The not-so-gentle irony for the Nuggets is the guy who caused a lot of this with the ill-fated signing of Martin for $91 million over seven years is Kiki Vandeweghe, now with the Nets. Who also, by the way, signed Eduardo Najera, probably Denver's best perimeter defender, in another of those, "What the heck we're not going anywhere anyway" moves.

So the Nuggets added Renaldo Balkman in a minor deal with the Knicks that also yielded Denver some cash, and Denver signed free agent Chris Andersen, recently back from a league drug suspension. You can see where all this is headed as Iverson comes off the payroll after the 2008-09 season with his $20.8 million, and perhaps sooner. Though you can't see Denver taking on salary in Iverson's last season. They'll want to keep him and let him go to save the money. And forget that trade exception from the Camby off-loading. They're not about to take on more salary after giving away Camby to avoid another luxury tax disaster.

Look, it was worth a try.

The Nuggets brought back Karl and his spirit and it seemed to work right away with that 32-8 excitement when he took over in 2005. And who knows, maybe if they didn't have the injuries. But Martin got hurt and never will be the same. Nene became ill when he seemed to finally be turning a corner to become a legitimate NBA post man. They couldn't find a point guard to get Iverson off the ball and Smith kept getting into one scrape and another.

There was hope and plenty of expectations. There was excitement. The community thought perhaps it had something with Anthony and Iverson and Camby and Martin. What the organization had was four choking, eight-figure salaries with pieces that didn't fit much, offensive players who didn't complement one another and pieces missing, namely the distributor and playmaker.

They could finish. There was no one to start. There was no one to share and no one to stand up and say so.

Karl lost the battle and lost his nerve in the face of independence and attitude like he'd never encountered before. So he sat back. No good came of it.

Finally, the man writing the checks had enough, and who could really blame him. Nothing less that being a true championship contender was worth what he was paying. So he's not paying anymore.

The Nuggets will regroup, if not recoup.

There was talk of dealing Anthony, but that seemed ludicrous. He is hardly perfect, missing various parts of a complete game. But he is as close to a real star as they have and someone young enough to still build around.

They're stuck with Martin for a few more years, and they'll either cut him or do one of those Ben Wallace deals the Chicago Bulls made in taking anyone else just to get rid of him.

They'll hope Nene recovers, as we all do, though perhaps he'll never be more than a good role player. They'll hope to get lucky if they ever get back in the draft and perhaps put a hard working, hustling group of Balkmans and Andersens on the court and see where it can take them with Anthony.

Why not? The other didn't work, and now it's done.

MORE FROM NBA

NBA Section Front

Hornets snap Hawks’ 7-game winning streak LeBron, Cavs put 76ers in lockdown late Nets drop to 0-13 with loss to Knicks   Vote: Will Nets set mark for worst start to season? Jennings scores 26, leads Bucks to 3rd straight win Marv Albert denies altercation with 50 Cent Clips’ broadcasters booted after Iran comments Winderman: With one strong class, the point guard is back Opinion: So far, Nowitzki is the league’s MVP Fan ranker: Who will be MVP of the NBA? NBA Section Front   Add NBA headlines to your news reader: