On the flip side… the nugz are in line to get a great draft pick, whether its gooden, wagner, Williams or Duhon. Even the giant chinese guy could be a great player (The potential Shawn Bradley type player scares me)… This is very talented draft… Amare Stoudemire could also be a star. Raef could continue to gain some independence as a player as well. I think its good for him to play without dice. Its made him more vocal, and more of a leader. Although his stats donīt show it, heīs become a better offensive player too.

I just hope the nugz stay together with the exception of their rather large loss of FAīs this summer. Iīd like to see lenard re-sign, and give us another threat from the outside. I want to see dice play some this year… but at what cost will it be to the nuggets in the future??? Will it give them confidense going into next year… or will it do nothing more than ruin there draft if they do win with dice? And if they do stay in the bottom of the lottery with dice, i really have to worry about them. Nick will be gone for sure if the nugz donīt screw themselves out of the lottery with diceīs return… And dice will follow nick out.

I think McDyess coming back will help us win a few games, but not a ton more. I think this is to be expected, but I do expect to get steadily better the remainder of the season. We’ve been averaging 3-4 wins a month lately, and even if we double that, we’re going to still be at the bottom of the league. I really noticed how much I missed McDyess in our loss to Miami the other night - we could nothing but outside shots off in overtime, and other than Raef’s three, we missed nearly all of them. The Nuggets need a post-up guy bad, and McDyess is their man.

Back to the point at hand. I think Nick is going to leave no matter what. I think Antonio will improve the team but his impact will come slowly as he gets back into full playing shape. I think the best scenario is that we finish with around 20 wins, Nick brings in a quality big-body via trade (Mark Jackson maybe?) Antonio is back at full strength, and we get Stoudemire, Williams, or Duhon to replace Nick at the point, and back-up Avery next season. Optimistic, but possible.

I say draft gooden, williams, or Wagner. These three are gonna be stars. If its evident that McDyess will leave for sure, Gooden is our guy (and who better to teach gooden than Dice for his 1st year, and Kiki for his career?) Williams and Wagner will be extremely good guards in 1 or two years. I can’t say at this time who we should draft… Nothing is certain on the nuggets right now, but thats what we got kiki for…