--The rotation may be set and Nuggets coach George Karl may be playing each game as if it were the playoffs. But Nene's not worried about how he'll be integrated back into the lineup.
"I don't care about that," Nene said after Thursday's 118-105 win over Dallas, when he played for the first time since Jan. 7, a week before he had testicular cancer surgery. "I just want to do what I can do and get back in condition." Karl called it a "double-edge sward." He said re-integrating Nene is "75 percent good and 25 percent bad."
Karl said Nene's minutes sometimes will depend on the foe, and he trusts Nene's judgment.
"He's going to look at me, talk to (strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess and athletic trainer Jim Gillen) and kind of see what he can give us," Karl said. "If he needs to take a day off, take a day off. If he can play 15 minutes, we'll try to get him 15 minutes."
Nene weighs 258 pounds. That's just three less than what he weighed when he had first played.
--In 1998, the Nuggets drafted Tyronn Lue, and traded him that night.
In 2003, they courted Lue as a free agent.
Earlier this month, they were close to signing Lue.
"It might actually happen. Who knows?" said Lue, the Dallas point guard said of some day playing for Denver.
Lue said he will consider the Nuggets when he becomes a free agent this summer. Not long ago, he thought he was about to join them.
When Sacramento bought Lue out of his contract Feb. 29, the Nuggets initially looked to be the frontrunner for his services. But the Mavericks jumped in the next day, and Lue eventually picked them.
"I considered it a great deal," Lue said of Denver. "But my biggest thing is me and Chucky (Atkins, the Nuggets backup point) are good friends, and having Chucky coming back the next week (from sports hernia surgery) and having the same agent (Andy Miller), it would be kind of difficult. I wanted to be (in Denver). But, with Chucky coming back, it would have been a conflict of interest."
With Atkins having come back, Nuggets coach George Karl now says the Nuggets "might have had too many people" had they signed Lue.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's a special moment in my life. All of the love the fans give me, I'm going to put in my heart. Not only the fans. The Nuggets, my family, the other team's players. I appreciate God for giving me this opportunity. He gave me strength for this victory." -- Nuggets forward Nene, who played Thursday against Dallas, his first action in 2 1/2 months after undergoing testicular cancer surgery.
