I am not quite sure what is going on over at
. I ran through the issues that present themselves if the Nuggets chose to retain Anthony Carter. Chucky Atkins is under contract and they have a team option to retain Taurean Green at a nice cheap salary. The bottom line was if they retain Carter it will be difficult to bring in an upgrade at the point for next season.
I am afraid that by resigning Carter the Nuggets will be painting themselves into a corner at the point guard spot again. Well, it sounds like the Nuggets may indeed resign Carter to a new contract.
Atkins has vowed to be the starting point guard for the Nuggets next season and all I have to say about that is I have vowed to be the starting quarterback for the Broncos next season. Hopefully for the fans of both franchises I we will both end up being absolutely wrong. The team may think they can include Atkins in a deal for a starting caliber point guard, but that is being pretty presumptuous.
In my mind there are only two sane reasons why the Nuggets would have offered Carter the one year league minimum contract. One, they were convinced that he would not accept it because he has been claiming he wanted to sign a multi year deal. The offer was only intended as a favor to his agent, Bill Duffy, who represents a nice cross section of talent in the NBA including one Carmelo Anthony.
The other possibility is they are signing a quality veteran to the league minimum to be a back up point guard. Perhaps the Nuggets have decided that their upgrade at the point will be handled in house by sliding Allen Iverson over and inserting J.R. Smith into the lineup as the starting shooting guard. That backcourt would be a much better match defensively and would be an even bigger handful on the offensive end.
A third option would be counting on a trade for a starting for a point and as I mentioned, that could be a shaky prospect. If the other teams know you are desperate to trade for a player, they can take advantage of it and force you into a situation where you have to overpay to complete the transaction.
If AI is going to be on the roster next season honestly the best spot for him probably is point guard. He can push the pace, he is a capable passer, he will be forced to pass to trigger some form of offense and as pointed out above, his lawn gnome-esque size will be much less of a detriment when paired with a bigger two guard such as J.R.
The bottom line is with the news of the possible resigning of Carter the Nuggets may or may not have a plan and I may or may not like it.
Good thing we have another three months to figure everything out.
