Nuggets Expect To Deal By Deadline

The Nuggets are expected to swing a trade by February's deadline, but a trade isn't imminent in the wake of Carmelo Anthony's serious hand injury.

"My gut feeling is probably not," Karl said.

Denver traded Cheikh Samb on Monday just to get under the luxury-tax threshold of $71.15 million, but they likely need to make another trade to assure that some player bonuses don't put them back over the tax line.

They also want to fortify their rotation with another big man.