On the local... or is it loco... radio today I heard...
Under the presumption that the FO would work with Melo and identify a player or players to bring to the Nuggets with the intent of A) chasing a title and B) convince Melo to stay.
Now granted this radio talk had no basis in fact... even to the extent the dreaded "well Melo and Ujiri have never talked about this together but"... was mentioned.
For a year now (since the 2010 trade deadline passed by waving at it passed) I've been the first to say and stand behind the 2 following statements:
1) Melo is leaving because he has tired of the disingenuous Nuggets FO & ownership who have no commitment to chasing a title
2) I really hope I'm wrong
For Melo to have a realistic chance to win a title either of the following has to happen:
1) Melo Leaves (likely conclusion)
2) Stan Kroenke gets out of the way (unlikely conclusion)
There is no middle ground. Any belief of a middle ground is delusional... with 8 years of proof behind it. If an owner is obsessing about a franchise tag that means he is an owner with no commitment to a title. It is an owner more worried about squeezing a profit out of a product with no regard to the product... or to the people he's hurting... in other words, Donald Sterling... but that's beside the point.
So time for some fun... let's say Melo is sincerely willing to maybe stay and Ujiri and Son of Stan is willing to craft the team to better fit Melo... What moves do you do?
Especially with Afflalo's impressive maturity I would immediately (as always) look to deal the following
JR Smith
I'd love to dump... errr I mean deal Birdman, but sadly unless someone took him as a reason to take Melo, he's not going anywhere... write it off as bad paper; thankfully low to mid dollar bad paper.
But who to get?
Captain Jack, Wallace, Diaw all are for sale with Charlotte who want to cut costs. Unfortunately none except for Jack really fit a role the Nugs need filled. Wallace brings the D and Diaw brings a strong all around game; but are they really to close to SF type roles (Melo's role) to help?
