Thread: The Official Denver Nuggets Thread!

Al Harrington Heading to Denver for Five-Year Deal
.7/14/2010 1:55 AM ET By Chris Tomasson


The Denver Nuggets finally got the big man they desperately needed.

A source confirmed Tuesday night to FanHouse the Nuggets will sign free-agent forward Al Harrington to a five-year, $33.4 million contract. There are no option years in the deal in which the Nuggets will use their full mid-level exception.

Harrington's deal, which starts next season at $5.765 million, was first reported by ESPN.com. Later, Harrington confirmed the deal on Twitter, saying, "I'm taking my talents to the Mile High (City).''

The 6-foot-9 Harrington also was looking at Dallas. But, with Denver big men Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen both likely to miss the start of next season after having undergone knee surgeries, Harrington, 30, was in line for more playing time with the Nuggets than with the Mavericks.

The Nuggets previously had lost out after tendering offers for the full mid-level to big men Jermaine O'Neal, who went to Boston, and Udonis Haslem, who stayed with Miami.

Bill Duffy, the agent for Linas Kleiza, believes Denver's move means the Nuggets won't match the four-year, $18.8 million offer sheet extended last week by Toronto to Kleiza, a restricted free-agent small forward.

"I guess that takes them out of Kleiza,'' Duffy told FanHouse, referring to the 6-8 Kleiza, who now would be in even more of a logjam playing behind 6-8 starter Carmelo Anthony and with Harrington also able to play small forward.



Share The Nuggets are still expected to huddle during the next few days to decide their course of action on Kleiza. Prior to reaching the deal on Harrington, sources said the Nuggets were giving stronger consideration to matching the offer on Kleiza than they previously had due to having initially failed to land anyone in free agency and the thinking they might look to play small ball.

But now they've got Harrington, who averaged 17.7 points and 5.6 rebounds last season for New York, and has 12-year averages of 14.1 points and 5.8 rebounds. He scored 41 points last Nov. 27 at Denver but was overshadowed by Anthony scoring 50 in his team's 128-125 win.

The Mavericks, with general manager Donnie Nelson saying Shaquille O'Neal is longer an option with Dallas on Tuesday having acquired center Tyson Chandler, now might not use their full mid-level exception. In using a portion of it, they might increase their interest in free-agent forward Anthony Tolliver, whom sources said is being looked at by Atlanta, Chicago, Golden State, the Lakers and Utah in addition to the Mavericks.

Despite locking up Harrington, the Nuggets still have some size problems. The season likely will open with 6-11 Nene starting at center and Harrington at power forward. Denver still needs to acquire at least one more post player using its $2.08 million biannual exception, through a trade or with a minimum contract.

Not that he was a key player, but Nuggets center Brian Butch underwent surgery Tuesday for a ruptured left patella after suffering the knee injury last Saturday in a game at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Sources said Butch is likely out six months, with an outside chance he could return in as soon as four if everything goes well.

Butch has a contract worth the minimum of $762,195 that becomes fully guaranteed around mid-August. But the Nuggets might not be able to waive him due to his injury, which means he could last the season on the roster. And he's no longer a trade chip if another team can't waive him.

But the Nuggets on Tuesday were just happy to finally get the big man they needed.

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/07/14/h...r-deal/?synd=1

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enh. . . i guess i shouldn't complain, but i'm not that thrilled with this. . . adding some talent and size is certainly better than adding none, but i don't know how much harrington really does to address our problems. . . tomasson leads off the article with "the Denver Nuggets finally got the big man they desperately needed," but it's not true. . . harrington is 6'9, and IMO might be a more natural fit at the 3. . .

can't say that i've watched him play much over the last few years, but i don't remember him ever being much of a defender, and his rebounding numbers show he hasn't improved in that area any. . .

the fact that we only signed him after looking at guys like o'neal and haslem shows that he wasn't one of the organizations top choices, which leaves the smell of desperation on this. . .

of course, that doesn't mean that they're wrong-- we really were desperate for more bodies in the front court, and i guess beggars can't be choosers. . . at least he gives us a competent vet who can log legit minutes. . . but the big man we needed was and continues to be a legit 7-foot center who can rebound and block shots, allowing nene to slide over to the 4. . .

at least harrington's a guy who should be able to give us some offense from the power forward position, even if he doesn't help the other liabilities of our front court. . .

