt starters at C and SF respectively.

But who knows?

I'm really looking forward to this year, that's all I know.