I wonder if Marks is banking on being the 3rd team in a Knicks/Rockets trade for Carmelo Anthony. IMO, it makes more sense than KCP, though probably not as much as just signing JaMychal Green/filler, or possibly doing nothing at all.
A deal something like this:http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ycuytjv5Except that BRK also gets a HOU 1st, HOU 2nd, and possibly Hartenstein or Zhou Qi (not included in the trade machine link, but they'd both work). Almost no chance HOU adds any of Gordon/Ariza. They need both for their playoff run.
Knicks want a straight salary dump, so the trade machine deal would be better for them if they received one year of Trevor Booker instead of 3 years of Nicholson, but if they get desperate to unload Melo, they might bite the bullet. All the other HOU contracts are unguaranteed, so those contracts vanish with immediate cuts. Basically, the Knicks would trade away Melo's 50M/2years for Nicholson's 18M/3years. That's a relatively decent salary-dump, and they don't have much options, as I doubt any other team would take Anderson except the Nets or Blazers (and it's much trickier for the Blazers to do it). With Booker, they'd get Melo's 50M/2 years off for 9M/1year. Obviously better for them, but I think the Knicks would bite on Nicholson's contract with how badly they seem to want to move Melo. If this happens, Hartenstein/Zhou end up with either the Knicks or Nets--I'm assuming the Knicks--as otherwise, they'd be eating Nicholson just for a Melo dump, and that's too depressing... They'd at least want some sort of legit asset added.
HOU obviously would get Melo, as they wish. They pay a 1st, 2nd, and one young prospect for their troubles. That's about the right amount for them to pay to get rid of Anderson. I don't think Morey would go as high as two 1sts, though that would be the dream.
Either way, Nets get their stretch 4, some draft picks, and Anderson's 20m/year for 3 years--which isn't as bad as it initially sounds if you factor in that you got rid of Nicholson's 6M/year over 3 years. It's basically a net surplus of adding Anderson for 14m/year for 3 years, and you get a few picks out of it. Nets end up with two low 1st RD Picks again in 2018, then they get their own pick once again in 2019.