The Denver Nuggets have made no attempt to disguise the fact that they want Kevin Love, and they are willing to part with some key players to make a trade happen. As part of the rumored offer the Nuggets have made to the Timberwolves, Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and the 11th pick in the upcoming NBA Draft would be packaged and shipped up north in return for Love.
It is no surprise that Chandler is included in the offer, as his relationship with the Nuggets has continued to sour over the past few years. Chandler even took to Twitter in February of 2013 and flatly insinuated that he had requested to be traded. Of course, the Nuggets made no such move, and he was left to brood, just him and his big bag of money.
Combined that with the fact that he has rarely put together more than a month straight of injury-free basketball, the Nuggets are justifiably prepared to cut their losses with Chandler. To put his injury propensity into perspective, he has played in only 113 games over the past three seasons, which means he is healthy about 45% of the time.
Kenneth Faried is another story completely. While he has been a part of much trade speculation over the past year, the Nuggets have repeatedly denied that they want to part company with the “Manimal”. But, given his emergence over the latter part of last season, they clearly do feel he is valuable enough to warrant a 2nd Team All NBA player in return.
Despite the denial of the trade speculation in the past, it is has now become widespread knowledge that the Nuggets don’t see Faried in their future plans. With an already discontented Chandler viewed in the same light, what happens when Kevin Love inevitably chooses to go to a different team? How does that impact the psyche of a relatively young and fragile Faried?
And clearly, Chandler would still need to be moved regardless. There is no way he would be content playing for a team in which an increasingly fragmented relationship is developing.
The unearthing of the Nuggets trade proposal for Love sets into motion an inevitable set of events that must now continue to unfold. The Nuggets must now find a way to move both players, and shake up the core of this team. Not moving Faried and Chandler would create an unreconcilable chemistry that the Nuggets would be incapable of overcoming.
The problem is that there are no other true impact players are on the trading block, at least not publicly. So the Nuggets are either going to have to engage in some extremely shrewd negotiations, or they are going to have to figure out a way to pacify their current roster.
Thus, the Nuggets have essentially created an impossible situation to navigate through. I have gone on record many times stating that the front office needs to be aggressive this offseason, even if it means blowing up the nucleus of this team. So, I am not condemning them for trying to make a move for Love. It shows me that the front office finally knows what every fan has known since we shipped Carmelo Anthony to the Big Apple. An abundance of average talent does not translate to post season victories.
I don’t have an solution for this predicament yet. As encouraged I am that Tim Connelly is trying to put his stamp on this team, I am equally pessimistic about the Nuggets prospects for this season.
Who knows? Maybe Love will inexplicably decide that the Denver is where he wants to be, and the Nuggets will pull off what would be one of the most one-sided trades in recent memory. But that is about as likely as me becoming a Russell Westbrook fan.
Or maybe Connelly will somehow pull off a trade not yet on anybody’s radar. You’ll have to excuse me if I am not too bullish about that happening either.
The more likely scenario is that this roster enters next season virtually unchanged, and the Nuggets continue to wallow in the purgatory of the NBA’s middle class. Too good for a top draft pick, but not talented enough for playoff success.
Oh well, at least we have the Broncos, Avalanche, good beer and legal marijuana. I’m out.
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