I was just telling my co-worker how stupid the Nuggets were to trade for K-Mart. I looked up what they gave up with the 3 first rounders:

2006 NBA Draft
pick 20 - Renaldo Balkman
pick 22 - Marcus Williams

Notables after their pick(s) - Rondo, Farmar, Gibson, Millsap, Powe

2005 NBA Draft
pick 16 - Joey Graham

Notables after their pick(s) - Granger, Green, Warrick, Robinson, Jack, Garcia, Head, Maxiell, Lee, Bass, Turiaf, Gomes, Amir

Look at all the players they could have simply replaced Kmart with in 2005. Then they could have added a PG in 2006 and someone else. Oh, and it also would have saved them about 10 mil a year too.

What a stupid trade that was. I still don't know how they couldn't see how overrated Kidd made him look.

The best thing about the rumor that NJ wanted Melo was that Kiki would be acquiring Denver's version of Kmart for NJ after saddling Denver with NJ's version of Melo.

Guy ruined a team with the number 2 pick and tons of cap room by getting Kmart and reupping Nene when they already had the injury in waiting Camby. Such a good idea giving him another GM job.

If you're going to run with this, you have to dissect the whole thing. Balkman was picked by the Knicks, so how did they get that pick? What does Jersey have to show for it? Graham is with the Raptors. What does Jersey have to show for that? Neither player is worth giving 6 minutes to right now. Williams is the best of the bunch, and he's average at best right now.

I would MUCH rather have K-Mart's 12 and 6 with decent defense and 53% from the field than a collection of fouls to give. Sure, salary is a mess and plenty of guys were picked later - but you can't do that. How many teams passed on Jemario Moon, yet you can't criticize a trade by saying the team should have just drafted him in the 2nd round instead.

Well, there is no way Denver would have drafted Balkman. Everyone was shocked when the Knicks "reached for him". I would bet you anything they would have grabbed a PG with that pick instead of Balkman.

In 2005 they needed rebounding and defense inside (which is why they traded for Kmart. They would have definately drafted a forward there (Warrick probably or maybe Granger). Even though Max would have been good he was considered a slight reach for us, so I doubt he would have gone that high. I'm going with Warrick since he was projected as more of a PF.

In 2006 Camby missed 1/3 of the season and Nene missed 2/3 of the season. I still think they would have drafted some size, but PG was the bigger need because they traded for AI a couple months before the draft. They would have drafted Rondo and then probably some size like Josh Boone.

Warrick, Rondo and Boone is a lot better than Kmart. Oh, and that would have cost them about 4 million this year instead of 13 mil on Kmart.

You can have 12 points and 6 rebounds for 50 games a year.

I'll take 10 points and 6 assists from Rondo, 10 points and 5 rebounds from Warrick, and Boone as injury insurance for Camby. Oh, and I reduced scoring to account for AI and Melo taking most of the shots.

They also could have added Bobby Simmons, Bonzi, Mobely, Finley, Kapono, Bell or a few other players to add some bench scoring.

You can talk about hindsight, but I don't remember anybody praising that deal from the start. Denver was too stupid to see that Kidd made Kmart. Everyone knew he had no jump shot before he went there.