Well we have seen this season that Carmelo has dropped his point scoring, and even though many thought Melo would be a 30+ ppg when Billups arrived to Denver, he hasn't been. Partially because of his sore elbow he has carried throughout the season, but mainly because he has been turning it up in other areas of his game. He is shooting a career best 42% from beyond the arc, but his defense has stepped up quite a bit. It's good to see he is not worrying about his individual performances, but he is looking at how the team benefits when he looks more at the team things. With changes like these the Nuggets are looking very strong; but not quite up the top. What else needs to happen in order for the Nuggets to make the Western Conference Finals? At this stage I don't see us getting through the Lakers or the Spurs in order to make the WCF.
They need to acquire another all-star caliber player, and get another big guy for the bench (Petro/Andersen isn't an ideal way to round out your bigs). I think it would be worth looking at Josh Howard. He's a star caliber player that Dallas probably wants to rid themselves of.