What some teams will do to get attention!

	Dan Issel's days in Denver certainly appear to be nearing the end.

The Denver Nuggets were the proverbial flyspeck in the NBA ocean after losing four straight games on a recent Eastern swing. They were even off the radar screen in their own city -- and have been for years. They then suddenly, literally overnight, turned into must-see TV, dueling for face time with all those Washington windbags. The reason: the players supposedly talked about boycotting a game.

Now, anyone remotely familiar with professional sports knew that a boycott was about as likely as a lengthy Q & A from Clarence Thomas. Give up a paycheck? That falls slightly ahead of giving up per diem on their list of priorities. They'd just as soon show up and go through the motions, which, of course, is exactly what they did in losing to Miami on Tuesday night.

By then, the threatened boycott was forgotten. Or so everyone said amid laugh tracks and growing noses. Frontman James Posey claimed he had been misquoted. (Uh, James, you need a new line. That one is as old as saying you missed the team bus because you didn't get a wake-up call.) The players said they really only meant to miss practice because they were tired, not because they were tired of listening to coach Dan Issel. They just, uh, forgot to mention that to the coach. All 15 players came up with this sudden case of memory loss. The incident was referred to a mutiny, a rebellion and a miscommunication.

It should also be viewed the opening paragraph as a Dear Dan letter.

	LaFrentz

	Posey

Over the past 2½ years, or since Issel came back in from the cold to run this moribund team, he has distinguished himself in one notable area: he may the only NBA executive who has made more bad moves than Rick Pitino. And he's made most of those bad moves with Pitino. That isn't easy, but Issel has pulled it off. (Maybe that explains why Denver and Boston are uniformly mediocre; they keep giving each other their, um, disposables.) Even worse for him and his team, they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Put this team in the East now and, like the Celtics, he could dream about what it's like to be in the playoffs.

Issel was on everyone's short list for 'First Coach Most Likely To Be Fired' when the season began. Like Pitino, he holds the dual positions of coach and player procurer and the latter has killed the chances of the former. Throw in a new owner who married well (as in Wal-Mart) and wants to win, likes the college game, and, well, you have the recipe for change, not to mention disaster.

You look at the Denver situation now and, while not saying it's hopeless, you have to wonder if there's anything there. They're capped out, they're playing before a lot of empty seats and have the second-longest playoff drought (five years) in the conference. They are well over the cap this season and next season, mostly due to Issel's decisions.

		You look at the Denver situation now and, while not saying it's hopeless, you have to wonder if there's anything there. They're capped out, they're playing before a lot of empty seats and have the second-longest playoff drought (five years) in the conference. They are well over the cap this season and next season, mostly due to Issel's decisions.

The latest example of Issel's largesse -- we're being polite here -- is the now unwanted, unused and utterly expendable Tariq Abdul-Wahad. He was rewarded with a seven-year, $43 million contract over the summer (largely due to the pursuit of the Celtics and Pitino) and hardly ever plays. Last Sunday, in the Nuggets' overtime loss at Boston -- their fourth game in five days -- Abdul-Wahad played 0 minutes. He followed that up with another wire-to-wire bench performance against the Heat on Tuesday.

Another player who has contributed absolutely nothing to the Denver cause this season is Calbert Cheaney. No surprise there. Cheaney has played seven, uninspiring seasons in the NBA. Last year, he underwhelmed everyone in Boston.

But he is now in Denver because Issel just had to have Robert Pack -- Dan sometimes thinks it's 1994 -- and the Celtics knew it. Boston made Issel take on Cheaney, who has two years left on his contract, while acquiring the valuable, estimable Bryant Stith. There's no excuse for that one, but Issel says Stith was expendable because of the deals to Abdul-Wahad and Voshon Lenard. Stith, meanwhile, is healthy, playing well in Boston, and feels he has given his career a jump start.

We could go on and on. Even one of his better moves, the signing of Antonio McDyess, was done amid charges of subterfuge and smoke-filled room stuff. (Just ask Jerry Colangelo about that one.) Issel didn't want Danny Fortson, so he traded him to Boston for Ron Mercer. He threw in a No. 1 draft pick as well, which, given Denver's situation, could be a good one. He then traded away Mercer, blaming the player and the agent. An old ploy. Said Mercer, "he tried to ruin me." Issel overpaid Nick Van Exel and took on bloated contracts from Lenard and Tracy Murray.

The final chapter in this sad saga may have been the play of Raef LaFrentz, who, you may recall, was drafted ahead of Vince Carter. On Sunday, LaFrentz was 0 of 7 and had 5 fouls. (He followed that up with another uplifting stint on Tuesday, going 0 for 4 and fouling out in 24 minutes.) But what further had to aggravate Issel was that LaFrentz was outplayed by Tony Battie, the man Issel called 'El Busto' during his one-year stint as a talk radio guy.

Once he returned to power, Issel quickly traded Battie (to LA for Van Exel) and, since then, Battie has had two solid games against the Nuggets. One doesn't have to reach to imagine the volatile Issel going postal after watching Battie go for 12 points and 7 rebounds against his own cipher in the middle. The winless road trip ended on the ultimate of downers: a loss to a team which figured to be the best chance for a W while having your center abused by someone you discarded and belittled.

It can only be a matter of time before owner Stan Kroenke pulls the plug. He is said to have a fascination with Bobby Huggins -- Kroenke apparently doesn't talk to the media, so we are speculating here -- but he should turn to assistant John Lucas in the interim. (One might also wonder if Huggins really has any interest in playing the Lon Kruger role next season.)

Lucas is the anti-Issel and the Nuggets interpersonal dynamics are said to be a bit on the frayed side. He has coached before, he knows the drill, and the players might just respond to back-slappings instead of pistol whippings.

Issel isn't stupid. He knows he's out of lifelines and hanging by the slimmest of threads. He knows he has a team which isn't going anywhere (except to the bank.) He made this bed himself, starting with the unceremonial dismissal of Mike D'Antoni and continuing right along to where we are now. He walked away once before when things were much different. He was said to be unhappy and frustrated then. In retrospect, that must look like nirvana.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.