Chauncey Billups isn’t worried about his Denver Nuggets not picking up any big-name players this offseason. But he is worried about a teammate who hasn’t exactly been helping his name lately.
With that in mind, Billups will fly Sunday to Las Vegas, where embattled guard JR Smith has relocated. Billups will spent the final three weeks of August working out with and mentoring Smith.
“We’ve got some talking to do,’’ Billups said in an interview with HoopsHype.com.
Smith last month spent 24 days in jail after pleading guilty to reckless driving in connection with a 2007 automobile accident in which a friend, Andre Bell, died.
More controversy surfaced after his release. The Denver Post reported there were posts on Smith’s Twitter page written in a way commonly associated with the Bloods street gang. It was reported that Smith, who since has shut down his Twitter page, wrote words with a “C’’ that were replaced with a “K’’ and, if the word contained both those letters, the “C’’ was removed.
“JR’s a work in progress,’’ Billups said. “I’m happy and proud of the progress that he’s made. But the latest thing with the Twitter. That’s immaturity. It’s immature. Those are mistakes that we’ve got to stop him from making. We’ve got to spend some time.’’
Billups, Denver’s point guard, figures to start in the backcourt next season alongside Smith. That is, unless Nuggets coach George Karl, who said at the end of last season Smith was in line to replace the since-departed Dahntay Jones as the starting shooting guard, deems Smith still not mature enough for that role.
Billups can help knock some sense into Smith, 23, who has had numerous issues on and off the court since entering the NBA in 2004.
“I hope so,’’ Billups said of Smith becoming his starting backcourt mate. “I hope that he can make the right progressions and be more consistent and be more reliable at all times on the court. If he does, he’s one of the most talented guys I’ve ever played with. So he’s on his way to being an All-Star, if he does.’’
If Smith, who averaged 15.2 points last season and was runner-up to Dallas guard Jason Terry for the NBA Sixth Man Award, can take another step, Denver also can. While other teams in the Western Conference have been beefing up this offseason, the Nuggets mostly have been on the sideline.
The Nuggets, who fell 4-2 to the Los Angeles Lakers in a hard-fought West final, have watched as the Lakers picked up Ron Artest. They’ve looked on as San Antonio added Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess, Portland got Andre Miller and Dallas added Shawn Marion.
In addition to the re-signing of center Chris Andersen, what have been the Nuggets’ moves this offseason? They picked up rookie point guard Ty Lawson on draft night and have acquired guard Arron Afflalo and forward Malik Allen, who had NBA scoring averages last season of 4.9 and 3.2 points, respectively.
“A lot of teams obviously got better before we even jump the ball up,’’ Billups said. “I think that our situation stays the same. But the way we get better is, just with the exception of myself, (Anthony Carter) and Kenyon (Martin), we’ve got a young basketball team. I think just the experience we got as a young team, being elite, having some success, if we can be a little more focused mentally, I think we get better.
“It’s not always about names and pickups. You still got to allow those teams to mesh. We’ve meshed. I don’t put much stock in it, although there are a lot of teams that got better… With us, it’s being a year smarter, a year better.’’
Billups believes the Nuggets “definitely’’ have what it takes now to be a championship contender. He’ll get no argument from Martin, who also isn’t too concerned about the Nuggets not having made a marquee move this offseason.
“I still feel like we have the best team,” Martin said. “We didn’t win (the title), but in my heart (the Nuggets are the NBA’s best team)… The only thing that we could use is a drop-dead shooter. Just a drop-dead shooter. Other than that, we’ve got a great team.’’
The Nuggets really will need another outside shooter if restricted free-agent forward Linas Kleiza bolts. Kleiza has received a $2.7 million qualifying offer from Denver, which would allow him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. But indications are Kleiza wants more money, and he might have to travel far to get it.
Kleiza, who told the since-shuttered Rocky Mountain News last October that playing overseas in 2009-10 was a realistic possibility, might go through with that. He’s being courted by teams in Greece and Spain, much to the chagrin of Billups.
