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Nuggets threaten Knicks trade?
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GustavBahler
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1/11/2011  7:32 AM
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApIN4uS.OWLdWwF_C3kOhPO8vLYF?slug=aw-anthonytrade011011

Before resuming trade talks for Carmelo Anthony(notes) on Monday, the Denver Nuggets delivered a stern warning to the New Jersey Nets: Unless the public nature of these trade discussions becomes private, be warned that we will send Anthony to the New York Knicks.

Nothing else the Nuggets could’ve said would send such chills of unease through the Nets, and that’s why Denver made the threat, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Would the Nuggets do such a thing out of spite? Would they take a lesser package out of vengeance? No one could be sure, but it sure delivered one more element of drama and intrigue to these trade talks.
More From Adrian Wojnarowski


Indeed, the tone of the discussions between the Nuggets and Nets dramatically changed on Monday. Executives went underground with talks, and several agents were frustrated they could no longer get information from the two teams about where the talks stood. Sources still believed the Nets and Nuggets had the framework of a deal, but the talks had retreated from what one source deemed “really close” on Sunday.

Denver pushed a reset button on the three-team blockbuster as it wanted more payroll relief and seemed determined to find a way to shed themselves of the four years and $28 million left on Al Harrington’s(notes) contract. For a young Nuggets management team under siege, this threat was something of a show of muscle.

The Detroit Pistons remained a partner in the three-team talks and the general mangers – Denver’s Masai Ujiri and New Jersey’s Billy King – worked throughout Monday on solutions, sources said.

The Nets and Pistons believed they had an arrangement in place Sunday that would’ve sent Anthony, Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups(notes) and Pistons guard Richard Hamilton(notes) to the Nets as part of the blockbuster deal. Once the Nets and Pistons worked out the details of a side component to the 13-player deal on Sunday afternoon, the two teams were surprised to find Ujiri wanting to replace players in the framework of the overall trade, sources said.

Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, has worked relentlessly to help structure the package of players that will arrive in New Jersey with Anthony.

Nuggets officials were angry with the insinuation they had backed away, insisting they never agreed to a scenario where they would complete the deal. As one Denver official told Yahoo! Sports late Sunday, “People are trying to pressure us.”

[Rewind: LeBron booed at Melo’s New York wedding]

Still, everyone involved in the trade believed the Nuggets had come too far to walk away, and talks continued between Ujiri and King.

The proposed trade will send Anthony, Hamilton, Billups, Nuggets guard Anthony Carter(notes) and forward Shelden Williams(notes) to the Nets. The Nuggets will receive two first-round picks from the Nets, point guard Devin Harris(notes), rookie forward Derrick Favors(notes), guards Anthony Morrow(notes), Ben Uzoh(notes), Stephen Graham(notes) and Quinton Ross(notes). The Pistons will get Nets forward Troy Murphy(notes) and center Johan Petro(notes).

The Nets and Pistons have all but completed a component of the trade that exchanges Murphy for Hamilton, sources said. The teams have agreed to include Petro, who has two years and $6.75 million left on his contract after this season, but were still working out whether Detroit would receive a draft pick. The Pistons are motivated to unload the remaining two years and $25 million on Hamilton’s contract for Murphy’s $12 million expiring deal.

The Nets were assisting the Pistons in finding another team to move Petro onto because Detroit – in the midst of an ownership sale – needs maximum financial savings for its payroll. New Jersey and Detroit were surprised on Sunday night when Denver allowed the players included in the proposed trade to play in a game against the New Orleans Hornets. The Nets believed they had fulfilled Denver’s requirements only to find the Nuggets wanted to rearrange parts in the 13-player deal.

Billups would prefer to stay in Denver, but to make him more comfortable about the trade, the Nets are expected to commit to paying him the full $14.2 million he’s due next season in the final year of his contract rather than buying him out for just $3.7 million this summer, league sources told Y! Sports’ Marc Spears. Billups’ agent, Andy Miller, had said Saturday that his client would immediately seek a buyout if he wasn’t happy with the trade.

