Nuggets claim Shavlik Randolph off waivers in cap maneuvre

The Denver Nuggets are bad. They're not dumb.

The Nuggets claimed Shavlik Randolph off of waivers from the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, saving themselves more than a million dollars in the process.

The 31-year-old Randolph had been waived by the Celtics to make room for Chris Babb, and while the power forward has little utility to a rebuilding team in a lost season, it was suspected that the Nuggets may claim him. Prior to the claim, the Nuggets were $1.9 million below the league's salary floor, and Randolph's $1.23 million salary pushes them much closer.

The kicker is that the Nuggets save money by paying Randolph here - the prorated amount of his contract is $52,091 but they now owe just $635,357 in disbursements to their roster for being beneath the floor rather than the $1.9 million they owed before. It's a nifty bit of cap maneuvering, even if it does serve to take some money out of the pockets of the other players on the roster.

Randolph could see a bit of a run at the end of the bench for Denver but is unlikely to play much of a role over the season's final week. Undrafted out of Duke in 2005, Randolph has appeared in 146 games over eight seasons for five teams, averaging 2.3 points and 2.5 rebounds.