UPDATE 10:16 PM: It may be a couple months — specifically after Dec. 15 — before Anthony does get traded. So make yourself comfortable.
Dec. 15 is when players signed over the summer as free agents can be traded, so the pool of people that could be traded for Anthony expands that day and the Nuggets are willing to wait for that, according to Ken Berger at CBSSports.com. However, it is unclear exactly who that would free up to be traded to the Nuggets (although things change once the real games start).
The Nuggets are going to move him, they realize they need to if they want anything back for him, but they are not going to move now just to get a deal done. The real question is if their patience will be their undoing as teams are more likely to squeeze the Nuggets as things get closer to the trade deadline.
9:33 pm: With the ongoing ‘Melodrama, everything is spin.
Yesterday’s report — out of New York — was that the Knicks were back in the running for Carmelo Anthony.
That now seems to be dead in a New York Minute.
NBA.com’s David Aldridge — based outside the five boroughs — says that the Knicks are still watching from the sidelines, they are not in the race. But the Nets are still running hard.
A league source with knowledge of the New York Knicks’ thinking said on Wednesday that there were “no legs” to an ESPN.com report that the Knicks have made “significant” progress on a trade that would bring Carmelo Anthony to New York from the Denver Nuggets.
Other league sources that have been involved in trade discussions with the Nuggets about Anthony in recent weeks maintained that the New Jersey Nets are still in direct talks with Denver about Anthony, though a proposed four-way trade that would have brought Anthony to the Nets last month involving New Jersey, Denver, Utah and Charlotte fell through.
One source said that though that deal died, the Nets have “never been out of the mix” in discussions about Anthony, and that Denver was still trying to figure out a way to get either forward Andrei Kirienko from Utah, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace or the 76ers’ Andre Iguodala in a package for Anthony. Kirilenko was part of the original four-team deal, and would have gone to Denver.
NBA trade talks are like politics — the truth varies depending on who you ask.
ESPN’s Chris Sheridan (author of the Knicks are alive story) is a top-flight, professional reporter. Somebody with insight told him the Knicks were making strides — maybe either a persons or people with interest in the Knicks making strides. Maybe somebody in Melo’s camp (that is still his top choice), or maybe somebody with the Knicks. Maybe a lot of things.
Other people have interest is saying that the Nets are only viable option. Or that the Nuggets still want Utah and AK47 in the deal. Or that the Nuggets need more time.
Everything is spin. Maybe the Knicks are making progress but the Nets are still the frontrunner. Maybe not.
All we really know is that Anthony wants out — even though he is not saying that publicly — and that the longer Denver waits the more other teams will start to squeeze them with their offers.
