Just read this from Marc Stein...don't kinow if anyone posted it yet:
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
The NBA's Melodrama has reached the point that even Nuggets coach George Karl calls it Melodrama on first reference.
It has reached the point that Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri publicly acknowledged to the Denver Post's Woody Paige, of "Around The Horn" fame, that he's for the first time "listening aggressively" to other teams' offers for Carmelo Anthony, which is the strongest public signal to date that Anthony will be dealt before the Feb. 24 trading deadline.
It has reached the point, after the Melo-chasing New Jersey Nets made a bold trade this week to try to increase their odds of winning the Melo Sweepstakes, that we need to answer another where-are-we-now round of questions about Anthony's future.
Hopefully eight will be enough to get you through the weekend:
Are the Nets realistically any closer to acquiring Melo after the three-team trade they swung earlier this week with the Rockets and Lakers to pick up two extra first-round picks?
Realistically? Without question.
For all the understandable pessimism surrounding Anthony's willingness to sign an extension in New Jersey -- since even the Nets privately concede that Melo's overwhelming preference is to wind up with the Knicks -- there's likewise no dispute that no team out there has assembled more pieces that interest the Nuggets than New Jersey.
The Nets now possess four first-round picks they can include in a trade, highlighted by their own 2011 pick and Golden State's 1-to-7 protected 2012 first-rounder, along with prized rookie power forward Derrick Favors and Troy Murphy's expiring contract. With Devin Harris and the two additional firsts that the Nets landed in this week's deal, they also still have the assets to recruit other teams to help facilitate a deal similar to the four-teamer with Charlotte and Utah that collapsed just before the start of training camp.
So ...
When the Nuggets finally concede that they have to trade Anthony -- and Ujiri basically confirmed to Paige that Nuggets management has reached that point Thursday night when Ujiri said he's "listening aggressively" to Melo offers -- New Jersey will rightfully be the team commanding much of Denver's attention. The Nets' bigger challenge was, is and will always be selling Melo on the deal.
How will they sell Melo? When will they sell him?
If the Nets and Nuggets come to terms on a trade, according to one source briefed on the teams' discussions to date, Nets officials will request (and be granted) permission to have a face-to-face meeting with Anthony.
Melo would then get a pitch from Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, minority owner Jay-Z and coach Avery Johnson similar to the presentation LeBron James received from the Nets in July at the start of his free-agent recruiting summit, which will undoubtedly be focused heavily on convincing Melo that the Nets will be playing in Brooklyn in time for the 2012-13 season.
You have to figure that the Brooklyn-born Anthony is going to listen to everything they say.
The pitch, though, won't merely be location, location, location. Bank on the Nets, just as the Nuggets have been trying to tell Melo for months, to explain how he can become a true hero if he signs with them. A savior, even. Which is to say that the Nets will point out how the Knicks, on top of all the questions in circulation about how he truly fits on a Knicks team that already scores plenty while lacking shut-down defenders and rebounders, already have a savior named Amare Stoudemire.
They will ask Anthony if he wants to be the face of their franchise in a shiny new arena in Brooklyn ... or at best Amare's co-star on Broadway.
Isn't the Nets' willingness to give up a quality young prospect like Terrence Williams and take on Sasha Vujacic's contract to get those two extra first-rounders proof that they're secretly optimistic about their Melo chances?
Don't go that far.
The trade with Houston and L.A. was as much about exiling Williams -- whose array of in-house transgressions just since the season started left him little chance of ever winning over Johnson -- and getting two quality trade assets for the general pursuit of top talent as it was about Anthony.
The Nets know that major hurdles remain to actually win the Melo Sweepstakes. They know that the buzz Amare's Knicks are generating at Madison Square Garden made an undeniably seductive impression on Anthony when the Nuggets lost to New York at MSG last Sunday. They know, furthermore, that Stoudemire will be lobbying his Team USA pal hard to seize this opportunity to join forces, with Amare reminding Melo louder than anyone that championship contention in the NBA generally requires multiple players at their level.
The Nets also know that Ujiri just put the whole league on alert, inviting calls from every team in circulation when he also told Paige: "Carmelo is still with us and we're doing our due diligence every day."
So stockpiling assets, in case they lose out on Anthony and need to chase a fallback star, is a smart strategy for the Nets no matter what happens with Melo.
