The top story in the Rumors section of HoopsHype.com today is a link to today’s Nuggets Report on RockyMountainNews.com.
About halfway down the post is this:
Clippers guard Sam Cassell wants to be paired again with Karl.
Cassell, in the final year of his contract, said he wants to sign with the Nuggets in the offseason as a free agent and play one more season. He wants to learn the coaching ropes from Karl, his former coach in Milwaukee.
“We always talk about that,” Cassell said. “(Karl) knows I’m serious about wanting to coach.’
Karl, who courted Cassell in 2006 before he re-signed with the Clippers, is open to Cassell, 37, playing a final season in Denver while preparing to coach.
“Sam’s what we’ve always talked about, so I think it is a possibility,” Karl said. “Sam, I think, will make a good coach, but there will have to be a transition period.”
Forget signing in the offseason, Denver should do whatever it takes to makes this move happen this season. There is nothing for Sam in LA. Maybe, if Elton Brand hadn’t gone down, it would have been worthing seeing how the team started the season. But now expectations are as low as can be. Not to mention the Shaun Livingston injury - it’s not even really worth Sam being there if he can’t really mentor the kid. There’s only so much Shaun can lean by watching, right?
Sam would be an ideal fit in Denver, and not just because he and George Karl are boys. The 2007-’08 Nuggets would be like the second coming of the 2001 Milwaukee Bucks, with Sam running point and distributing/managing looks for two perimeter scoring machines in A.I. and Carmelo on a Karl-coached team. While those Bucks squads never won a chip, they did go to the Eastern Conference Finals.
By the time the trade deadline comes, there probably won’t be a better PG option available to Denver and Sam would no doubt transition into the spot relatively easily. He would free up Iverson from having to play so many minutes at the point and let him focus on what he does best - get buckets.
Would adding Sam make the Nuggets an instant title contender in the West? Not necessarily. At the very least though it makes them more of a factor and a brutal obstacle for the Suns, Spurs, Mavs or whoever has to deal with them in the postseason. Plus, I think it’s safe to say that Sam would be a significant upgrade over Chucky Atkins, Anthony Carter and Peep Roberson.
The only hitch is that Sam is in the final year of his contract, making him a valuable trading piece. He’ll be attractive to lots of teams as the deadline draws near…
October 10th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
chrisGO says:
Sam would be a horrible fit on the Nuggets. He was great in his prime and can occasionally get his, but his mind still thinks it can do what he did several years ago. There were plenty of times last year where he was just jacking up shots in large volume.
If he wants to learn the ropes from Karl, he might as well retire and apply as an assistant.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
DOC says:
he’ll be okay untill he can only play every other game in the playoffs cause of his back.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:40 am
E-ROC says:
Cassell is at the tail end of his career. He has some rings to his credit. It’s time to let it go. Cassell would be a good fit with the Nuggets because of his ties to Karl. That’s about it. The Nuggets don’t need scoring. They need defense and that’s far from Cassell’s game. Trade for one of the Raptors’ PGs.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Gee says:
Shoooooot I say just to make things interesting put Sam on in Denver. With the times that he able to free A.I. up, A.I. will be looking at about 40 or 45 points easy. Plus we all know Sam has got big ones in the clutch! I say let him do 1 to 2 years there and then try his coaching thing. 2 S’s and 2 L’s deserves it. I agree there is nothing left for him in L.A. Let him go L.A….let him go.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Coldchain says:
Why don’t NBA teams do like baseball teams do and save guys until the playoffs? Like the Yankees did with Clemens. The Nuggets could get Cassell, play him just enough so he won’t get cold and Melo and them learn to play with him, and keep him fresh for the playoffs. Cassell’s a killer in the playoffs, and he’s WAY better than Chucky Atkins.