“We need LK,’’ Billups said. “But, at the same time, if he has offers, I’m never going to tell somebody what’s best for them and their own situation. But we need LK back.’’
Billups also wants back his backup point guard. Billups said it’s “huge’’ that Carter returns, calling him “one of the keys to our team.’’
But Carter, an unrestricted free agent who has been offered a one-year, $1.3 million minimum contract by the Nuggets, is seeking a multi-year deal. So far, though, there hasn’t been a lot of interest.
“I hope so,’’ Carter said of whether he will return to Denver.
Asked to comment specifically on his contract negotiations, Carter said he’s “not talking about that.’’ But Carter, sounding optimistic about a return, did say he’s hopeful of getting a deal done by mid-August.
“We’ve got the whole core back,’’ said Carter, apparently counting himself. “We’ve just got to pick up where we left off last year. Last year was a great learning experience for us because K-Mart and Chauncey were the only two who had ever been that far (a conference final).’’
Speaking of learning, how much of that will Smith do once Billups has three weeks with him? That could be end up being more important for the Nuggets than bringing in a big-name player.
There’s a new Cuban Missile Crisis. It has to do with the shots that continue to be launched between Dallas owner Mark Cuban and Denver forward Kenyon Martin.
A movie was made on the 1962 crisis called “Thirteen Days.’’ The way this one is going, it might last a lot longer.
“He’s a coward,’’ Martin said Saturday about Cuban, a week after Cuban made an unflattering comment to Martin’s mother during a West semifinal series, with Martin believing Cuban has yet to apologize in an appropriate manner.
Meanwhile, Cuban admits he “made a mistake’’ in having apologized to Martin’s mother on his blog and not having yet done so personally in a timely fashion. But Cuban, in an e-mail to HoopsHype.com, wrote he wants Martin to take responsibility for his actions, which he wrote included calling a wife of a Mavericks staff member a “(expletive) fat pig’’ and making an obscene gesture.
It all heated up May 9 after Game 3. After the Nuggets won a controversial game in Dallas, when the NBA later admitted a foul should have been called on Mavericks guard Antoine Wright and a game-winning three-pointer from Denver forward Carmelo Anthony wiped out, Cuban was incensed. He passed by Martin’s mother, Lydia Moore, and has admitted saying “that includes your son’’ when a fan called Nuggets players thugs.
Martin had been fined $25,000 by the NBA and assessed a flagrant foul 1 for a Game 1 incident in which he knocked Mavericks star forward Dirk Nowitzki hard to the floor.
Following last Monday’s Game 4 in Dallas, the Mavericks’ only win in a 4-1 series loss, it has been reported Martin launched profanity in the direction of Cuban. Then, a few hours after that game, Cuban did get around to apologizing to Martin’s mother, doing it on his blog.
But that hasn’t sat well with Martin. Even though NBA commissioner David Stern has recommended Cuban apologize in a more direct manner, Martin said as of Saturday afternoon he knew of no additional apology having been made.
“He’s a coward,’’ Martin said about Cuban. “He couldn’t face it… You all read the only apology that he’s made (on his blog)… The world got to see it before the person who it was meant for got to see it. That tells you how that goes. I ain’t never known nobody apology to somebody through other people.’’
Martin on Saturday was asked by HoopsHype.com about his actions following Game 4. But Martin declined to discuss them.
Cuban then was asked by e-mail about Martin’s comments on Saturday about him, and was informed about Martin not wanting to comment about what happened after Game 4.
First, Cuban wrote he erred in how he has handled the apology to Moore.
“I still intend to apologize to Ms. Moore,’’ Cuban wrote. “I made a mistake and will keep my commitment.’’
Later, Cuban wrote he believes Martin needs to address his actions.
