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Choices by Evans, Van Horn won't be heat of the moment

Nuggets are cooling their heels while two make up their minds

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 4, 2006 at midnight

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Reggie Evans still wants to return to the Nuggets. As for Keith Van Horn, will he return to the NBA?

The Nuggets, seeking to add at least one more frontcourt player, continue to wait. On their list are free agents Evans and Van Horn.

Evans said Monday he wants to return to the Nuggets, but Tuesday, he met with Cleveland. Are his Monday comments still valid?

"Everything's cool," Evans said Thursday about wanting to re-sign. "I've said that a million times."

As for Van Horn, who played last season with Dallas, the Nuggets are waiting to see what he wants to do. Van Horn, who lives in Evergreen with his wife, Amy, and four children, has interest in the Nuggets, but retirement also is an option.

"That's always a possibility," said Rick Majerus, who coached Van Horn at the University of Utah. "His family is very important to him. It's much more important than the NBA."

Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson concurred.

He said Van Horn has "made a lot of money in his lifetime" and retiring is "always an option."

Van Horn, 30, earned $15.7 million last season in the final year of a maximum six-year, $73 million deal. His agent, David Falk, plans to talk next week with his client, who has been on vacation in Alaska.

"I don't think they're in any particular rush," said Nelson, who said Van Horn could return to the Mavericks and didn't rule out the Nuggets acquiring him in a sign-and-trade deal.

So the Nuggets continue to wait on Van Horn and Evans, who is said to be complicating matters by seeking a salary starting at about the midlevel exception of $5.2 million. The Nuggets are $3 million from the luxury tax.

"I really don't want to talk about it until I sign my contract," said Evans, who wouldn't discuss his meeting with Cleveland.

ETC.: The Nuggets' preseason schedule features an Oct. 10 opener at home against Istanbul's Efes Pilsen, which has won four of the past five Turkish League titles and will travel to America for the first time. "The Euroleague is the second-best league in the world," Nuggets director of player personnel Mark Warkentien said. "They're probably going to bring a little more intensity than another NBA team (in a first preseason game)." Efes Pilsen has guard Horace Jenkins, who spent 2004-05 with Detroit . . . The Nuggets no longer are giving consideration to signing Shawn Kemp, who played in their free agent camp in June. Kemp, who hasn't played in the NBA since 2002-03, was charged July 21 with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Kemp's agent, Tony Dutt, said he hasn't spoken with the Nuggets about Kemp since the incident.

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