DerMarr Still Chillin on the Block

(Boulder-CO) DerMarr Johnson does not own railroads. He does not have any hotels on Park Place or Boardwalk. DerMarr Johnson does not have the green light to go forward and collect two hundred dollars. He is still in a figurative stall out with the Denver Nuggets and a potential contract here in the Mile High. But the nagging question still remains about what is going to happen to DerMarr, and more importantly, the Nuggets?

As I said in my pod cast on http://www.hoopsaddict.com/, I do not think that DerMarr is coming back to this team. Denver is by no means just ready to sign this guy again and have him sit near the end of the bench and hang out with Kenyon Martin. This team is making serious moves, and for once, I actually believe that they are really striving to become a championship caliber organization. Not just a collection of players that will be happy with .500 ball (shivers run down my spine as memories of the Bernie Bickerstaff days are revisited!). So now I got to make a prediction and stand by it…

I think that the Nuggets are going to try and showcase Kenyon Martin as a healthy and cooperative power forward and combine him with the likes of an Eduardo Najera, Joe Smith, or Linas Kleiza for that desperately needed shooting guard. DerMarr Johnson just doesn’t really fit into what the Nuggets are trying to do. And with the addition of a guy like Yakhouba Diawara, I believe that the writing is on the wall.

At this point Johnson has not attended any of the training camp that went down in Durango. He wasn’t at the open scrimmage, or at least I didn’t see him there even in street clothes, and he didn’t play last night against Efes Pilsen. DerMarr is about as far removed from this organization as a guy who is waiting to be signed could be. The news can say what they want, but I’m calling the bluff.