The Knicks remain Anthony’s preferred destination, but Ujiri has told Knicks president Donnie Walsh that his team doesn’t have the assets Denver wants. When Walsh has asked Ujiri to provide him with a list of the Nuggets’ desires, whether it be draft picks or specific players from other teams, sources said Ujiri has been unresponsive.

Rose has been the driving force behind bringing Hamilton into the talks, league sources said. Rose also represents Hamilton, and sources said he pushed King to bring the Pistons into trade talks with New Jersey and the Nuggets. Anthony has wanted the Nets to upgrade their roster upon his arrival for him to sign an extension.

“Leon is driving this one,” one front-office executive told Yahoo! Sports on Friday night.

With Anthony’s agent so heavily involved in brokering particular players in the deal, the Nets are working under a belief that a proposed package to bring them Hamilton and Billups would be sufficient to sell Anthony on joining them over the Knicks.

Rose and William Wesley of CAA have long wanted to get Anthony and another of their clients, New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul(notes), to the Nets as the franchise prepares for a move to Brooklyn, N.Y. For now, Rose is pushing hard to get a suitable package together for Denver to get his client off a team he longer wants to play for.

The Record of Hackensack, N.J., first reported that New Jersey had engaged Detroit in the talks on Friday.

Most league executives were uncertain as to why Anthony would believe Billups and Hamilton, ages 34 and 32, respectively, would be tantalizing. Nevertheless, Denver has shown little interest in negotiating a trade with New York and believes Anthony doesn’t want to risk free agency this offseason when a new labor agreement could cost him tens of millions of dollars in guaranteed money.

As Yahoo! Sports first reported on Dec. 14, the Nets want the chance to use Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov to personally sell Anthony on signing a contract extension.

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orangeblobman
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Nauru
1/11/2011  8:18 AM
What a mess.
WE AIN'T NOWHERE WITH THIS BUM CHOKER IN CARMELO. GIVE ME STARKS'S 2-21 ANY DAY OVER THIS LACKLUSTER CLUSTEREFF.
Nalod
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1/11/2011  8:23 AM
Everyone is getting greedy.
OasisBU
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1/11/2011  8:27 AM
Personally, I don't believe any of the news that has been circulating. It is all there for drama. We didn't know where Lebron would sign and we have no clue what will happen with Melo. The over dramatization of these things only serves to make fans more bitter when the player they covet does not come to their team.
"If at first you don't succeed, then maybe you just SUCK." Kenny Powers
joec32033
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1/11/2011  8:28 AM
It's an immature show of muscle by Denver. I am surprised that something like that would leak out of anywhere, especially with Denver using that as a threat to keep quiet, couldn't have wanted that to leak out. Apparently it didn't work.

I can however understand the principle behind it. When a deal like this is red hot, and all these players names start leaking out, teams start alienating players.

Wasn't there a huge trade that leaked out when we were gonna trade Ewing-where we were gonna get better then Glenn Rice and Luc Longley that fell apart because it leaked and there was some major backlash from fans?

Denver is getting a sweet deal but apparently just realized what everyone knew from the beginning, that if they trade Melo they have to blow everything up. Maybe Al wasn't insurance but a piece that Denver figured would help them win and try to keep Melo, but now that they know he isn't coming back they need to unload everyone and everything.

I look at Denver's roster there are no building blocks at all. The only real keepable piece may be Nene. Martin, Billups, Smith, Anderson, Al...Not one piece real useful piece for a rebuilding team. Ty Lawson isn't really a cornerstone is he?

IDK, this whole scenario is now just crazy. Like twilight zone crazy. Deals this big usually get done quick or not at all.

You gotta figure DW is gonna get on the phone with Denver and ask what the hell is going on. Especially if reports are true that they are ignoring him.

I understand what Denver management needs to do nut they are pulling a lot of non-kosher stuff.

~You can't run from who you are.~
Papabear
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1/11/2011  8:42 AM
Papabear Says

This is a face saving move by Denver because Carmelo ain't signing any place else but the knicks. Denver is playing games to save face. Carmelo told them he wants the Knicks point blank and everyone now must save face. This is the first step with Carmelo coming to New York. We only have a few friendly teams that will give us a first round draft choice to trade.