“I would also like to know if Kenyon is going to take responsibility for his actions rather than hiding behind ‘no comment,’’’ Cuban wrote. “Will he apologize to the wife of our staff member that he called a ‘(expletive) fat pig’ immediately after Game 3? Will he apologize to fans that he threatened to, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘(expletive) beat the (expletive) down’ during Game 4?
“Or to the fans he walked by after Game 4, (Martin) cursed and gave the finger to? Will he take responsibility for what he said and did? Is there some reason he has not?’’
Martin, though, has been willing to talk about Cuban. He said Saturday that, while he’s disappointed in how Cuban’s apology was handled, he’s trying to move past that.
“I don’t care,’’ said Martin, who said he was distracted and didn’t play his best in Game 4 because he said fans at American Airlines were “bothering’’ his mother as she sat directly behind the Nuggets bench. “Me and my mom ain’t going to lose no sleep if we don’t talk to Mark Cuban. We’re going to lay our head down and sleep well every night.
“I’m still playing right now. (Cuban’s) got time to think about all that. I got games to win right now. So give (Cuban) time to think about (what he might do).’’
One thing is for sure. When the NBA schedule comes out in August, circle the games between the Nuggets and Mavericks.
The first big blow in the series came courtesy of Martin. With the Mavericks having taken a 12-9 lead midway through the first quarter in Game 1 and Nowitzki shooting 5-of-5, the burly forward plowed into Nowitzki on the baseline, sending him sprawling.
Martin was assessed a technical foul. However the following day NBA changed the call to a flagrant foul 1 and fined Martin $25,000 while rescinding the technical.
“I think it set the tone (for the series) for sure,’’ said Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups. “Nowitzki had hit four or five shots in a row earlier in that game to start off the series, and think (Martin) took it a little personally and let him know, ‘OK, this is how it’s going to be. Yeah, you probably will play good because you’re a great player. But it’s not going to be easy. This is how it’s going to be.’’’
The Nuggets showed early they would be by far the more aggressive team in the series. While those in the NBA office did not look kindly at Martin’s maneuver, there was a belief by some in the Nuggets camp it was a well-spent $25,000.
“That wasn’t what I was trying to do, but that seemed to be the attitude it took on so I had no problem with it,’’ Martin when told about Billups saying his knockdown of Nowitzki set the tone for the series. “You do what you’re supposed to do. If we keep winning the playoffs, I’ll get that money back.’’
There is a World Wrestling Entertainment event scheduled for later this month at the Pepsi Center. But watching Martin fans sometimes feel they’ve already been treated to a steel-cage match.
“I don’t back down from nobody,’’ Martin said. “There’s not a person that has laced their shoes up and stepped on this court (that Martin is) going to back down from. No matter who you are. Championships or not. MVPs or not. Sixteenth man on the team. I’m going to treat you the same way. No matter what it is. I’m going to get after you.
“You’re going to know you played against me when you get done. That’s all I strive to do. Whether you play one game against me or 20 or whatever the case might be, my name will always come up in the conversation of who’s the toughest guy you had to play against. And I want my name to be mentioned.’
It seems Martin got some of his training from Michael Jordan’s original bodyguard.
When Martin broke into the NBA in 2000, he was tough. But he was no Charles Oakley.
But Oakley, then an aging pro who had broke into the NBA in 1986 as Chicago’s head henchman during the early days of Jordan’s brilliance, was around to show the young Martin how to throw his weight around while at least sometimes staying within the rules.
“Charles Oakley, hands down,’’ Martin said about the toughest player he ever faced. “You watch what I’m doing to these young guys, that’s what Oak did to me. (Oakley showed Martin) all of that stuff, man. He told me stuff that is legal to a certain degree.’’
Martin lives on the edge. He has received his share of NBA penalties over the years, but nobody ever hears his teammates complain about him.
“His presence is always felt on the court,’’ Billups said. “It’s never what he does offensively. It’s about his presence out there, his toughness, his grit and grind. We look for that. That’s a major component of our team.’’
