It’s been a few days since the Denver Nuggets skulked home from Oklahoma City, battered and bruised after another first-round playoff defeat. And while some fans are probably tuning out of basketball for the summer–and a likely work stoppage–many of us are already thinking about the future. Nene, one of the Nuggets’ key big men and, when aggressive, one of the most unstoppable scorers in the NBA, is thinking about opting out of the final year of his contract in order to test the free-agent market. “I’ve been here for nine years. If that doesn’t work how you want it, you need to sit down and evaluate everything and see what you can do,” he says (Denver Post).

The Nuggets say they want to hold onto Nene, but Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix tweeted yesterday that the two sides “haven’t discussed terms in weeks.” The Nuggets face a host of other contract decisions over the summer, including what to do with Aaron Afflalo, J.R. Smith, and Kenyon Martin (Denver Post).

Perhaps they should all take a cue from the Denver Lady Rolling Nuggets, who are just a few weeks past winning the 2011 National Wheelchair Basketball Championship. “I used to be really reserved and shy and apprehensive, and I lost so much of that when I started playing wheelchair basketball,” says Molly Bloom, a girl five years removed from losing her left leg and part of her hip in a limousine accident (Denver Post). Bloom and her teammates push each other hard, but they also consider the team a support group of sorts and would probably never dream of testing the free-agent market.