"Desperate to upgrade an increasingly fragile frontcourt, I'm told the Nuggets are trying to pry center Andris Biedrins from the Golden State Warriors.

At 24, Biedrins has already played six years in the NBA. He averaged a double-double two years ago, but slumped to averages of 5.0 points and 7.8 rebounds in an injury-marred campaign last season.

That and his contract — he has four years left at $9 million per — have apparently made him expendable to the Warriors. But the Nuggets are struggling to come up with a package that will get a deal done.

The difficulty in acquiring Biedrins is one more sign of the trouble the Nuggets are having this summer trying to improve an aging team with a swollen payroll under an owner determined to stem the franchise's financial losses. The best they can offer is J.R. Smith, who doesn't have much trade value at the moment, or Kenyon Martin, who has only one year left on his contract, but a year with a hefty $16.5 million price tag.

Either deal would require an additional piece for salary cap purposes, but Martin's large expiring contract will be tough to trade until he shows he's healthy following another knee surgery or the trade deadline in February, whichever comes first.

Another example of their struggle to improve their roster came a week ago at the draft. Word was that somebody would draft Derrick Caracter for the Nuggets in the second round. The Nuggets would then trade for the rights to the UTEP power forward. After all, every team needs Caracter. The Lakers ended up drafting him with the 58th pick.

When a subsequent trade was not announced, and Nuggets vice president Rex Chapman said publicly the club had been unable to move into the second round to take a big man, it left the impression the Nuggets could no longer get the simplest of deals done.

This, in turn, raised the perennial question about who's behind the curtain in the front office. Mark Warkentien is interviewing for other jobs, which represents an unusually quick fall from grace considering his peers voted him the 2008-09 NBA executive of the year."