With Billups providing leadership and passing, Anthony scoring plenty and Martin flexing his muscles, the Nuggets have advanced to the West final for the first time since 1985.
Enjoying the ride has been Nuggets coach George Karl, who been able to channel Martin’s aggressiveness in recent years at least toward the other team. In the 2006 playoffs, Martin was suspended by the Nuggets for launching an obscenity-laced tirade at Karl over playing time.
“I think the word we’ve used here is, and we’ve added veteran to it, is a smart toughness,’’ Karl said when asked if enforcer is the right word to describe Martin. “I think he’s emotionally involved, but I think he’s smart and I think he’s veteran. I don’t think he’s afraid of pushing the line. Bruce Bowen pushed the line every playoff series I’ve ever seen him (play with San Antonio).
“(Martin) pushed the line (against Dallas). Cuban pushed the line. But it didn’t get crazy. They professionally settled down into a way that somewhere along the way it’ll get settled.’’
The way things are going, though, it could take a while for this feud to settle down.
Out West, Denver Nuggets fans can thank Southern rock.
Or, more specifically, a bunch of long-haired guys from Jacksonville, Fla.
It was January 2006, and then Hornets center Chris Andersen had just had been suspended from the NBA for drug use, unable to apply for reinstatement for two years. Two days after the verdict, not much had changed for Andersen.
Andersen was in his living room doing the same stuff he had to warrant his suspension. Then, blaring out of the loudspeakers, came the song “Gimme Back My Bullets,’’ by Lynyrd Skynrd.
“Been up and down since I turned 17,’’ sounded one verse from the 1976 song. “Well, I’ve been on top, and it seems I lost my dream.’’
That lyric caught Andersen’s attention. Then 28 and having seen voided the five-year, $14 million contract he had signed the previous summer, Andersen’s dream indeed looked gone.
“It hit home,’’ Andersen said. “It was like I was (ticked) off at myself and everything that led up to the suspension. But then I realized I was digging the hole even deeper. Basically, the switch turned on. That was two days after the suspension.’’
It was the day Andersen said he made the decision to get clean and get back to the NBA, which happened when he was reinstated in March 2008.
Nuggets fans are grateful. The “Birdman,’’ whose body is a billboard of tattoos and whose wild hairstyles sometimes look straight out of an exotic bird park, has soared higher this season than anybody could have envisioned.
Signed off the scrap heap by the Nuggets last summer, Andersen during the regular season averaged 6.4 points and 6.2 rebounds and was second in the NBA in blocked shots with a 2.46 average despite logging a modest 20.5 minutes a night. During the first-round of the playoffs, Andersen showed his old teammates what they were missing when he averaged 7.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.80 blocks as the Nuggets walloped New Orleans in five games.
So what are the words that follow the Lynyrd Skynrd verse that caught Andersen’s attention?
“But I got it back. I’m feeling better everyday. Tell all those pencil pushers, better get out of my way.’’
Indeed, the “Birdman’’ is back.
“He’s a basketball gift from the gods,’’ said Nuggets coach George Karl, who seems to only be half joking when he suggests an “offering’’ of thanks to those gods is in order.
Andersen, who after being reinstated last season was confined to a deep-bench role by the Hornets and scored just six points in five games, is being touted by many as the leading candidate for Comeback Player of the Year.
There’s just one problem. The NBA doesn’t have such an award.
It once did. Interestingly, it was done away with before the 1986-87 season and replaced with the Most Improved Player Award because too many players coming back from drug problems were being handed trophies. Of the six who won the award during its 1981-86 run, Bernard King (1981), Micheal Ray Richardson (1985) and Marques Johnson (1986) had battled substance abuse.
However, if a special Comeback Player of the Year were handed out this season, it seems Andersen would do very well in the voting.