Harrington is a better fit at the 4, all be it he is a smaller 4. Legit 7 footers are hard to come by, so are Perkins type players. At least now there is that scoring forward option outside of Anthony on the roster. I would like to see them bring back Joey Graham, he played hard hit the boards, could score a few buckets, another body.

Via twitter:

johnhollinger Nuggets will have two more additions besides Harrington ... story coming up soon

Well this is sure to excite Nuggets fans....

johnhollinger Nuggets agreed to vet minimum deals with Shelden Williams and Anthony Carter.

Originally Posted by BroncoAV06

Well this is sure to excite Nuggets fans....

WOOOOO!!!

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/...lden-williams/

The 6-9 power forward averaged 3.7 points in 11.1 minutes for Boston, and he played sparingly for Boston during the playoffs, though he did log 14 minutes in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, snatching three rebounds, earning two fouls.

A four-year veteran, the new Nugget previously played for Atlanta, Sacramento and Minnesota. He was the fifth overall pick – yes, fifth overall – by Atlanta in 2006, and he is the all-time leader in rebounds in Duke history. He is famously married to Candace Parker, the L.A. Sparks basketball player.

I caught up today with Williams’ agent, Lee Melchionni, who said, “Denver is a great fit for Sheldon because they need frontcourt help and he provides an element of toughness, rebounding and intangibles that he’ll bring to the Nuggets.

“Being with the Celtics and going to the Game 7 of the NBA Finals is an unbelievable experience, possibly once-in-a-lifetime, and I think it adds to your value as a professional, having gone through something like that. And being able to play in the playoffs is an experience that you take with you to any team that you go to.”

According the NBA pay scale of players signing for the minimum, Williams will make $915,000 next season for the powder blue. And, yes, the former Duke player will be wearing powder blue; North Carolina grad George Karl will surely jab Williams this season, like Karl did to former Blue Devil/Nugget Dahntay Jones.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/...w-in-the-fold/

If you like scoring, you like Al Harrington.

And who doesn’t like scoring?

The Nuggets will sign the former Knick, beating Dallas out for the privilege to do so. The mid-level exception, which was turned down by Miami big man Udonis Haslem, was happily accepted by Harrington and buys the Nuggets a player with a career 14.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.

The Nuggets have to like the flexibility he gives them. Harrington can score from the starting lineup or off the bench, averaging 18.0 points and 6.3 rebounds as a starter and 17.6 points and 5.4 rebounds as a reserve last season. The Nuggets know his ability to heat up from personal experience. The 6-9, 250-pound forward averaged 32 points and 9.5 rebounds against the Nuggets off the bench in two games last season. One was a 41-point explosion in New York, which the Nuggets won anyway. The second, however, was a damaging home loss to the Knicks in March in which Harrington scored 23.

So in this case if you can’t stop him, sign him.

Harrington will likely find himself in the starting lineup at the start of the season with Kenyon Martin expected to be out while he continues to recover from knee surgery. And that’s actually very intriguing. Harrington gives the Nuggets a legit, consistent third-scorer. Don’t be surprised if he finishes second on the team in scoring to Carmelo Anthony. When Harrington heats up, he runs scorching hot – he scored 25 or more points 16 times last season, which included four games in the 30s and two games in the 40s. But he’ll also go cold; he had 12 games of single-digit scoring. He’ll turn in less than 10 points around two or three games a month.

But Harrington’s ability to fill it up from anywhere on the court will take some of the load off of Anthony, who saw double teams usually from the man guarding Martin. More notably, Harrington’s presence will allow point guard Chauncey Billups to pick and choose his spots more judiciously, and lifts the burden of having to produce points off of his shoulders. Billups can get back to running the team from a organizing and distribution standpoint and that should mean he’ll have stronger legs under him down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs. It will not, however, do anything major to help take the load off of Nene. Harrington is not a traditional post player so much as he is a new-school scorer, but his size will be helpful on some bigger opposing power forwards.

Harrington also may or may not also come with some headaches.

Harrington feuded with Golden State coach Don Nelson, and then navigated rough seas with Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni. The foundation of D’Antoni’s concerns about Harrington was too much one-on-one basketball – a familiar gripe to Nuggets fans who have witnessed head coach George Karl plead with his team to pass the ball more to varying degrees of results.

