The Nuggets signed free agent point guard Chucky Atkins on Monday to replace Steve Blake, who recently signed with Portland. Details of the Atkins deal haven't been released, but if the Rashard Lewis deal is any sort of guideline, than we are probably paying Chucky in the ballpark of $11 million per year. I will never understand how the Orlando Magic decided that Rashard Lewis was worth twice as much money as former CU Buff Chauncey Billups (congrats to Chauncey on his new deal by the way). Chauncey has played in two all-star games, been an NBA Finals MVP, made two All NBA teams and two defensive All NBA teams. Rashard Lewis has played in one All-Star game and scored two points.....
Actually, now that I think about it, Chucky Atkins has scored only two less all-star points than Lewis. Plus he has more playoff experience than him.... Maybe we're paying Chucky $100 million! NBA GM's are retarded.
Actually, the rumor is that the deal is worth somewhere around $3 million per year. If this is true than it's actually a pretty good value for the Nuggets.
So welcome aboard to Chucky Atkins! Here are some facts to help us Nuggets fans get to know our newest team member a little better:
- Chucky averaged 13.2 ppg and 4.6 assists per game for the Memphis Grizzlies last year.
- Chucky's real name is Kenneth Lavon Atkins. So obviously he now goes by the nickname Chucky. If I had to guess where the nickname comes from, I'd say it's because he looks just like that psychotic killer doll Chucky.
- The last time Chucky played against the Nuggets he had 28 points and 12 assists.
- Chucky was undrafted out of college and played 3 years in Croatia.
- Chucky has shot 37% from three point range for his career.
- Chucky doesn't like it when you call him Kenneth.
- Chucky likes quiet walks and riding tandem bicycles.
- Chucky's favorite movies are You've Got Mail and "anything with Ben Affleck".
- Chucky beat the entire God of War game in one night.
- Chucky's favorite song to kareoke is "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake.
I think this is a good move for the Nuggets. Atkins is a step up from Blake (for less money) and he will provide us a desperately needed outside threat. Hopefully he'll be able to adapt to our up-tempo style of play, and he probably shouldn't expect to average double figures with Melo and AI on his team. But overall this signing looks good for the Nuggets.
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Summer League Wrapup -
You never learn too much from an NBA summer league, but here are a few things of note from Vegas:
- Skeeta still can't play.
I don't think his 6 ppg and 6 rebounds will garner him another shot in the NBA... but with NBA GM's you never know.
- Von Wafer is legit.
I think Von's 42 points in the last game against the Knicks may have wrapped up a roster spot for him next season. He averaged over 24 ppg during the 5 Nuggets games, shot 44% from deep, and made the summer league all-star team (which is kind of like being the tallest guy in Japan, or one of the toughest kids in the science club, but still it's something).
- Coby Karl has a chance to play in the NBA.
Karl looked pretty impressive with the Lakers. He shot the ball well, showed some passing ability, and kind of creeped everyone out with how much he looked like his dad. Plus I could see both him and Wafer at camp next season trying out for the last spot and George Karl looking at them both and saying, "Ok. You guys both played well, showed you could shoot and play in our system. Now, we know that Coby has beat CANCER.... Von, what have you ever beat? Nothing? Well then.... (shakes head and makes a check mark on his clipboard) OK. Von, is your dad the head coach of this team also? No? Ooooh. This isn't looking good for you Von."
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You've gotta love Stephon Marbury's increasingly crazy ass. He's now saying that when his contract with the Knicks is up, he is going to play in Italy. Here's his direct quote:
For my 14th pro season, I want to go when I can still go hard and give the people what they want. I'm looking at how David Beckham is getting love for coming here. He's 32. I'll be 32 at the end of my Knicks' contract. Imagine if someone told him not to follow his heart to play soccer in the U.S.
I want to do the same thing for basketball and spread the Starbury Movement so people all around the world can benefit. I want to make things affordable for everybody.
Spread the movement Starbury! Do it for the people! Do it for Italy! God knows, if there is one thing that Italians love, want and need, it's discount shoes.
NBA.com has a cool feature going on for the summer league in Las Vegas through next weekend. You can simply create a login (you don't have to pay) and you can watch all of the summer league games on-line. So being the NBA junkie that I am, I spent a good several hours watching some of the finest rec center style ball on the planet.
First off, some notes on the Nuggets after two games:
- Skeeta hasn't looked half bad so far. He had 14 points in his first game, which was more than Greg Oden, and he shot a better percentage than Kevin Durant. Who's laughing at the Nuggs for drafting him so high back in '02 now America??
Of course, this isn't the first time he has torn up the summer leagues. A couple of years ago he went off during a summer and ended up getting a contract out of the Minnesota T-Wolves. He was then let go shortly after the season started, when they realized he couldn't play in actual games. It was later learned that this was due to the fact that he often slips on all the pee running down his legs during play.
- I know that most people spell Skeeta's name "Skita". But if you spell and say it my way, then you can pretend that Lil' John is constantly screaming his name. And let's face it, there are few things on this planet as fun and exciting as Lil' John getting crunk. "AW SKEET SKEET SKEETA!!! YEEEAH!" - Lamond Murray plays like the old man at the rec center. You feel like you should be able to kill him, but he knows a lot of tricks that you don't, and if you leave him open he will never miss. At least not until game two, then he's so tired you can put your friends little brother on him and he still won't make anything.
- Here are Jelani McCoy's numbers so far; 13 ppg, 13 rebounds/game, EIGHT FOULS PER GAME. Unfortunately for Jelani, he's being outdone by young Mr. Oden (and by young I mean freakishly old for an NBA rookie). Greg has averaged a mere 9.5 fouls per game in his first pair of games. Now those are some numbers that Mick McAllister could be proud of.
