25-year old forward Linas Kleiza has decided to leave Greece and come back to the United States to play in the NBA. The Toronto Raptors quickly jumped and offered Kleiza a 4-year, $20 million dollar contract. Because he’s a restricted free agent the Nuggets have 7 days to either match Kleiza’s offer or let him go to Toronto. Kleiza has played 4 years for the Nuggets appearing in 301 games (36 starts) in which he has averaged 19.0 minutes, 8.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game. With Kenyon Martin gimpy right now I think the Nuggets should match the deal Kleiza got from the Raptors. Plus, it might make Carmelo Anthony happy.

UPDATE: (7/16/2010) - The Nuggets have decided to let Linas Kleiza play in Toronto.

The Denver Nuggets don’t want to be involved in a free agent circus like this summer in a year. With that in mind the Nuggets have offered Carmelo Anthony a 3-year, $65 million dollar deal. If Anthony doesn’t take the offer the Nuggets could trade him this summer. Chauncey Billups is also in the last year of his contract. If the Nuggets deal Anthony they might as well send Billups somewhere else too. Kenyon Martin is banged up right now so the Nuggets will likely be looking for a backup power forward who has the potential to start if Martin isn’t ready to go when the year starts. Guys like Anthony Tolliver, Drew Gooden, Matt Bonner, Craig Smith, Amir Johnson and James Singleton likely fit that mold. Look for this to be a very interesting summer in Denver all of a sudden.

The Nuggets are currently one of three teams (Bobcats and Cavaliers) who don’t have a draft pick tomorrow night. Teams have been calling about Ty Lawson’s availability but the Nuggets keep saying no. Look for tomorrow to be a pretty boring day for the Nuggets.

24-year old SG J.R. Smith is really a nice weapon for the Nuggets off the bench. Make no mistake he’s definitely good enough to start but the Nuggets seem to operate better with him on the second unit. Smith played in 75 games (0 starts) last season for the Nuggets in which he averaged 27.7 minutes, 15.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He has now played in 293 games (42 starts) in his four years with the Nuggets and he is averaging 24.6 minutes, 14.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steal per game. Smith is already the Nuggets’ all time leader in three pointers made (644) and he is also #8 all-time in three point shooting (38.1%). Don’t look for the Nuggets to start Smith any time soon.

The Nuggets have five unrestricted free agents this summer and they would likely want to keep a couple of them. Starting power forward Kenyon Martin has a early termination option in his contract but the free agent market is loaded with power forwards so I would think he wouldn’t opt out. Johan Petro, Malik Allen, Joey Graham and Anthony Carter are all bench players so there will be no rush to re-sign them. Petro and Graham are the most likely of this bunch for the Nuggets to want to bring back. Backup forward Linas Kleiza is a restricted free agent. He played overseas last season but the Nuggets would jump at the chance to bring him back if he wanted to play for them.