Nuggets Still Interested In Sergio Rodriguez?

2:40pm: There’s no truth to the latest report linking Rodriguez to the Nuggets, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tells Hoops Rumors.

8:33am: The Nuggets have been trying for weeks to lure four-year NBA veteran Sergio Rodriguez back from overseas, reports Javier Maestro of Encestando (translation via HoopsHype).  Jesus Perez Ramos of Mundo Deportivo reported a month ago that Denver was one of three NBA teams eyeing the point guard who last played in the league during the 2009/10 season. Rodriguez confirmed soon after that report that he was considering an NBA comeback, but David Pick of Eurobasket.com wrote just last week that Rodriguez was staying in Spain despite talks with an NBA Western Conference team, as Real Madrid fought to keep him.

The buyout clause in Rodriguez’s deal with Real Madrid reportedly requires 2 million euros, or about $2.178MM in today’s dollars. It’s an amount that Rodridguez late last month referred to as reasonable, though the Nuggets or any other NBA team could effectively only pay $625K toward it. That jibes with a report in June from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who wrote that the buyout was not expected to be an obstacle.

NBA teams see Rodriguez as an elite backup point guard, Wojnarowski wrote then. The Nuggets officially traded Ty Lawson to the Rockets on Monday, but they still have the newly re-signed Jameer Nelson, No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay and Erick Green to play at the point. Green’s salary is non-guaranteed through August 1st. Denver can open up about $11MM in cap space if it waives Kostas Papanikolaou‘s non-guaranteed salary, too.

Rodriguez, the 27th overall pick in 2006, spent his first three seasons playing for the Blazers before finishing up with the Kings and Knicks. He averaged 4.3 points, 2.9 assists and 1.3 turnovers in 13.2 minutes per game over his NBA career.

Do you think Rodriguez belongs in the NBA? Leave a comment to let us know.