Harrington is a volume shooter who doesn’t necessarily hit for a high percentage, so he needs attempts to maximize his potential for success. He’s averaged 1,093 shots in the last five seasons, and in those years shot 44.3 percent from the field. Last season, Harrington shot 43 percent. His 1,030 shots last would have just missed being second on the Nuggets team. Anthony led the Nuggets in shot attempts with 1,502 and J.R. Smith had 1,033.

Calf, knee and shoulder injuries cost Harrington a number of games last season, but he’s usually pretty durable. He’s played at least 66 games in each of the last eight seasons, but regularly plays close to the full 82 games. And while he’s in no way a lockdown defender, he’s a defender with fast hands in the mold of Martin, so expect Harrington to be among the team’s leaders in steals. He is not a shot blocker. If Harrington is a success, it could make Martin expendable, or the Nuggets could opt to platoon the two in the starting lineup, which by default would also strengthen their bench.

In all, it’s a good pickup for a team looking to keep up with the rest of the rapidly-improving teams in the Northwest Division.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/...inger-surgery/

Nuggets big man Chris Andersen had surgery Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in his left ring finger. “The Birdman” broke the finger on March 13 at Memphis but played through the injury for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.

Of course, Birdman is also recovering from knee surgery — Andersen had surgery on his right patella tendon in June He told The Denver Post this month, when asked about his return: “Training camp or not, I’m not shooting for any date. I’m just trying to get (my knee) right. I don’t want to get my expectations high and then get down on myself because I didn’t come back by that time. Or, if I do come back by that time, I could (possibly) mess my knee up because I wanted to come back then. It’s pointless. I’m taking my time.”

Harrington is a solid offensive player, weak rebounder and average defender. His low post scoring fills a huge need for the Nuggets. He was the best available player out there that filled a need for the Nuggets for the mid level exception. I have no complaints with the signing.

It also gives the Nuggets the flexibility to trade KMart before the trade deadline. His contract is up after this season, so he should be a valuable asset for teams looking to clear cap space for the 2011 free agent market.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_15519264

Nuggets coach George Karl took center stage for a few moments Wednesday night during the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.

Karl received a standing ovation while accepting the perseverance award, named for legendary coach Jim Valvano.

"As someone who has gone through four bouts with cancer, there's an individual challenge and then there's the family challenge. You have to have your family support you, and I have an incredible family. . . . What we need with cancer, with the people like the Jimmy V Foundation, is a partner, and the partner should be our national government. It should be a national government where every dollar raised tonight, every dollar raised by any national cancer society, every dollar raised should be matched by our federal government.

Read Karl's speech in its entirety at blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets.

http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_15519261

For one season only, and maybe less than that, the Nuggets are making a nostalgic offer:

Party like it's 1985.

We can do without the rainbow uniforms, but Alex English could still probably get 12 a game.

The Nuggets led the league in scoring that year, averaging 120 points a night. Their average was even higher earlier in the decade, in the first years of Doug Moe's mad science, but in '85 they turned it into success, winning 52 games and the division.

With Wednesday's signing of free agent forward Al Harrington to take Kenyon Martin's place for nobody knows exactly how long, the Nuggets could lead the league in scoring again. In fact, if they want to be in contention by the time Martin comes back, they might have to.

Harrington is a talented scorer and one-on-one player who doesn't do anything else particularly well and has a history of ignoring his coaches, so he should fit right in.

George Karl intends to emphasize defense this season, but let's be honest. When Arron Afflalo is your only plus defensive player, defense isn't going to be your signature.

But Harrington's arrival should be of at least some comfort to Carmelo Anthony, currently honeymooning in Costa Rica and considering the Nuggets' offer of a three-year contract extension. For years, opponents have been double-teaming him with the man assigned to guard Martin. That will be much harder to do off Harrington.

Which is at least part of the calculation here. In the occasionally hysterical reaction to LeBron James' decision to abandon Cleveland for Miami, it's been widely suggested that the NBA will soon be a few super teams in glamour markets with everyone else competing for scraps.

In other words, like baseball.

Anything's possible, but the accident of timing provides the Nuggets with certain significant advantages in the battle for Melo's services. The first is that their $65 million contract offer may be illegal by next summer, when Anthony could be a free agent.

