Nuggets look more like an injury ward than a basketball team

It hasn’t been a good week for the Nuggets.

First, forward Nene underwent surgery to remove a testicular tumor.

Guard Chucky Atkins had surgery for a sports hernia is expected to miss at least eight weeks.

Edjuardo Najera was out with an elbow injury in the game against Atlanta.

And injury-prone Kenyon Martin gets a staph infection on this tookus.

Perhaps it’s time to bring back some players from days past. Anyone have Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s number?

The Nuggets came into this year with high expectations. It’s the first full season with the combo of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. Center Marcus Camby had won the defensive player of the year award the year before and with the return of K-Mart and Nene, the Nuggs looked to have a defensive presence in addition to their break-neck-speed offense.

Making the playoffs was a certainty. Making the NBA finals was a possibility.

But now the latter seems like a pipe dream.

With their recent health problems, competing against the rest of the Western Conference will be difficult. With 10 quality teams battling for eight playoff spots, the Nuggs pretty much have to win their division in order to make the playoffs.

Utah’s difficult enough to stay ahead of, but with the emergence of Portland as a legitimate competitor, winning the Northwest will be an interesting challenge.

Something that would help is if this rumor about a Jason Kidd trade is true. Kidd would give the Nuggets a true star point guard who will do feed Anthony and Iverson’s unquenchable scoring thirsts.

The Nuggs been known to pull the trigger on big deals. Hopefully they’ll do it with this.