by Paul Gartlan

The Denver Nuggets need to make a change and they need to do it now. The impressive on-paper lineup of Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Carter/J.R. Smith, Kenyon Martin, and Marcus Camby can not win in the post season, which has already been proven this last season when they were embarrassed by the Lakers in 4 games in the opening round of the playoffs. This team will give you great stats during the regular season when teams let up on defense and only play with intensity at times. None of these players can play a lick of defense, with the exception of maybe Marcus Camby, which does not help as much because the NBA in today’s age consists of wing players posing as the biggest scoring threats.

I realize the Nuggets are under some serious salary cap issues. The re-signing of Anthony Carter was the most important headline that the Nuggets have made all summer with the exception of the floundering trade talks of Carmelo Anthony to the Detroit Pistons. It is a shame Denver could not make anything of that. Both the Pistons and the Nuggets need a change in their lineup. The lineup that is now set in place for the Nuggets has shown that it is simply not NBA Finals material, or for that matter 2^nd Round material.

This very same lineup is valuable in another way: trade value. You may not be able to trade Kenyon Martin and his awful contract, but its time to maybe do away with Iverson or Carmelo, or maybe even both. AT LEAST do something with J.R. Smith while he still has trade value, and before he turns into the next Ricky Davis. I still think they should call Joe Dumars again and try to work something out for Tayshaun Prince and get either Billups or Rip Hamilton involved.

The least the Nuggets can do is unload some cap space with some unbalanced trades that would bode in another teams favor, and then have the money sign someone in the 2010 off season, where a virtual buffet of young all-stars will be available (All-stars that can play DEFENSE, too). The old saying that defense wins championships has not changed, and the Nuggets are probably the farthest from that in the NBA. Scoring against mediocre defensive efforts in the regular season will only get you so far.

The bottom line is that there is way too much offensive talent on this team that is being put to waste. Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson are both in the top 5 in scoring, J.R. Smith could start for a lot of teams, and Marcus Camby is premier shot blocker and rebounder. Somebody has got to tell them that it’s not working. They should have recognized this when George Karl assigned Kenyon Martin the task of guarding Kobe Bryant during the NBA playoffs, and then got absolutely torched every time Kobe. Sorry I have to type that again: KENYON MARTIN GUARDING KOBE BRYANT IN THE PLAYOFFS. How ridiculous does that sound?

As lovely as Carmelo and Iverson together sounds, now is the perfect time to use them as trade bait since Carmelo is still young and Iverson still has some productive years left. It would be a good idea for them to go for a great on-the-ball defender, even if that means sacrificing some offense to do so. Just do something Denver, please.