Here are the most impressive players in the summer league to this point:
1.) Marco Belinelli aka that Italian dude at Golden State who owns. He has been getting 25 a game so far and has made it look pretty easy. Plus he's hit 12-18 from three point range. I think he'll fit in pretty nicely in Golden State's offense. You know the one where you try to shoot a three or dunk on someone within the first 6 seconds of the shot clock.... kind of like how I play in my rec leagues... only without the shot clocks.... and the dunking.
2.) JJ Redick went all "JJ Redick at Duke" in his first summer league game, dropping 30 points. He looked like his old self again. Look, I know that everyone hates him, and he fell off the map last year, but he had a bad back all last season and he can play. Trust me. You don't average 26 a game in the ACC if you suck. Plus he can shoot better than just about anyone alive, so I think he'll be OK. I wish the Nuggets would put a trade together for him while his stock is down. He would fill that shooter need pretty nicely.
3.) Marcus Banks sucked during the regular season for the Suns but he filled up the stat sheet pretty nicely in his first game this summer. 42 points, 13-19 shooting, 4-5 from 3, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists, 6 turnovers and 7 personal fouls. Top that Steve Nash!
Some other notes -
- There was a Gabe Muoneke sighting on the Charlotte Bobcats summer league squad. I'll always remember Gabe for a few things from my days playing against him when he was at Texas.
One was his name, Nnadubem Gabriel Enyinaya Muoneke, and how it just flows so easily right off your tongue. Two was for the way he terrified the entire Big 12 with his "defensive lineman on steroids" appearance and nasty disposition. In fact, I'm afraid that if he reads this he may figure out a way to punch me in the face from Orlando.
And third was for the time that he "man-dunked" on my teammate Stephane Pelle. I don't know how else to describe it. The dunk made him look like a man (probably because he dunked with one hand and nearly ripped the foundation of the basket over) and Stephane look like a frightened child. It was hilarious! Plus they are both African, so we had a good time imagining that some sort of dispute over killing lions was settled with that dunk.
- David Stern's hard-on for the Chinese market knows no bounds. The Las Vegas Summer league features 21 NBA teams.... and the Chinese national team. The funny part is that they got absolutely destroyed in their first two games by the likes of Spencer Hawes, Francisco Garcia.... and Rudy Gay, who did this to 6th pick Jinlian Yi....
All I can say is GAAAWDAMN!!! Get'cho ass up EEEE!!
So if you're bored and have several hours to kill at work, I strongly recommend spending that time watching some games on nba.com. Of course, maybe you're not like me and you don't enjoy watching glorified rec league games. Come on. What else do you have to do at work? You can only play spider solitaire and landmine for so long...
Have you ever dated a really hot girl? Someone who had all the potential to be the girl of your dreams, but when you finally get to know her you realize she has one or more fatal flaws? You know, it turns out she's been in prison, she has restraining orders from three different dudes, she was once a man, or it turns out she has herpes.
But damn does she look good on paper. And you can't help but think, "maybe she's changed" as you answer a late night call from her yet again....
This is pretty much the Denver Nuggets / Nikoloz Tskitishvili relationship. You see, back in 2002 at pre-draft workouts, Skeeta was the hot girl of the Nuggets dreams. Everything about him looked good. So good that we used the 5th pick in the 2002 draft to lock him down.
Then we started to get to know him better and his fatal flaws started to show.
- Fatal Flaw #1 - Unable to shoot basketball through hoop.
This is a desirable trait in a relationship between an NBA team and one of it's paid professional players. It is a crucial component of winning basketball.... unless you play on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
- Fatal Flaw #2 - He's a total pussy.
Most likely this flaw fueled fatal flaw #1. I've never seen a man more afraid in my life than the first time I saw Skeeta step onto the court in a real NBA game. The only man I can think of that I've ever seen who may have looked more scared than Skeeta that day, was Bill Paxton in Aliens. - Fatal Flaw #3 - He wasn't actually good at basketball.
The ultimate flaw to Skeeta is that he just isn't good at basketball. From everything I ever heard about him, he was what my old Coach Ricardo Patton used to call "Practice Team All-Americans". I bet Skeeta looked great in individual workouts, and in pickup games. But as soon as you put someone on him in a real situation, he'd crumble.
You may be wondering why the hell I'm bringing up old baggage again. Well, the Nuggs announced their summer league roster on Tuesday, and one Nikoloz Tskitishvili is back in baby blue. So despite all that we already know about Skeeta, we decided to give him one more shot. Why would we do this? The guy is one of the biggest busts of all time. He couldn't improve while playing on Steve Nash's team and everyone improves when the play with Nash. There's even a picture of someone else on his nba.com player page!. Why are we bringing him back?
Because he's still that hot chick to the Nuggets. They still see him as that workout wonder that they first saw back in 2002, and they say to themselves, "if we can just teach him to be able to make baskets, not be a pussy, and learn to play basketball, he'll be the player of our dreams." Either that or they are determined to show the world some glimpse of what they thought they saw during those workouts. Something to prove that they aren't the Tyrone Bigsby of talent evaluation in the NBA.
Not gonna happen. Like everything else involving the trainwreck that has been Tskitishvili's NBA career, I predict that this one won't end well.
At least we get to say "Skeeta" for the next month or so though. At least that's something.
Another interesting player on the roster is NBA super vet Lamond Murray. I'd describe him as a slightly taller Voshon Lenard. I'm not sure if he can achieve lateral movement any longer, but Murray can shoot the rock which is something the Nuggets have been lacking for the past few seasons.
