Linas Kleiza

While the top teams in the Western Conference bolstered their rosters by adding big name free agents, the Denver Nuggets largely stayed the course. That's because they think the nucleus of a championship squad is already in place. "We're good," Kenyon Martin said Friday. "I think other teams made moves after looking at where we were." The Nuggets went on quite a journey last season as their band of misfits bonded together to reach the conference championships for the first time since 1985. They nearly made their first NBA Finals appearance before bowing out to Los Angeles in six games. However, the memory of ... Read Full Story

The Quest is proud to announce to you that the second major improvement to Real Player Ratings (RPR) in less than half a year is now fully up and running. We are now certain that RPR is the best overall rating system in existence, and that it is now roughly as good as it will ever or can ever be. I recently developed a statistically valid way to rate the defending of players, that is, what they do to prevent scores other than rebounding, blocks, steals, and fouls, which were always included. Although the technique used had to be indirect and inexact, it validly ... Read Full Story

Nene is the MVP in terms of quality and Chauncey Billups is the MVP in terms of quantity for the Denver Nuggets so far in the 2008-09 season. DENVER NUGGETS REAL PLAYER RATINGS Quality of Players Includes all tracked actions and adjustments for hidden defending 2008-09 Regular Season As of Feb 20, 2009 Nene Hilario 0.864 Carmelo Anthony 0.860 Chauncey Billups 0.859 Chris Andersen 0.755 J.R. Smith 0.749 Kenyon Martin 0.724 Renaldo Balkman 0.716 Anthony Carter 0.652 Linas Kleiza 0.558 Dahntay Jones 0.424 Perfect Player? Is there Such a Thing? 1.000 and more Historic Super Star 0.950 and more Super Star 0.850 0.949 A ... Read Full Story

The Denver Nuggets, who lost Dahntay Jones and Linas Kleiza to free agency, have fulfilled one of coach George Karl's offseason wishes with the re-signing of backup point guard Anthony Carter. Nuggets executive Mark Warkentien said: "AC's loyalty to (owner) Stan Kroenke, George Karl and Denver is exemplary; rarely seen in professional athletics today." Carter has averaged 5.2 points, 4.1 assists and 2.2 rebounds over his 10-year NBA career with Miami, San Antonio, Minnesota and Denver. In 150 games over the previous three seasons with the Nuggets, he has averaged 6.4 points and 5.1 rebounds. He averaged 4.7 assists in 22.9 minutes last season. Read Full Story

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 34 points and nine rebounds as the Denver Nuggets upset the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers 106-103 on Thursday to level their Western Conference finals series at 1-1. The lead changed hands three times in a nail-biting fourth quarter before two free throws from Chauncey Billups put the Nuggets ahead 105-101 with just 13.7 seconds left. Although Spanish forward Pau Gasol countered with two free throws for the Lakers, Billups was successful with one more attempt from the free-throw line to give Denver some breathing space with 4.3 seconds remaining. Lakers guard Derek Fisher missed a ... Read Full Story