Bad news
Well, according to numerous Web sites around the Internet, K-Mart’s knee injury is a lot worst than originally thought. Martin has a partial tear in the patellar tendon, which may need surgery and really hurts Denver’s playoff chances. K-Mart is the quarterback on defense and also the Nuggets intensity leader. With surgery it sounds like Martin may be out 3 to 6 weeks, which would put him back in the lineup until mid April. Without him Nuggets big man are slim:
- Malik Allen, who could pass for a 40-year-old is the next big off the bench. However, he is a great locker room player, average defender and can hit the 20-foot jumpers consistently.
- Johan Petro is the one I’d like to see more of. His confidence waivers and it is understandable when you don’t see the floor for more than 10 minutes. At 7-foot, Petro’s length can help on defense and Nene can move back to his original position at power forward.
- While Renaldo Balkman probably won’t see the floor the rest of the year, he should because he’d help a bunch while K-Mart out. He’s a good defensive player, great rebounder and an opportunistic player. Of course George Karl isn’t a fan of him, especially after Balkman airballed a 3 the last game. However, if you put somebody at shooting guard you’d probably want him to shoot the ball, right? I’d like to see the next time that Balkman enters the floor him play in the post.
- Last and well least, Joey Graham will probably see the majority of the minutes in K-Mart’s absence. However, he’s isn’t athletic, big enough, quick enough or as good a shooter as K-Mart so no matter who the Nuggets play they’ll be undersized.
The news didn’t get better for Nuggets fans as Karl stated in his press conference that with due to the recent play of Anthony Carter that when rookie stud Ty Lawson returns from his injury the minutes backing up Chauncey Billups will have to be evaluated. I take that as Lawson loses his job to AC because Carter played two great games (after two terrible performances), which is an idiotic move because Lawson has shown better control of the second unit and his speed is key for Denver beating the Lakers and if the Nuggets go back to AC they will be on the outside looking in once again.