Thursday, October 19, 2006

What About this Roster?

(Boulder-CO) As of this point in time the Denver Nuggets have a total of 17 players still on their roster. Under the new collective bargaining agreement. Each team is required to carry a twelve man active roster with at least one, and up to three, other players on the inactive list. Players on this inactive list are allowed to play in the NBDL and can be activated. They can also play in a NBA games as long as they are declared more than an hour before tip-off.

Thus meaning that two of the current players on Denver’s list must be waived. After looking at the box score last night to gather all my information for the game recap. I also noticed that a couple of the Nuggets didn’t play last night because of coach's decision. Those two players are Jamal Sampson and Antoine Hood. Both men have only appeared in one game thus far for a combined thirteen minutes and may most likely be the players that don’t make this year’s team.

Hood is a rookie from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and is facing stiff competition at the shooting guard position. J.R. Smith, Yakhouba Diawara, and DerMarr Johnson are probably higher on the depth chart as of right now.

Jamal Sampson is on the edge due to being lost in the shuffle in quite possibly the deepest front court in the entire NBA. The Nuggets have Marcus Camby as a definite starter, but also have Nene, Reggie Evans, Joe Smith, Kenyon Martin, and Eduardo Najera all battling for position at the power forward spot. Obviously, it is going to be tough to award everyone minutes, but that should also make for some very inspired play. The best man for the job, each and every night, is going to have a shot to prove himself and I just cant imagine Jamal finding a way into the rotation.

This is a tough decision to make, but from what I have seen in the box scores. And what, or should I say who, we haven’t seen on the court. It would appear as if Hood and Sampson are the closest to the edge as of right now.

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