David Ramsey   Gazette sports columnist David Ramsey offers opinions, views and thoughts on the world of sports

Major League Soccer is a secret to many Americans. David Beckham is not a secret. The league badly needs Beckham and his Los Angeles Galaxy to grow into a dominating, winning team.

And that’s not happening. The Galaxy lead the MLS in scoring with 14 goals. Alas, the Galaxy also lead the MLS in goals allowed with 15. Beckham and sidekick Landon Donovan are playing superb soccer, but the team is lopsided, blessed with a powerful offense and cursed by a befuddled defense. The Galaxy is sadly mediocre with two wins, three losses and two draws.

The MLS offers decent if not dazzling soccer. Teams are filled with promising American stars along with fading international players.

Beckham, if his teammates will awaken, could push the Galaxy and the MLS to a higher place. No, he won’t convert the masses to the wonders of soccer, but he could persuade a few million Americans to take a look at the world’s most-popular game.

It’s a tempting scenario. The Colorado Avalanche have been on a return-to-the-past kick. The team brought back Peter Forsberg and now there’s talk – nothing serious yet – about the possibility of Patrick Roy returning to coach his old team.

It would kick start interest in the team, which is losing fan interest.

It wouldn’t be a good idea.

Scott Owens coaches the Colorado College hockey team. He admires Roy, the player.

But he doesn’t believe Roy is ready to coach an NHL team.

“I’m not sure he’s ready for that,” Owens said. “I think it’s a really interesting situation. Patrick Roy is somebody who would help them with the excitement level, but he may need a little more professional coaching experience.”

Exactly. Roy might be the man for the Avs sometime in the future.

Today?

No way.

Here’s the way to fix the Denver Nuggets.

Trade Marcus Camby for New Orleans guard Chris Paul.

And Kenyon Martin for Orlando center Dwight Howard.

Just kidding. The real solutions will be much more complex, but the way to energize the Nuggets is to keep potential and banish the high-priced, failed past.

Allen Iverson needs to go. J.R. Smith offers the Nuggets a taller, younger, cheaper version of Iverson. It’s now clear that the Nuggets made a mistake in trading the solid, defensive-oriented Andre Miller for an over-the-hill version of Iverson.

Camby needs to go, too, and he should prove valuable on the trading block. If the Nuggets can find a team to take Martin and his too-big salary, that would be an added bonus.

The first priority should be a true point guard to pass the ball to Smith and Carmelo Anthony. Next, the Nuggets need a young, tough big man. If – and it’s a big if – the Nuggets can discard Iverson, Camby and Martin, a mountain of money will be freed for the future.

I know Carmelo Anthony has repeatedly revealed himself, on and off the court, as a brat who needs to grow up. He plays apathetic defense, declines to pass when he’s double-teamed and has led the Nuggets to five straight ultra-rapid playoff exits. And we’re not even going to talk about his long list of off-court shenanigans.

And yet …

He’s only 23. And there’s no question he has the gifts to become a dominating NBA player, the kind who can lead a team deep in the playoffs. Sure, he may never grow up. In five years, we may be talking about the player Carmelo might have become. He could be, like Glenn Robinson and many others, a prisoner of his potential.

It would be a mistake, a big one, for the Nuggets to trade Anthony. For one thing, they would fail to get market value after Anthony’s poor playoff performance and his recent drunk-driving episode in downtown Denver,

NBA history is filled with players who were discarded too early by impatient teams. The Dallas Mavericks dumped Jason Kidd, who later led the New Jersey Nets on two journeys to the NBA Finals. Kobe Bryant, the current king of basketball, has endured his own wanderings and like Anthony those wanderings have happened on and off the court.

Trade Anthony?

No.

I’ll talk tomorrow about the players the Nuggets should trade and keep.