Given the issues the Denver Nuggets face—uncertain future at the coaching position, the aging and banged-up front line, lack of a dominant center—it’s somewhat curious that the team will be featured on national television 25 times in the 2010-11 season.

The Denver Post reports that 25 of the team’s 82 games will be televised nationally, including as part of a four-team Christmas-day package, during which the Nuggets will face the Oklahoma City Thunder.

So why all the attention? The best guess is Carmelo Anthony. After all, the more time he has on national television, the more time sportscasters will have to build up the hype around his eventual free agency tour next summer. Nuggets fans will have to deal with this all year, including more early reports that Melo (pictured) wants to play in New York (via the Colorado Springs Gazette).

Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups tells the New York Daily News Melo “better” stay a Nugget and that the suggestion of Melo going to the Knicks could be as misguided as the speculation that LeBron James would end up there, too. And the rumors will only grow louder, with ousted Nuggets director of basketball operations Mark Warkentien likely to end up as the Knicks’ new general manager (via SB Nation New York).