Nuggets coach George Karl believes that his team has the ability to win a championship this season.

He feels as though the club has a different mentality this year.

"Going into camp, we might have talked about winning a championship," Karl told NBA.com. "I believe this team can win a championship."

A lot of Denver's competition in the Western Conference made significant additions, but they chose largely stand pat.

"We felt from the very beginning that our improvement was going to come from within," Karl said. "We're excited about that. There's not much disappointment that we didn't make a major move or improve our team or make a change like some of the other teams did.

"Some of those other teams made those changes because I think they knew they had to catch up," he added. "I think one of the teams they had to catch up to was us."

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony has enjoyed his time in Denver and appears willing to discuss a contract extension next summer.

Anthony can put off free agency until 2012 under his current deal, but in an interview with Yahoo! Sports he sounded receptive to staying with the Nuggets.

"I'd really have to think about it as far as an extension goes," he said. "I'm home."

Nuggets vice president of player personnel Rex Chapman acknowledged that the team will likely approach Anthony about an extension next summer.

"Carmelo is as important to us as any player on any team in the league," Chapman said.

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony had a busy offseason, but made sure to make time for workouts.

"Of course, it was tough," Anthony told the Denver Post. "A lot of commitments, they want you in the morning. It's kind of hard to get workouts in, but we found a way. Whether it was 6:30 in the morning or 9 at night, we got it in."

From July to September, Anthony traveled from Denver to Spain to Los Angeles and many places in between. His trainer, Idan Ravin, traveled with him most of the time.

"Some days it could be an hour, some days it could be 2 1/2 hours," Ravin said of their workouts. "It was just kind of depending on what kind of time he had in the day. At that level, superstar athletes, their offseason responsibilities are out of control. But the really great players always find time and carve time out throughout the day to get done what they have to get done."

Nuggets coach George Karl, who has been critical of his star in the past, was pleased with how Anthony reported to camp.

"I think Melo is in a stage in his career where he's earned the right to have a good summer," Karl said. "He looks skinny, looks like he's in good shape."

Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin doesn't plan to opt out of his contract at the end of the 2009-10 season.

"They could have sent in that paperwork that day (I signed the contract)," Martin told the Denver Post on Friday. "No, I ain't opting out of nothing. I worked for that (money). I want that."

Martin will make $17 million next season in the final year of his contract. He could have opted out and hit the free agency market next summer.

He originally signed the seven-year, $92.5 million contract in 2004.

The Nuggets will sign Joey Graham, who averaged 7.7 points last season with Toronto, to a one-year non-guaranteed contract worth $884,881. Sources confirmed the deal and Nuggets guard J.R. Smith said he has heard Graham will sign.

The Nuggets had really wanted to sign free-agent guard Flip Murray, and offered him the minimum of $1.1 million, but the veteran signed with Charlotte.

The Nuggets haven't yet offered coach George Karl a contract extension.

Karl has one season remaining on his current deal, and at the beginning of the summer it appeared as though a new deal was forthcoming.

The Nuggets will open training camp on Saturday.

"I'm looking forward to getting back out on the court," Karl told the Denver Post on Thursday. "I'm humbled being one of 30 (NBA head coaches)."

The organization refused to touch on the possibility of a new contract.

"As in the case with all contracts with coaches, I feel they deserve my silence," said Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien.

The Nuggets traded for swingman James White on Tuesday, sending the rights to forward Axel Hervelle, a 2005 draft pick, to the Rockets.

White has averaged 5.7 points and 2.0 rebounds in 10 career games with the Spurs and Rockets.  He posted 25.9 points per game in the D-League last season before being called up by the Rockets.

Hervelle has yet to appear in an NBA game, playing in Spain last season.

Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin says the team feels as though they are better than the defending-champion Lakers.

Martin was asked by 104.3 The Fan in Denver what the team learned from their deep playoff run this past season.

"That you have to play on a consistent basis throughout the regular season and just better your position. Just learn from the things we did right last year and learn from things we did wrong, but we had a great run," Martin said on the radio.

"I think guys know that we were right there and everybody in that locker room and in the organization feels we were a better team than the Lakers. Everybody feels we were a better team than the Lakers and no one can tell me anything different. No one."

The Nuggets are pursuing free-agent guard Flip Murray with J.R. Smith suspended for the first seven games of the season.

Smith was suspended by the NBA for pleading guilty to reckless driving in a 2007 accident that killed a passenger in his vehicle.

Denver made a minimum contract offer of $1.1 million to Murray, sources told FanHouse. However, Murray is hoping to get a deal worth the biannual exception of $1.99 million.

The Nuggets came within two wins of making the NBA Finals, a feat that would have matched Carmelo Anthony with fellow 2003 draft class members LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Anthony, in an interview with SLAM Magazine, says that Denver's lengthy playoff run has helped put him back on the NBA map.

"I'm back. I think the only reason I was being overlooked was because I went to the playoffs and got eliminated in the first round five straight seasons," Melo told SLAM's Lang Whitaker. "And then you see D-Wade win a Championship, then you see LeBron take his team to the Finals, and it's like, OK, where is Melo? Last year when we got to the Conference Finals, I think people realized, Melo is finally where he's supposed to be."

Anthony feels as though he's finally arrived, although he isn't sure he ever left.

"I mean, I don't like saying I'm back, because I didn't go nowhere," he added. "But I'm back, baby."