Nuggets Deny Deal For Pack

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

 http://insidedenver.com/nuggets/0908nugs1.shtml

Nuggets: Pack not coming back in trade with Celtics

By Michael BeDan
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer


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The Denver Nuggets denied a published report Thursday that they and the
Boston Celtics are discussing a four-player trade that would bring
former Nuggets guard Robert Pack back to Denver.

The Boston Globe reported a potential four-player deal that would ship
Nuggets reserve point guard Chris Herren and veteran guard Bryant Stith
to the Celtics for Pack and forward Calbert Cheaney. Pack was traded to
Boston from Dallas on Aug. 16 and, per NBA rules, cannot be traded again
until Oct. 15, 60 days from the date of the deal that sent him to
Boston.

"There's not a trade," Kim Hughes, the Nuggets' director of player
personnel, said. "We discuss different scenarios all year, but we are
not even in a war room mode where we are actively pursuing a trade."

Herren nearly was traded in July when the Nuggets were pursuing
then-free-agent guard Derek Anderson. Herren, a Fall River, Mass.,
native, would have gone to the Celtics in that deal, along with Nuggets
guard Tariq Abdul-Wahad. Nuggets forward Keon Clark would have gone to
the Los Angeles Clippers, and Anderson would have come to Denver.

The Clippers pulled out of that deal, and the Nuggets wound up signing
Abdul-Wahad to a seven-year contract when the free-agent signing period
began.

Herren, Stith and Pack are all in the final year of their contracts, and
Hughes said the salaries would match up if the deal rumored to be in
discussions now were to be completed.

"They are close enough," Hughes said of the players' contracts. "There's
a match."

But Hughes insisted no such deal is in the works.

"We haven't been in a position where we're actively pursuing a trade,"
he said.

Nuggets coach and president Dan Issel is on vacation and did not return
a phone message Thursday. Celtics coach Rick Pitino could not be reached
for comment.

In June, Pack was rumored to be headed to Denver in a deal while he was
still with the Mavericks, a trade that would have sent former Nuggets
forward Chris Gatling to Dallas. Gatling was later shipped to Miami in a
deal that brought Voshon Lenard and Mark Strickland to Denver.