Journal-Advocate (Sterling)

Spread some love on Valentine’s Day

Next week couples will say “I love you” with flowers and other gifts. But, we believe the holiday should be about more than just a celebratio­n of couples.

- By Bennett Durando bdurando@denverpost.com

Historical­ly, Valentine’s Day is a celebratio­n of Saint Valentine, a third-century Roman saint widely celebrated on Feb. 14 and commonly associated with “courtly love,” a Medieval European concept emphasizin­g nobility, chivalry and selfless acts of charity.

Valentine’s Day is typically thought of as a day for couples in love to exchange flowers, jewelry, cards and chocolate or enjoy a romantic evening at a fancy restaurant. While that is a wonderful tradition, keep in mind Valentine’s Day can be about more than one kind of love. In fact, the modern version of Valentine’s Day is growing to become more about celebratin­g your love for everyone in your life.

With that in mind, you might celebrate the holiday by sending a card to a family member you love or miss and share with them all the ways their love makes you happy, or spend time with friends you care about.

You can even reach out to those you don’t know who might be a bit lonely this holiday by making Valentine’s cards to distribute to local nursing home residents and Meals on Wheels recipients.

We would also encourage you to keep in mind those who see this day as an annual reminder of the love they lost, long for, or perhaps never had. Send flowers or candy to someone who lives alone, or reach out to a single parent or widower with a gesture of loving care.

Be creative and find ways to spread non-intimate sentiments of love to those who simply need someone to care.

Lastly, we encourage suggest you celebrate the love you have for yourself. Take some time to practice self-love in whatever way feels best for you, maybe walk in the park or some at-home spa time with a long bath or shower.

However you choose to celebrate, we wish you and yours a Happy Valentine’s Day!

“Historical­ly, Valentine’s Day is a celebratio­n of Saint Valentine, a third-century Roman saint widely celebrated on Feb. 14 and commonly associated with “courtly love,” a Medieval European concept emphasizin­g nobility, chivalry and selfless acts of charity.”

While their adversarie­s in the Western Conference arms race attempted to fortify their rosters, the Nuggets observed from their championsh­ip perch.

The Nuggets traded the rights to Ismael Kamagate to the Los Angeles Clippers for $2.68 million in cash, a league source told The Denver Post, but no trades were made involving the team’s 18 roster players before the 2024 NBA trade deadline Thursday.

Kamagate was the No. 46 pick in the 2022 draft, his rights changing hands between Detroit, Portland and Denver. The 6-foot-11 center from Paris plays for Bertram Derthona Tortona in the Italian league Lega Basket Serie A.

As expected, Denver sat out the trade deadline for the most part Thursday, keeping its current 15man active roster intact. As the 1 p.m. cutoff passed without a depth move occurring, the Nuggets were locked in a three-way tie atop the West standings with Minnesota and Oklahoma City. All three teams were 35-16 entering Thursday’s slate of games (including Denver’s matchup at the Lakers), while the Clippers were half a game behind at 34-16.

The Timberwolv­es added former Nugget Monte Morris as a backup point guard. The Thunder traded for Gordon Hayward from Charlotte in one of the most notable moves of the day.

The Nuggets explored the market but ultimately stood pat due to a combinatio­n of factors that limited their ability to execute a beneficial deal. Salary cap constraint­s were the biggest obstacle. Denver is already over the first luxury tax apron and hardcapped at the second apron, leaving fewer than $5 million to add in new salary.

On top of that, salary-matching in a trade would have had to be within 110% due to first-apron restrictio­ns, and the Nuggets’ most tradable contracts (Zeke Nnaji, Reggie Jackson) conflicted with their needs to the extent that risk/ reward would have been shaky in most feasible deals.

The Nuggets also didn’t have a first-round draft pick available to trade because of the “Stepien

Rule,” which prevents teams from being without first-rounders in consecutiv­e drafts. However, because of the salary cap factors already restrictin­g Denver’s options, trading a firstround pick might not have been worth the cost even if one was available to move. Any player Denver could have received in a trade wouldn’t have had a salary much higher than $10 million, and even that would have required aggregatin­g Jackson, Nnaji and possibly others. General manager Calvin Booth is also establishi­ng a reputation for making the most of late first-round picks, from Christian Braun to Peyton Watson.

In short, the Nuggets are dealing with the consequenc­es of already building a championsh­ipwinning team. They don’t have it all that bad, either — all five starters from last season’s 16-4 playoff run are still in Denver, leaving the bench as the only area of the roster Booth would even consider changing this season.

The passing of the deadline means this is the first time the Nuggets will not make an in-season trade involving their 18 roster players since 2018-19. Last year, they acquired Thomas Bryant on deadline day while moving Bones Hyland and Davon Reed. In 2021-22, they were involved in a three-team trade that added Bryn Forbes and sent Bol Bol to Boston. In 2020-21, they made multiple significan­t moves, trading Isaiah Hartenstei­n and picks for Javale Mcgee while also landing Aaron Gordon from Orlando. The team moved Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley in a four-team trade before the 2019-20 deadline.

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