Papabear
Markji
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1/11/2011  8:43 AM
The Nets must really be freaked out about us (Knicks).

Much as I want Melo at a reasonable cost, if I were Denver, I would definitely insist that Al Harrington is included in the trade.
Joec's points about Denver rebuilding, are very valid.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. Tom Clancy - author
EwingsGlass
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1/11/2011  8:57 AM    LAST EDITED: 1/11/2011  8:57 AM
Its the only way for Denver to save face when they actually trade him to the Knicks. My thoughts are that they presented the trade from the Nets and Detroit-- which was acceptable to Denver-- to Melo and it was rejected. So, Denver, not trying to bend over publicly to Melo' demands, put one more request on the trade requirement list-- that they knew the Nets would balk at.

So, here they are, threatening to trade Melo to the Knicks if the Nets don't cave.

My offer stands at:

Curry
Gallo
AR
Mozgov
Azu
Turiaf
Mason
2014 #1
$3M

for

Melo
Billups
Harrington

After:

Amare
Chandler
Melo
Billups
Felton

Douglas
Fields
Williams
Walker
Rautins
Harrington

Then:

Sign Earl Barron to a Vets Minimum Contract
Pick up Some D-League Bigs

You know I gonna spin wit it
franco12
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1/11/2011  9:03 AM
we don't have the assets, but last I checked, the players they're getting from NJ have lead them to about 10 wins this year.

Curry & True Rookie of the year Landry Fields would be worth more than what they're getting from NJ!

Markji
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1/11/2011  9:04 AM
EwingsGlass wrote:Its the only way for Denver to save face when they actually trade him to the Knicks. My thoughts are that they presented the trade from the Nets and Detroit-- which was acceptable to Denver-- to Melo and it was rejected. So, Denver, not trying to bend over publicly to Melo' demands, put one more request on the trade requirement list-- that they knew the Nets would balk at.

So, here they are, threatening to trade Melo to the Knicks if the Nets don't cave.

My offer stands at:

Curry
Gallo
AR
Mozgov
Azu
Turiaf
Mason
2014 #1
$3M

for

Melo
Billups
Harrington

After:

Amare
Chandler
Melo
Billups
Felton

Douglas
Fields
Williams
Walker
Rautins
Harrington

Then:

Sign Earl Barron to a Vets Minimum Contract
Pick up Some D-League Bigs


Great trade for us. I'd do it in an instant. We'd have to take back another player or 2 from Denver because they don't have room for 7 players on their roster.
But Denver would want more than that. Probably Fields. At least Bill Walker over Mason.
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. Tom Clancy - author
VDesai
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1/11/2011  9:16 AM
Overall it seems like a desperate trade for the Nets. I don't know why the Nuggets are gonna turn down that deal. They shed Billups deal, pick up Harris, Favors and 2 no.1's? I can't imagine they are gonna get much better than that.
knicks1248
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1/11/2011  9:19 AM
I still can't figure out why they sign Al, and are looking to dump him so soon..Thats an indication that management doesn't no wtf there doing
ES
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1/11/2011  9:22 AM    LAST EDITED: 1/11/2011  9:37 AM
like i said a few days ago, harrington will be included in ANY deal. If Melo comes to NY, are you ready for 4 more years of Al?

I think you can also figure we would send Randolph and Mason to Minny for Telfair and a 1st round pick in a 3 way

NYKBocker
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1/11/2011  9:31 AM
Papabear wrote:Papabear Says

This is a face saving move by Denver because Carmelo ain't signing any place else but the knicks. Denver is playing games to save face. Carmelo told them he wants the Knicks point blank and everyone now must save face. This is the first step with Carmelo coming to New York. We only have a few friendly teams that will give us a first round draft choice to trade.

This is the first thing I thought of also when this came up. Denver is doing some kind of damage control for their fans. They don't want to look weak where Melo was dictating how things would go. This scenario makes them look like they did what they wanted to do and as you have stated..."Saving face".

JohnWallace44
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1/11/2011  9:33 AM
Every once in a while, major sports organizations go through stretches where you wonder if there's anything better than 15 year olds running them.

The Knicks went through this for a while, peaking with "truck-gate."

