Here's a good chunk of an article from Hoopsworld
NBA AM: As Carmelo Turns...
By: Steve Kyler
He Won't Meet With The Nets: David Aldridge of NBA.com is reporting that the Denver Nuggets may have granted the New Jersey Nets permission to meet with Denver forward Carmelo Anthony as part of the final steps in consummating the long rumored 15-player trade that would land Anthony and Nuggets' teammate Chauncey Billups in Jersey.
Denver president Josh Kroneke and vice president Masai Ujiri have been avoiding the press for the better part of the last two weeks as Carmelo himself disputed the notion of a meeting with the Nets, saying last night that he had no plans to meet with anyone regarding his future.
"I'm having a meeting?" Anthony said to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post. "I know nothing about that."
"I've never heard about that. That's news to me. I can't talk to them people. The Denver Nuggets still pay me. I haven't talked to anybody — Masai or Josh or any other teams. So for that speculation to be going around out there like that, that's false."
"I don't want to talk to nobody," explained Anthony. "I let the front office handle that type of stuff. It ain't my job to be talking to New Jersey, New York, Lakers, Dallas, no one. I still won't step into something like that. I've seen a lot of people go through that.
"For me to sit here and say I want to talk to them or Masai or Josh gave them permission to talk to me, I think that's false. If that was the case I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a phone call from Masai or Josh about that."
On the Jersey side of thing, Nets head coach Avery Johnson was presented with the report that his team was cleared to meet with Anthony, and as Avery has done throughout this entire process, he's saying there is no substance to the talks.
"The team that you see right now, you'll see this team in uniform Wednesday. See the team? You'll see them Wednesday night," said Johnson said to Fred Kerber of the New York Post. "You'll see the same team Friday night."
"We have been dealing with this since October," Johnson said. "Three times since October, it's always been 'heating up.' It's always been 'a done deal.' "
"If Coach Phil Jackson has a Zen moment and he calls me at midnight Monday and he wants to trade us Kobe. Then it's going to change. That's the only way."
The Nuggets and Nets have continued a dialogue since the details of the rumored 15-player trade surfaced on the 9th of January.
Sources close to the talks say the deal on the table now includes Anthony and Chauncey Billups landing in New Jersey from the Nuggets, while Pistons guard Richard Hamilton is shipped to jersey from Detroit. The Pistons would receive Tory Murphy and Johan Petro from the Nets, while Derrick Favors, Anthony Morrow, Devein Harris and Kris Humphries land in Denver along with as many as three first-round draft picks.
What Denver Is Thinking: Sources close to the situation in Denver explained the thought process taking place around the team last night and said that while talks were progressing towards a possible deal with the New Jersey Nets, there is a scenario playing out in which Denver could hold their ground and not trade Anthony at all.
A deal with the New Jersey Nets is a compromise deal.
The ideal scenario for Denver is to extend Carmelo Anthony and keep him in town. That was Denver's priority coming into the season and that's their priority now. Despite talks with other teams Denver has maintained their stance that an extension for Anthony is still on the table and valid, all he needs to do is sign it and all of this ends and goes away.
The ideal scenario for Carmelo Anthony is a trade to the New York Knicks. It's where he wants to be and it's where he'd potentially leave money on the table to get to. That's the real threat for the Nuggets. Carmelo could opt to leave the $18.5 million he is owed next year on the table and walk to New York for whatever they can pay him under the salary cap. The Nuggets know this to be a real possibility, especially if the salary cap in the next labor agreement is anywhere close to what it is today.
The Knicks have tried to get a trade done with Denver. They have offered several combinations of assets and Denver just does not believe they can rebuild around what New York has to offer and the Nuggets refuse to make a deal that's not in their best interests.
So here we are, the compromise deal is on the table, and sources near the Nuggets say the team is cleverly playing this in their favor. They have a deal that gets them out from under the NBA Luxury Tax, gets them several young players with upside and some trade chips to move on to other teams along with as many as three first round draft picks.
