A business is a business but there is also something called team chemistry and loyalty to consider.

Chauncey "The Disposable Superstar" Billups is apparently on the trading block, again, and frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach. This is a guy who wanted to come back to Denver and help this team win a championship, has been nothing but professional in his time here since the AI trade went down and we're all talking about trading him like he's just trade filler to accommodate Melo's primadonna act.

Chauncey's game is not what it was. Everyone knows that, everyone understands that. But he is still a leader and a damn fine one. When the Nuggets need critical FTs, Chauncey is there to step up. When the Nuggets need someone to rally the troops and get their heads right, Chauncey pulls them back in it. Chauncey may not be as capable a shooter or as dynamic a passer as he was earlier in his career, but he is a leader, far more than Melo ever has been (or will be) and has been a solid rock in every game I've watched. It was bad watching Camby get traded to the Clippers in a salary dump after his time in Denver.

To do Billups like this, to send him to fucking New Jersey just to satisfy Melo's frankly childish middle-schooler "I'm just playing coy until I get what I want" act makes me not want to be a Nuggets fan anymore. Chauncey is a hometown guy and shouldn't even be considered in a deal like this. The Nuggets have a team option on him next season and I am positive that if the Kroenkes opened a dialogue with him, he'd come back for less than his scheduled salary.

No bones about it, Nuggets fans, if we can't show loyalty to the mental leader of this team, a guy who wants to retire a Nugget, who wants to take this team to a championship and mentor our young guards in Lawson and Afflalo, this organization is making a colossal mistake.