The Yankees even folded to ARod in the middle of a struggle to see which Steinbrenner would be the face of the team and signed him to an absolutely insane contract that will cost them another hundred million by the time they're done re-upping the "core-4" because they've lost all of their leverage by giving Alex $30 mil a year along with gate bonuses for milestones.

I feel bad for the Nugg's current GM somewhat because he didn't sign Harrington. I would want to get rid of that contract as well. I seriously wonder who they thought they were competing with. He averaged 17.7ppg on 43% shooting and 34% from three and 5 rebounds per game. He did that on a terrible team and clearly had issues stalling the offense. I could see wanting Harrington on your bench. They signed him for what looks like the full mid-level with max raises for five years. That's the type of deal that Isiah would have used once upon a time to nab an up and coming high-ceiling prospect (Curry/Crawford). Al would never be confused with that. Everyone knows what Al is. Was he supposed to be the player that would put them over the top? Even if that was the case, who was giving him money anywhere near that?

Korver signed for $5M/3years
Felton signed for $7.5/2yr
Frye/Childress which are now being looked at as terrible deals signed for Harrington dollars, but a year shorter

I would think three years, $15M would have been sufficient even if you were a big Al Harrington fan.

So the new GM comes in with the that terrible deal to work with and the Melo-drama in the wake of "the Decision."

Melo demands a Knicks sign and trade and the organization seemingly decides they won't let him do that and negotiates with New Jersey instead just to slightly tweak 'Melo, I guess to show him up? Favors and picks is not a better package than what the Knicks can offer if they're taking back Harrington and if you take Harrington out, Chandler/Gallo is better than picks and Favors, especially when you have Nene and Birdman there already.

Let's say you are Denver and you end up with a lineup of Billups - JR - Chandler - Gallo - Nene with Lawson - Birdman off the bench and you've cleared Harrington off the books. That's a good situation. Forget the picks.

The alternative is a bunch of picks in what looks like a supporting player type of draft along with Favors who is going to have to get minutes over Nene or Birdman and you leave a gaping hole at small forward.

This cry-baby act at the 11th hour that Denver is pulling to try to get Jersey to take on Al after Jersey told its players to keep their cell phones close and a bag packed is just insane at this point. They need to either pull the trigger and send whatever message they think they're sending to the Knicks and Melo by completing the Jersey trade, or splash some water in their faces, look in the mirror and make a deal with New York.

Alan Hahn: Nate Robinson has been on a ridonkulous scoring tear lately (remember when he couldn't hit Jerome James with a Big Mac in early January?)
GustavBahler
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1/11/2011  9:40 AM
Chris Broussard was just on ESPN. He said a big reason that Denver hasn't negotiated in good faith with NY is that Kroenke is upset that the Knicks tried to recruit Melo over the summer and had to watch Melo, Paul, and Stat, toast to forming a big three in NY at Melo's wedding.

He also said the threat might not have happened and that Melo's advisors are trying to get him to sign with NJ but that Melo "in his heart of hearts" really wants to play for the Knicks.

Broussard went on to say Melo might be willing to wait out the season and take less money to play in NY instead of playing for the nets for 4 years.

knicks1248
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1/11/2011  9:47 AM
I just saw that on espn, but Chris broussard lost all of my trust after the LBJ rumours, he was wrong all across the boards
ES
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1/11/2011  9:49 AM
i think you can assume by reading between the lines that nugget mgmnt finally talked with Melo and was told matter of fact - I don't like the public nature of the talks AND I want to play for the Knicks.
grillco
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1/11/2011  9:53 AM
franco12 wrote:we don't have the assets, but last I checked, the players they're getting from NJ have lead them to about 10 wins this year.

Curry & True Rookie of the year Landry Fields would be worth more than what they're getting from NJ!

That's been my thing all along. Denver clearly just doesn't want to accommodate Melo's supposed desire to play NY. It seems all about perception of control as Papabear alluded too earlier.

NYKBocker
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1/11/2011  9:54 AM
Everything is speculation until it actually comes from the horses mouth. In this case, Melo's mouth.
Nuggets threaten Knicks trade?

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