There is a future for Denver after this deal, one that has tremendous cap flexibility. One that has plenty of draft options and maybe the chance that one of the players obtained from Jersey can carry the franchise.
But what about Carmelo? Is New Jersey any closer to competing for a NBA title than Denver? Are the Nets any closer to the dominating in the playoffs than Denver? Newark is 30 minutes from Madison Square Garden, but playing in the Prudential Center isn't the same as The Garden.
It's a compromise.
The Nuggets will not make a deal with the New York Knicks. They have made that clear. They can make a deal with New Jersey tomorrow if that's what Anthony wants. If he won't agree to an extension in Jersey there are other deals the Nuggets can make, but the deal they want to make is a deal with Carmelo.
There is a real sense that Denver is letting this New Jersey deal hang around as more of a temptation to get Anthony talking with them, rather than getting a deal with the Nets or anyone else completed.
It's not as though trading Anthony to the Nets is a threat, but it does allow the Nuggets to have a "are they really better than us" discussion.
It would be awfully anti-climactic if Anthony simply extended in Denver. That is something the Nuggets have not stopped pursuing. In their mind that's still the ideal transaction and until that door closes we may not see a deal with Jersey or anyone else.
As many of you have already said, Masai is playing this pretty poorly but it makes sense why it appears he's doing such a bad job.
1) He's a 1st time GM. He just left Toronto and the Bosh situation only to come to Denver to another "I wanna leave but not tell you publicly" situation. Now that he is at the helm, he wants to make sure that Denver either gets so much in return that giving up Melo won't mean much or convince him to stay so the problem can go away. He's simply an amateur. Here's an example: Have you ever watched two young kids trade something? If there's one who has never done it before, they will ask for something well over the value of what they are giving up or well under the value, because they do not understand value of their own trade chip. They don't know how to barter. All Masai has done is continued to raise the price like a fool that doesn't know there is a limit to how far you can push it. Now that he's reached a dead end, he doesn't really know what to do. Josh Kroenke is the same way. His father just made him VP (I think) and he's "helping" in this trade process. They're both noobs who could've got away with murder if they would've known the value of what they could've received earlier. As the trade deadline gets closer, the steps of doom will just get louder and louder. The question is whether Masai and Kroenke will cover their ears like little children pretending not to face the reality of the situation or will they actually face their situation knowing that there are always gains and losses that you can't always manufacture on your own in sports.
2) They still believe Melo will "come to his senses and realize" that they have the better offer of just staying in Denver. The problem with Denver is that Melo has already said the reason why he's not signing the contract is because he's not sure of the future of Denver. Frankly, I agree with him. Yes, they have a good, playoff team but all of their good players are either free agents or can opt out after this season. If Melo agrees to the extension, he could just be left with Harrington and Co. lol. In fact, Harrington is the only one who has publicly said that it is the team's responsibility to keep Melo in Denver. Why? Because he's the only signed for the next 5 seasons (including this one) in Denver. Denver's sign of progress and a willingness to win to Melo has only been Al Harrington and his bloated contract.
Remember when Kobe started saying he wants a trade? What did LA do? They brought in Pau Gasol.
What did Cleveland do to convince LBJ to stay? Bring in the oldest player in the league in Shaq and Antawn Jamison LOL.
These are two valuable lessons Denver should have paid attention to. You want your players to stay? Bring in GOOD players to play with them. Denver knows Melo wants to play with CP3. Therefore, instead of trying to convince him to stay on team where JR goes crazy every other week, Martin and Birdman keep getting injured, and Billups is only getting older, they should have been trading to get other players on their team. However, since they are not doing that, one can only assume that they are content with being a playoff team but not a true contender (which is a player's and fan's worst nightmare).
Denver could have made this easy on themselves by at least showing that they are willing to get what Melo wants like what Orlando did for Dwight.
This is why this is such a big mess that has lasted for such a long time. Denver could've killed this issue a long time ago but now they are facing the consequences.
