The Denver Nuggets are in an interesting conundrum. They are in the middle of a race for the Western Conference eighth seed. On the other hand, they are still a young team without much of an identity and do not appear to be contenders anytime soon.
Denver has lots of young talent on its roster but plenty of questions to be answered about them. They have also surrounded their young pieces with solid vets, leading to their winning formula.
But with eyes still on the future, there has been speculation that the Nuggets would make some trades. Two names in particular have appeared in the rumor mill: second year point guard Emmanuel Mudiay and veteran forward Wilson Chandler.
But Mike Malone is here to end that speculation. Following via a video posted by Denver Stiffs and transcribed by John Chick of The Score:
“I dismiss the report as BS, if you will, which you get a lot of this time of year. Obviously, Wilson can answer that himself when the time comes. But I’ve never heard anything close to that from Wilson.”
“Obviously, there’s a lot of noise,” Malone added. “Not just Wilson, different things this time of year for all NBA teams. The trade deadline is right around the corner. I think agents are behind a lot of that stuff, but Wilson has never said anything close to that … I laugh at that report, because Wilson Chandler is having a career year. So if a guy is not happy with his role when he’s having a career year, that doesn’t add up to me.”
“Emmanuel’s a big part of our future …” he said. “(General manager) Tim Connelly’s not actively shopping Emmanuel Mudiay. That’s just not accurate, it’s not fair, and Emmanuel knows that.”
This is a great vote of confidence for Mudiay and a good way to qualm rumors about Chandler. That said, I’m not entirely buying it.
Chandler has been great this season despite playing inconsistent minutes off the bench. But if a playoff team in need of reinforcements wants to trade assets for him, the Nuggets should not hesitate. They are still a young team in need of pieces that can be good for their future.
As for Emmanuel Mudiay, moving on from him would be more difficult. They invested a high draft pick for the point guard and although he has not lived up to it, yet, his potential is too high to give up on. Additionally, his trade value is not very high right now; the Nuggets would not be able to get an equal value draft pick for him.
This is a difficult decision to make for the Nuggets. Obviously Mike Malone has to say the right things but his answer is not the easy solution he is selling it as.
