Sports 4 Dorks

According to his website, Nuggets forward Nene had
a tumor removed surgically in a Denver-area hospital on Monday. The website
declined to tell us where the tumor was, or if it was cancerous. Actually, to
be more specific, Nene’s
website didn’t tell us much of anything: if any of our Portuguese-speaking
readers can help us with the translation, it would be greatly appreciated.

For now, that’s enough. We’ll relay any news when hear a more specific
diagnosis, but it’s probably time to do our jobs and see what this means for
the Nuggets.

Nene has been out for most of the year (and the last three seasons, really)
with various injuries, so the Nugs are used to trying to make up for his
absence. That said, forward Kenyon Martin is still in the midst of trying to
make a recovery from an unprecedented second microfracture surgery, so Denver has to limit his
minutes if they want to get anything out of him this spring. Martin played over
35 minutes against Charlotte last night, that’s probably a bit too many for
George Karl’s liking, and Martin still had to whiff on driving Bobcats because
of early foul trouble.

Steven Hunter has good size for the center position, Eduardo Najera has been
playing well (even if he tends to scare a bit with his newfound touch from
three-point range, and he does
have a bum right elbow), and Linas Kleiza can move over to the four spot if
needed.

And yet, the Nuggets should look into rounding out the roster with another
live body. We already know NBDL-leading rebounder Rod Benson could help, but
don’t be surprised to see someone like Jamal Sampson take to a Nugget uni
again, or Colorado
14ers forward Elton Brown.