Denver Nuggets Buy Out Four Veterans

Mo Williams played sparingly for the Bucks last season
"I'm not reporting to camp," new Nuggets point guard Mo Williams said to the press the day after the trade was announced. "They aren't going to play me, so what's the point? They aren't building a winning basketball team. They just want to have a bad season, and I'm going to get the short end of the stick. So why should I go? I won't play here."
Mo Williams played sparingly for the Bucks last season
Williams was publicly upset after hearing about his trade to the Denver Nuggets, an organization in the middle of a massive rebuild. After a series of poor trades (in terms of talent) that shed the Nuggets of all their long term salary, Denver was left with a collection of players other organizations didn't want but didn't cost much in the way of salary. Although they acquired young talent such as Rodney Hood, Alex Len, and Darrun Hilliard, they also amassed expiring contracts to create lots of cap flexibility.
"I'm not a player to them, I'm a number on their cap sheet. So no, I'm not going there," Williams added. "If I'm going to sit on the bench, I might as well do that somewhere where we are going to win. Otherwise, I want to play. I'm not going to sit on the bench on a bad team like the Nuggets."
With the rumors flying around about disgruntled players in the Nuggets organization, Denver moved swiftly this week, buying out four veterans out of their contracts, including Williams. Joining him on the free agent market will be SG Wesley Johnson, C Andrew Bogut, and SF Jarell Martin. Johnson and Bogut are defensive specialists, capable of filling in as solid backups or even as 5th starters on teams needing a defender in the lineup to balance the court. Williams is a three point gunner at point, who can still score when called upon. Martin may be the most interesting of the players, as he is still young with potential to be an all around combo forward.
"You have to make tough decisions when you are running a franchise. Not every call is going to be an easy one to make," said GM Myles Nelson after announcing the cuts. "We had to put ourselves in this position, but ultimately we think we did right by our team, and our players. We are in a far better position now than we were a few months ago, and we hope to continue that trend. We just want to put ourselves in a position to succeed."





