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Teams in search of a discount should contact the Denver Nuggets immediately. Disgruntled power forward Kenyon Martin may have a maximum contract, but he can definitely be had at a minimum price this offseason.

The Nuggets aggressively shopped K-Mart to the entire league before the trading deadline, but were unable to find a taker whom they could work out a deal with. The New York Knicks were the only team interested in Martin, but a deal could not be made because Denver insisted on acquiring rookie power forward Channing Frye in the transaction. The Nuggets wanted to swap Martin and point guard Earl Watson for Frye and the expiring contract of PG/SG/SF Anfernee Hardaway. Denver also tried to trade Martin to New York in a three-team deal with Orlando that would have sent Hardaway to the Magic and PG/SG Steve Francis to Denver. Francis had no interest in playing for the Nuggets and was eventually traded to the Knicks for Hardaway and small forward Trevor Ariza.

K-Mart probably ended his stay in Denver with his latest, and most likely last, blow up at Nuggets Head Coach George Karl during half time of the Game 2 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Martin was furious that he was not getting a lot of minutes while his team was losing and cursed out Karl and some of his teammates. Karl did not play Martin in the second half. The Nuggets then suspended Martin indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team. Denver eventually shortened the suspension to the rest of the series against the Clippers, which became a three-game suspension when the Nuggets were eliminated in five games.

The intense and belligerent Martin was even more moody this season than usual due to struggling with recovering from microfracture surgery on his left knee last May. Because of his health problems, Martin missed a lot of games this season and Karl often limited his minutes when he did play. The two often clashed during the season and Karl considered Martin to be a locker room cancer. K-Mart had a reputation for hating practice from his days with the New Jersey Nets and regularly began sitting out practices this year because of his knee.

Denver will be desperate to dump Martin this summer. There are two teams that most likely will be desperate for him. Ironically those teams are the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks.

If Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves is available this offseason he will be the primary target of both clubs. If Jermaine O’Neal is made available by the Indiana Pacers this summer he will be the secondary target of the Knicks. Either big man would be difficult to acquire however. So both teams could end up competing for the service of Martin.
The two most pressing needs of the Nuggets this offseason are outside shooting and being able to re-sign their free agents. New Jersey could put together a package of their current starting power forward (and former teammate of Martin) Jason Collins, rookie shooting guard Antoine Wright, and salary cap filler to exchange for Martin. K-Mart would be a great complement to outside shooting center Nenad Krstic, who excels offensively but struggles defensively.

Martin would also be a great complement to the Knicks starting center, Eddy Curry. Curry is a dominant low-post scorer, but like Krstic he only excels on offense and struggles on defense. The Knicks have a few different proposals they could make to help satisfy either of the offseason goals of the Nuggets.

New York can send Denver a shooter by packaging backup power forward Malik Rose with shooting guard Quentin Richardson. Rose and Richardson both have big contracts, but they end in two years and four years respectively, while Martin has five years left on his contract. If Denver would prefer an expiring contract to free up money to-resign their free agent big men this summer (Nene and Francisco Elson) and eventually sign small forward Carmelo Anthony to a contract extension, the Knicks have two to possibly trade them.

The expiring contract of power forward of Maurice Taylor is slightly less than the contract of K-Mart, making a one-for-one trade a possibility. The expiring contract of Jalen Rose is so huge that Denver would have to include at least a second player for the trade to work under the salary cap. One possibility would be for the Nuggets to include small forward Ruben Patterson. Patterson has been a close friend of Martin since they were teammates at the University of Cincinnati, and like Martin is also a well-known trouble maker and defensive-minded player. The Nuggets would most likely be thrilled to ship out Patterson since he spoke out in defense of his long-time friend immediately after the suspension.

If either trade for an expiring contract were to take place the Nuggets would also feel more comfortable using their mid-level exception to sign free agent shooting guard Ronald Murray, whom they are rumored to be interested in.