If Melo will only sign an extension with the Knicks, as ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan reported last Sunday, can't the Knicks just wait for free agency to sign him so they don't have to surrender assets like Landry Fields and Danilo Gallinari and severely weaken the roster Melo would be joining?
Way too risky.
Do the Knicks really want to risk seeing Anthony go to the aforementioned meeting, suddenly realize how much guaranteed money he's potentially costing himself if he squashes the trade and suddenly commit to the Nets on the spot?
Even if the Nuggets wind up trading Melo somewhere other than New Jersey before the Feb. 24 deadline -- and sources with knowledge of the Nuggets' thinking insist they're open to all approaches now and will definitely pull the trigger on a trade barring Anthony's sudden reversal on months of resistance to Denver's three-year, $65 million extension on the table -- Melo's new team will have until June 30 to sign him to an extension.
And that leaves too much time for Melo to change his mind and decide that he'd rather not go to free agency and take a huge pay cut to sign with a Knicks team that so many folks (like ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy in the New York Times) have noted this week isn't a slam-dunk fit in terms of Xs and Os.
Contract values are sure to be lower in the next labor agreement struck between the league and its players. So if he's willing to sacrifice millions to get himself to New York, Melo really does have all the leverage and will wind up a Knick next to his buddy Stoudemire.
Yet one big reason this drama has consumed more than six months already is the fact that Melo, deep down, isn't sure he can afford to leave that extension on the table. That had kept the Nuggets' hopes of convincing him to stay in Denver aflame until Ujiri's apparent concession speech Thursday night and will continue to force the Knicks to make plans to acquire the draft picks they'd need to assemble a worthy trade offer.
Is there any scenario in which the Nets would be willing to trade for Melo without him agreeing to an extension?
Hard to see it.
There are still a handful of gambling teams out there, as detailed in a recent Weekend Dime, that would do a deal for Melo without his signature on an extension. Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, perhaps even Orlando ... such teams continue to believe A) Melo could be convinced to commit long-term once he sampled life in their respective cities and B) that those fears about squandering millions by passing on the extension would eventually sway him more than anything.
The Nets, though, aren't on that list. They aren't prepared to surrender a prospect like rookie power forward Derrick Favors or even multiple first-round draft picks for a maybe.
Have the Nets amassed enough asset-wise to put forward a trade offer for Melo that doesn't include a prospect like Favors?
Another no. I've been advised in the strongest terms that the Nets are well aware that Favors is the piece Denver covets most.
Are the Nuggets really going to let this thing drag out all the way to the trade deadline?
The prevailing wisdom around the league has been that this saga would inevitably drag into February once the four-team deal collapsed in September, partly because the Nuggets were determined to give themselves every chance of trying to salvage a relationship with Melo that team officials do believe has reached a better-than-ever stage during the first three months of the season.
Since the summer, when things looked their bleakest, Nuggets owner-in-waiting Josh Kroenke and Ujiri clung to hope that there was still time for Anthony to conclude that he could become basketball's answer to John Elway if he just decides to stay in Denver.
However ...
Two sources close to the situation insisted Friday that the trade will come sooner than the masses think. And Ujiri did nothing to dispel that notion with his "listening aggressively" proclamation, which would seem to confirm that the Nuggets have grown weary of the limbo that has enveloped the franchise and its fans for months, after team officials believed as far back as June that Anthony was close to signing the extension.
"I would be surprised if it goes into February," one source said. "Very surprised. I expect things to start happening now. It's starting to be a big distraction for the Nuggets that's only going to get bigger."
4th? more like gunning for #1.. looks like mda is trying to make felton #1 in minutes..
12/19/2010 3:56 PM
by A (and you will love this) making gallo the focus on the offense when gallo was on fire.. these are in game decisions coaches need to make when another coach is countering their system. instead i saw amar'e still in game being force fed the ball into double teams, that allowed doc to throw bench players at stat to tire him out.
Nevermind the fact that thier team is flat-out more talented. Nevermind Pierce making the game winning shot, or KG owning the offensive boards down the stretch or Ray Allen nailing a big three. There is a reason why the Celts bench got more minutes; they actually have a bench that can produce. BTW, who on our bench is as good as Big Baby or Nate for that matter?