“For Birdman to be kicked out of the league for a couple of seasons and get himself back together and get his life back together and be a big-time contributor on a team like (the Nuggets), that says a lot about his character,’’ Hornets coach Byron Scott said after Andersen and mates made the Hornets look as extinct as dodo birds. “I was very proud that he got himself back into the league. He is truly one of my favorite people. He has an infectious personality. I thought he played extremely well in all five games (of the series).’’
Scott had to be wondering if he really was watching the same player who couldn’t get on the court for New Orleans a year earlier. Then again, it’s not as if such an opinion would be in the minority.
The Nuggets worked Andersen out last July while desperately seeking a big man after Marcus Camby had been sent to the Los Angeles Clippers in a salary dump. Karl admits Andersen didn’t initially blow the Nuggets away, but he did enough to get a one-year minimum contract worth $998,398.
“Nobody believed he was going to come back and do what he’s done,’’ said forward Carmelo Anthony, whose Nuggets are coming off their first playoff series win since 1994 and face Dallas in a West semifinal beginning Sunday.
That is, nobody but Andersen.
“I knew I was going to play like this,’’ he said.
That’s because Andersen, after having more rust than the Titanic, tirelessly has worked to be even better than the high-flying fan favorite he was during his initial Nuggets stint of 2001-04.
Andersen has had plenty of inspiration. He only needs to look back at that night 3 ½ years ago when Lynyrd Skynrd helped him realize he was throwing it all away.
“I broke the rules,’’ said Andersen, who won’t name the drug he used and spent one month in a California rehabilitation clinic after being suspended. “But I took it like a man. I did was I supposed to do… I showed the NBA (he had changed), and they accepted me back.’’
And the Nuggets, who unexpectedly overcame their frontcourt concerns after the dumping of Camby, are thankful.
Andersen’s statistics aren’t a full gauge of his value. He alters even more shots than he blocks, and the energy he brings off the bench regularly ignites the team and the fans.
“He’s been so awesome,’’ said Denver guard Chauncey Billups. “I’m so happy for him. He has to be the player in the league that gets the Comeback Player of the Year… He’s been phenomenal all reason is his role.’’
Anthony has joked Andersen might be replacing him as the team’s most popular player. After all, signs and shirts touting the “Birdman’’ are all over the place at Nuggets games.
Andersen’s hair adds to the image. It’s greased up, and protruding out of his headband.
It’s as simple as it sounds. Andersen said he buys a product called Spiker from a Denver beauty supply store, and it takes five minutes to apply before a game.
“It’s a glue,’’ Andersen said.
Make sure of one thing, though. Andersen has matured since he got into a hairy situation with then Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik during the 2004 playoffs.
Andersen showed up for a game against Minnesota with his hair formed into giant spikes shooting skyward. Bzdelik immediately sent him back to the locker room.
“He said I wouldn’t play if I wore my hair like that,’’ Andersen said. “He barely played me anyway. I don’t think Karl really cares. But I’m not going to roll out that one (in this postseason).’’
After all, Andersen still might have a wild side. But he’s a lot different than the “Birdman’’ whose NBA career once flew south.
“Ain’t fooling around, cause I done had my fun,’’ goes the Lynyrd Skynrd song as it winds down. “Ain’t gonna see no more damage done. Gimme back, gimme back my bullets.’’
To use another Lynyrd Skynrd song, Andersen has become a “Free Bird.’’
Wherever the Nuggets play on the road in the postseason, Carmelo Anthony can count on not hearing one thing.
“DUI. DUI. DUI.’’
That was the chant at the Staples Center during a first-round playoff series last spring. The Nuggets star forward had been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving April 14, 2008, and Lakers fans were not kind to him during a four-game sweep that got underway six days later.
But what a difference a year has made for Anthony and his Nuggets. Last year, they entered the playoffs a distracted team, thanks to the Anthony arrest that came shortly before the final regular-season game. Now, though, it’s a carefree bunch of Nuggets that will show up for the postseason.
