The Denver Nuggets are reportedly interested in "prying" center Andris Biedrins from the Warriors in order to bolster their thin front line.Players possibly to be sent to GSW include JR Smith, Kenyon Martin and Aaron Afflalo.
My first reaction... intriguing...
It is true that in Bidriens six year career his stock has never been lower than at this point. He has battled injuries, most recently with a rare abdominal strain, and dealt with confidence issues. Alongside a solid point guard, and when healthy, Bidriens plays winning basketball and is a valuable NBA big man.
He played his best seasons with Baron Davis running the point, finding him open looks under the basket where he is one of the better finishers in the NBA. He is not a stellar one-on-one defender, but this is often due to size mismatches. He is however an above average rebounder and an excellent help side defender.
With this in mind, it is not a surprise that the Nuggets are interested in Bidriens. Offensively they have two quality point guards, Billups and sophmore Ty Lawson, to feed Bidriens with open looks. Defensively, Biedrins meshes well with the Nuggets current front line. Paired with Nene, Biedrens can guard his natural power forward position and score offensively cleaning up messes on the weak side post. Paired with the Birdman, the Nuggets would feature a high energy, hair gel filled combo, that would make Vanilla Ice proud.
Although Biedrins appears to be a great fit for the Nuggets, the question seems to be, what assets do the nuggets have that would entice the Warriors to give up on their Latvian big man?
JR Smith? No. He is exactly the kind of one dimensional scorer that the warriors attract, and he is exactly the kind of player that leads the warriors to the lottery every year.
Kenyon Martin? His 16 million dollar expiring contract is intriguing, but does not match up with Biedrins nine million dollar contract.Maybe the Nuggets would be willing to take Radmonovic off of the Warriors hands to make it work? Regardless, Martin is at his best when playing on a winning team and healthy. As evidenced by his last few years in New Jersey, he can be a handful when in a crummy situation, AKA the Warriors.
Aaron Afflalo is a nice player that could come in and be a part of the warriors rotation. He is an above average defender and a streaky three point shooter and has a reasonable one year contract. Although he is a nice player, he would have to packaged with additional assets to make it worth the warriors giving up on their starting center.
While the possibility of moving Biedriens large contract is tempting, especially since it could make us players in the 2011 free agency, it does not seem like a good idea to move Bidriens now, while his value is at an all time low.
It would be in the Warriors best interest to see if Stephen Curry can build some chemistry with a healthy Bidriens in training camp. If they can, Biedrins would be a valuable piece to move to a contender at the trading deadline. At this time the team, and possibly the new owner can pull in some expiring contracts and some talent to prepare themselves for 2011.
As Always... Sell the team, and in Curry we trust!
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