McNuggets

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

Hi list:

The Denver dailies make no mention about Ron Mercer so far. I fear he
doesn't really fit in over there. Small forward? Maybe Chauncey Billups
is the one planting the rumor to ESPN's David Arledge. He likely wants
to go back to point guard if the Nuggets can move Van Exel. Perhaps
Issel won't trade Fortson for a shooting guard unless he can first
unload Van Exel.

Denver Rocky Mountain News' Dave Krieger offers an interesting column.
I've cut and pasted some of it below:

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To give players an idea of what they are looking for, officials show
them videotape of the 1985 NBA Finals, featuring the hands-off defense
of Boston's Dennis Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers' Michael Cooper.

There is only one small problem trying to teach all these rookies and
free agents to play that way: They can't do it. Johnson and Cooper
happen to be two of the most skilled on-the-ball defenders in NBA
history.

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Another league source says the rumor mill has had the Nuggets in talks
with the Los Angeles Clippers on and off for months about a potential
trade involving Van Exel and Clippers big man Lorenzen Wright.

Last season, word was the Clippers balked because they feared they
wouldn't be able to sign Van Exel to a new deal when he became a free
agent July 1.

The league source says Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling would prefer
renouncing Wright and Rogers, forcing them to settle for salary cap
exceptions from other clubs, rather than reward them with lucrative
sign-and-trade contracts, even if it means he gets nothing for them.

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Watching the Nuggets, it's very difficult to figure out what they are
trying to do. They are in love with the three-point shot, taking 30 in
the first two games and making four.

Denver's four roster players -- Taylor, Keon Clark, Kelly McCarty and
Eric Washington -- do not distinguish themselves. Washington, in
particular, is horrific, making more turnovers (three) than baskets
(none). On the entire squad, only James Posey and Milt Palacio look like
potential NBA players.

The hardest-working point guard on the Nuggets' summer squad appears to
be Palacio, who is on his third team, already having played for the
Clippers and Vancouver Grizzlies in the L.A. summer league. Undrafted
out of CSU, he knows he's a long shot to  make an NBA roster. But he is
the Nuggets' leading scorer in the first two games, pouring in 26 points
off  the bench on 9-for-16 shooting.

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Chris Herren, a second-round draft pick, is starting at the point but is
struggling. He has 13 assists in the first two games but has made only
one of 10 shots.

"When I penetrate, I'm used to so many people coming at me, I usually
kick it," he says. "They're not doing that right now. They're just
letting me go. So I'm turning around, trying to pass it to nobody, and
they're intercepting it. I've just got to get better."

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Donnie Nelson says. "We're having to make judgments about extremely
young people coming into the league (...) I feel cheap and I feel dirty
when I'm sitting there having to evaluate some kid that is rumored to be
coming out who has no business doing so."

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