"In NBA circles, Nuggets vice president Mark Warkentien has a new nickname. Actually, he has two.

The sophisticated -- the ones who can name the year and the president -- call him Garry Kasparov. The rest go for Bobby Fischer because they don't know who Garry Kasparov is.

In either case, the joke is the same. It is a reference to Warkentien's self-congratulatory declaration that he's playing chess, not checkers, when he trades center Marcus Camby to the Clippers for two rolls of athletic tape and a box of laundry soap.

This is a deal that makes the much-criticized Grizzlies' giveaway of Pau Gasol to the Lakers last season look balanced by comparison. At least the Grizz got bodies and a couple of draft picks.

In isolation, of course, Warkentien's spin has a grain of truth to it. The Nuggets could turn around and use the $10 million trade exception obtained for Camby to acquire $10 million worth of upgrades, maybe even a point guard or defender off the bench.

In fact, however, it is widely understood that Silent Stanley Kroenke, the Nuggets' owner, has taken back his ATM card, revisiting a process of disillusionment with his front office we've seen before.

When former general manager Kiki Vandeweghe told Kroenke enough things that didn't pan out -- Nikoloz Tskitishvili can play; Kenyon Martin merits a max contract; Michael Cooper is ready to coach -- Silent Stanley stopped listening to him. By Vandeweghe's final year as GM, he was pretty much a figurehead.

Warkentien and sidekick Rex Chapman appear to be following the same path. They told Kroenke two years ago that Nene merited a $60 million contract despite having appeared in only one game the previous season. He has appeared in 80 of 164 since.

They told Kroenke 19 months ago that Allen Iverson was the final piece to the puzzle. Kroenke took on Iverson's enormous salary -- $20 million a year -- and the luxury-tax bill that went with it in the belief he was paying for a championship contender. The Nuggets are 1-8 in the playoffs since that trade.

The one thing Vandeweghe and Warkentien had in common, apparently, was telling Kroenke the draft is worthless. Vandeweghe gave up three first-round picks in the Martin trade. Warkentien gave up two more in the Iverson deal. Then he got rid of this year's first-round pick in yet another economy move he spun as strategic.

As a result, the pipeline of fresh talent is dry. It didn't help that the last time they actually exercised a first-round pick, in 2005, they picked Julius Hodge, a shooting guard who couldn't shoot. When they acquired the rights to Linas Kleiza near the end of that round for the 22nd pick, Jarrett Jack, it was the last time they got help from the draft. That's three years ago now."