That's because NBA owners are determined to cut labor costs in the next collective bargaining agreement by reducing maximum salaries and the length of contracts. It's quite likely there will be no 2011 free agent market at all. Instead, there's likely to be a July 1 lockout that continues until players accept concessions they will be of no mind to accept. In the NHL five years ago, the lockout lasted a year and took out an entire season.

Even if Anthony wants to test the market, his wisest move might be to pick up the $18.5 million player option on his contract for 2011-12 and wait for the dust to settle from the labor dispute with an eye toward free agency in 2012. That too is likely to be a different sort of free agency, with shorter, smaller maximum contracts.

In other words, Anthony may never have the opportunity to replicate what his pals from the 2003 draft class did this summer, at least financially. If he wants to play with Amar'e Stoudemire and Chris Paul in New York, it's going to cost him.

But Harrington isn't merely a signal to Anthony that the Nuggets want to win. He's also their starting power forward until further notice. With a likely starting lineup of Chauncey Billups, Afflalo, Melo, Harrington and Nene, the Nuggets will bring some serious offensive firepower.

When coach George Karl wants to go even smaller and faster, he can bring in Ty Lawson to run the point and J.R. Smith to play small forward with Billups, Harrington and Anthony. That team can't defend the Lakers in the playoffs, but it could rock the regular season.

The Nuggets had to bring in somebody, in part to signal that the lights were still on in the front office. After swinging and missing on Andris Biedrins, Jermaine O'Neal and Udonis Haslem, they were running out of options.

Harrington may not be the ideal choice for a team that was already defensively challenged. He's certainly not the answer to their need for a tough low post presence. But he gives them a chance to keep their heads above water until reinforcements arrive.

Averaging 120 points a game might be asking a bit much. But the Nuggets averaged 106 last season without getting much offense from the power forward spot.

Wide-open, high-scoring basketball doesn't often win in the playoffs, as those energetic teams of the '80s discovered. But it can be a highly entertaining way to remain competitive while you're waiting for your playoff team to come back.

This team is built for great regular season success!

Originally Posted by EMB6903

This team is built for great regular season success!

You know it! We can look forward to Melo's one hour special next year saying he will take his talents to the Knicks with CPS and Amare!

Last night on All Access, Vic Lombardi had Benjamin Hochman on. Hochman is one of the Nuggets' writers for the Denver Post. Hochman stated that he has talked with one of Melo's friends, and also someone within the Nuggets organization, and the word is that Melo will sign the contract with the Nuggets. Hope Hochman is right on this.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_15562963

Al Harrington, standing 6-feet-9 with a smile seemingly as wide, had just met Tuesday with coach George Karl when he met Denver reporters.

One of them asked how many times Harrington heard "defense" since joining the Nuggets. "Probably 100 times," the 30-year-old power forward said. "And 15 times in my 10-minute conversation with Coach."

The Nuggets' frontcourt needed a jolt — Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen, who are recovering from knee surgeries, could miss some games — and Harrington is a score-in-bunches guy who put up big offensive numbers with Golden State and New York.

But the Nuggets are at their best when they play defense too, and Karl has put aside the outscore-your-opponent mentality for what he calls "play-hard basketball."

As for his new team's defense, Harrington said: "That's something Coach wants to focus on and obviously I'm not the only one. We'll do it as a team. We'll only be as strong as our weakest link. Everyone's going to have to pull their weight. And if they do, I think we'll be a very good defensive team because we're so athletic."

Asked what's the difference between being in a Golden State or New York system and being in Denver's system, he said: "Offensively, from what Coach told me, there's not that much of a difference. He wants us to play off instincts and in those two places, that's what the philosophy was. I think the biggest difference has got to be the focus on defense. I look forward to it. I know I can play defense and I will."

Harrington, who will wear jersey No. 7 with the Nuggets (because guard Ty Lawson wears his cherished No. 3), said all the right things during his introductory news conference.

He talked about grinding defense that he played in his early years with Indiana, when "I was like the eighth scoring option, so the only way I could get on the floor was by playing defense. I took pride in it. I knew that was where my minutes was going to come from. I know I can defend, so I'm not worried about it."

Harrington also talked about his attention to rebounding — he averaged 5.6 last season — and about how he and Nene must improve their numbers for Denver to win regularly.

And, of course, he talked about his shot, which he improved in recent years. He averaged 17.7 points last season.

"Offensively, in my mind, I feel like no one can guard me," he said, "and I think in order for me to be a good offensive player, that's the way I approach it."