The Denver Nuggets have re-signed free-agent C Nene, Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri announced today. The deal is reportedly for five years and $67 million.

Nene, 6-11, 250, has been a model of consistency in the paint over the past three seasons, averaging at least 13.8 points and 7.6 rebounds each year. Most recently, he averaged 14.5 points and 7.6 rebounds while leading the NBA in field-goal percentage in 2010-11.

“We’ve always said that Nene is a Nugget, and we are happy to welcome him back to Denver,” Ujiri said. “Quality big men are hard to find, but we feel we have one of the best. Not only is he a great player, but he is a great person who will be part of our roster for years to come.”

The Nuggets scheduled a 4 p.m. press conference to discuss the signing. The conference will be televised live by Altitude Sports & Entertainment.

Nene, 29, has overcome major obstacles in his career to become a dominant big man in the NBA. He missed 81 games after tearing the ACL in his right knee in the first game of the 2005-06 season, and he was diagnosed with testicular cancer midway through the 2007-08 season.

In the three seasons since beating cancer, Nene has played in 234 of 246 games, and he soon will join Byron Beck, Alex English and Dan Issel as the only players in franchise history to wear a Nuggets uniform for 10-plus seasons.

Originally selected seventh overall by the New York Knicks in 2002, Nene was acquired by the Nuggets in a draft-night trade, and he offered a preview of things to come when he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.

He has averaged at least 10 points in all six of the seasons in which he has played at least 60 games, while his .563 career field-goal percentage ranks second in franchise history. In addition to his scoring and rebounding, Nene consistently ranks among the top centers in steals and assists.

A native of Brazil, Nene has represented his country at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Australia and the 2007 FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.

Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri, born in Nigeria, says that the continent of Africa has an incredible amount of untapped hoops potential. From the Denver Post: “Africa is perhaps the game’s last great untapped resource. It has exported some notable stars, including Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo and Luol Deng, but from a continent of 1 billion people, the basketball exports to date are a drop in the ocean. ‘Being from here, you see the huge potential,’ Ujiri said this week by phone from Madagascar, site of the African Basketball Championship. ‘We lack coaching, we lack infrastructure and we lack a little bit organization. But we’re working hard with the national federations and FIBA (the International Basketball Federation) and the NBA to bring everything together and develop the young kids.’ Thursday through Sunday, Ujiri will co-direct the annual Basketball Without Borders camp for 60 elite players ages 16-18 from all over the continent. This year, it’s in Johannesburg, South Africa…’When you see the huge potential in the continent you wish that one day you could just open your eyes and every country has 10 gyms or 15 gyms and tons of outdoors courts where kids can just play anytime they want,’ Ujiri said. ‘But that’s not the case now. We hope to get it there one day.’ The Basketball Without Borders African camps, which Ujiri has been directing since 2003, have already begun sending players to the NBA.”

The brass in the Mile High City continues to sound positive about their chances of retaining Nene, who will likely become an unrestricted free agent this summer. From the Denver Post: “Nuggets executives Josh Kroenke and Masai Ujiri, however, reported good news on that front, saying they’ve had good meetings and positive feedback from the Brazilian big man since the end of the season. ‘We’ve been having good talks,’ Ujiri said late Thursday night after all of the draft day picks and trades were made. ‘We’re making good progress, I think. And I think Nene is excited. We’ve met a few times with him and a few times with his agent.’ Nene averaged career highs in points (14.5) and field-goal percentage (.615) last season, and was near career highs in free-throw percentage (.711) and rebounding (7.6). There was a component of appreciation Nene initially said was missing, and that it was as important as dollars and cents. Since then, the Nuggets have bent over backward showing him the love. ‘It’s been great,’ Kroenke said. ‘We had one meeting with Nene, Masai and I did together. Masai has met with his people several times. I’ve had on-going dialogue with his agent. We’re going to continue dialogue into next week. I can’t comment any further at this point in time, but Nene is a player that we want to have here for a long time. He’s been a backbone of ours for the last several years, and he’s a big part of our future.’ Nene is currently in Brazil. He is expected to be in Denver sometime next week.”

Read More: Raymond Felton (G – POR), Andre Miller (G – DEN), Kenneth Faried (F – Morehead St.), Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets

While Denver Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri has let it be known that he is comfortable with keeping the No. 22 pick, he is still working the phones to see what could emerge. And earlier in the day, reports NBA.com’s David Aldridge, the Nuggets discussed swapping point guard Raymond Felton and the No. 22 pick with the Portland Trail Blazers for Andre Miller and the No. 21 pick. Aldridge says that the Blazers won’t go through with it since the Nuggets are asking to include other parts in the deal.

Miller played with the Nuggets from 2003 up until he was traded in 2006 to the Philadelphia 76ers for Allen Iverson. Miller played almost two seasons for head coach George Karl.

Kenneth Faried has become a favorite mock draft selection to the Blazers at this point, so are the Nuggets looking to move up and acquire him?

For more on the NBA Draft, visit SB Nation’s 2011 NBA Draft Hub. For more on what the Nuggets will do, visit Denver Stiffs.

The Denver Nuggets have a lot of offseason work to do. They have a lot of expiring contracts at key positions, they have positional logjams to sort out in advance of future draft picks they acquired in the Melo trade, and have to figure out what their identity going forward is. Top of that list, however, is signing Nene to an extension before he activates his opt-out and becomes a free agent. The Denver Post spoke to George Karl, who said while enjoying a well-earned vacation that he planned to speak with Nene, along with team executive Josh Kroenke and GM Masai Ujiri, and that he doesn’t expect the Brazilian Wonder to head anywhere.

Karl seemed optimistic that the Nuggets could persuade Nene to stay. The Brazilian is due to make $12 million next season but could sign a three-year extension with Denver, the team he’s played for his entire career.

“I have no problem with Nene expressing his opinions on his position. I think me and the organization very much want him here,” Karl said. “I think with the situation of this year, maybe he felt like he needed more contact (about the contract). (But) from what I know with my relationship with Nene and his love for Denver, I just think things are going to get worked out, I really do.

“I know (executives) Masai (Ujiri) and Josh (Kroenke) have kind of talked to him, and I’m going to follow up on that — I’m sure it will be in the next couple of weeks.”

via Hochman: Karl thinks Nene staying with Nuggets – The Denver Post.

Getting Nene to return is a huge part of the puzzle. With Nene in place the Nuggets only really have one positional need, at power forward with Kenyon Martin‘s massive contract expiring. They have options to not only start the season with talented players at the other positions, but have enough stock to trade for upgrades short and long-term. Without Nene, they have a huge hole at center and it would force a re-evaluation at the franchise level of their roster. So no big deal for Masai Ujiri, months after trading the franchise player and biggest star in team history, managing to win what seemed an unwinnable situation, he just has to turn around and convince an aging near-All-Star center to return to the Nuggets and not seek out a championship opportunity elsewhere. Another day in Ujiriland.