Ever since the collapse of a four-team deal before the season, the New Jersey Nets and Denver Nuggets have been trying to lure teams into a three- or four-way-trade that would end with Carmelo Anthony in New Jersey and a lot of picks and young players headed to Denver.
The latest — the Detroit Pistons, according to the Bergen Record.
In the complicated scenario that’s being discussed, the Nets would send Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and at least two first-round picks to Denver and Troy Murphy’s expiring contract to the Pistons. In return, the Nets would get Anthony and Chauncey Billups from the Nuggets and likely Richard Hamilton from the Pistons, who are looking to shed salary. Hamilton has two years and $25 million remaining on his contract.
There are a number of picks and other players involved in a variety of scenarios being discussed here, but that is the core of it.
Detroit joins the list of teams such as Cleveland, Portland and others that have been approached as being a third team in a deal, but so far nothing has come to fruition.
Not that Denver is in any rush. They are happy to drag this out right up until the Feb. 24 trading deadline, figuring that better offers will emerge as teams panic or they will go with the fallback Nets offer of Favors, Murphy and several first round picks.
But that assumes — as both Denver and New Jersey do — that Anthony will blink and sign an extension with the Nets (three years at $65 million, which the Nuggets have had on the table since this summer). Anthony’s people keep saying the Knicks are the only team where he would sign an extension. Denver does not like what the Knicks can send back to them.
Meanwhile Dallas, and maybe Houston, are out there as teams that would make a trade for Anthony and not care about the extension. But those offers are for far less than the Nets are offering.
Sam Amick at FanHouse described it well — Anthony and the Nuggets are playing a game of chicken. With the deadline so far away, there is no real pressure for someone to blink yet. So the game continues with other teams like the Pistons being drawn in.