Denver (54-27) clinched the Northwest Division with a 118-98 win Monday over Sacramento. The win assured that a team that has lost five straight years in the first round of the playoffs will open the postseason at home for the first time since 1988.
Anthony, who has been a part of all those first-round defeats, said he’s “starving’’ to finally break through. He certainly will begin the playoffs in a much better frame of mind than last year, when he was involved in an incident that led him to be suspended for the first two games of this season.
“I look back on it now, I don’t want to say it’s funny, but it’s behind me now,’’ said Anthony, who eventually plea-bargained to a lesser charge of driving while ability impaired. “It’s old and it seems so long ago that I happened, although it was a year. And so it goes to show how much I came around from that.’’
Indeed Anthony has.
It’s true his career has been marred by a lot of other negative headlines (a 2004 New York nightclub altercation, a 2004 cameo in the controversial Stop Snitchin’ DVD, a 2004 charge for having marijuana in a backpack that was dropped when the marijuana was determined to have belonged to a friend and a 2006 15-game suspension for throwing a punch in a brawl at New York). But many believe that, in is sixth season, Anthony is finally starting to get it.
Yes, this season featured a March 2 one-game team suspension for Anthony failing to come of a game when Nuggets coach George Karl sought a substitute. But both agree that wasn’t a major issue, and it was nothing compared to the distraction Anthony caused his team on the eve of last season’s playoffs.
“That probably falls into a big mistake,’’ Karl said. “It could have been worse. Hopefully, now, at a very young age, he understands you should never do that.’’
But Karl has seen Anthony continue to mature since then, both on and off the court. He’s talked about Anthony, 24, having grown into a leader after before being just a talented player.
“He’s had a consistent growth spurt,’’ said Karl, “I think every month it’s kind of like, his eyes are open, his mind is open.’’
Over the past year, Anthony has learned even more about the responsibility of being a public figure. He’s been lauded for the dignity he displayed in representing Team USA during last summer’s Olympics, when the “Redeem Team’’ mined gold in Beijing.
It was far different than what had transpired four years earlier in Athens, when the “Green Team,’’ a collection of players too young for the international stage, settled for bronze. Anthony squabbled with coach Larry Brown and barely played.
While in China, Anthony was an ambassador, engaging the Chinese with his personality and showing up at a variety of events. He spent some time with swimming stud Michael Phelps, who also is from Baltimore.
Six months after the Olympics, Phelps got to stand in Anthony’s shoes when it came to a superstar athlete having a negative brush with the law. Then again, after a photo surfaced of Phelps taking a marijuana hit from a bong, maybe it wasn’t that similar.
“In his situation, it’s kind of different than mine,’’ Anthony said. “We grew up (in Baltimore) in two different walks of life. He was the guy who was clean cut. Nobody ever expected anything from him. And finally then, when it hit, that’s why everybody has come down so hard on him. Like what did Michael Phelps do? I can’t believe he did this. I felt bad for him. But he owned up to his mistake.’’
It must be said Phelps also was arrested on a DUI charge in 2004, shortly after the Athens Olympics. He eventually got 18 months probation for pleading guilty.
Phelps’ sentence required him to give speeches to schools. That’s what Anthony soon must do as part of his penalty.
“I’m going to speak at a couple of assemblies,’’ Anthony said of telling students about the perils of drinking and driving. “Whatever I can do to help them out.’’
The way the Nuggets are playing lately, though, chances are Anthony might end up fielding a lot more questions about that.
Chauncey Billups isn’t worried about his Denver Nuggets not picking up any big-name players this offseason. But he is worried about a teammate who hasn’t exactly been helping his name lately.
There’s a new Cuban Missile Crisis. It has to do with the shots that continue to be launched between Dallas owner Mark Cuban and Denver forward Kenyon Martin.
Wherever the Nuggets play on the road in the postseason, Carmelo Anthony can count on not hearing one thing.