NBA news broke Sunday afternoon as Carmelo Anthony is very close to being traded from the Denver Nuggets to the New Jersey Nets.
The Melo-drama will soon finally be over in the Mile High City. Nuggets fans, players and coaches can, at long last, move forward and start anew.
Anthony was asked about the proposed deal today and said, “I really don't know. I'm waiting to see Masai (Ujiri) and Josh (Kroenke)... They haven't been here (Denver) so I'm just patiently waiting until they get back so I have a sit-down with them.”
The deal is not completely finished yet and Anthony has to be persuaded into signing his extension. According to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Melo's agent Leon Rose pulled strings to get Denver native Chauncey Billups included into the deal to join Anthony in New Jersey with Rip Hamilton.
Because the Nuggets front office wanted to get as much as possible back from trading away their two biggest star players and to make the deal work financially, the Pistons became involved in the trade process as well.
The full deal is as follows:
Denver Nuggets Receive:
Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, Anthony Morrow, Ben Uzoh, Stephen Graham, two first-round picks
New Jersey Nets Receive:
Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton (from DET), Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter, Renaldo Balkman/Al Harrington
Detroit Pistons Receive:
Troy Murphy, Johan Petro
With multiple star players being moved around, this is the definition of a “blockbuster trade” and the 13 total players ties the mark for the largest trade in NBA history.
All that movement impacts all three teams mightily and puts them in three unique levels of the rebuilding process.
The Pistons open up cap room for next year and beyond by dropping $37 million by losing Hamilton's $25 million in the next two years and Murphy's expiring $12 million—they will be a major player in free agency in the summer of 2011.
The Nets would now have a dynamic and explosive starting four; with Billups, Hamilton, Anthony and Brook Lopez—they could conceivably complete for the East next season (at 10-27 currently, the fantastic four would have to make up a lot of ground quickly to be playoff-bound this year.) The trade would make New Jersey the furthest along in the building process of the three teams involved.
The Nuggets would find themselves somewhere in between the other two teams—not completely starting from scratch but not necessarily ready to compete by next season either.
The deal is interesting from the standpoint of Denver's point guard situation, as Ty Lawson has been steadily growing into the point guard of the future and Devin Harris (16.6 PPG, 6.8 APG) is actually out-performing Billups (16.9 PPG, 4.9 APG) this season.
Would George Karl move forward and move Lawson (10.8 PPG, 4.0 APG) to starter, or would he start Harris? Harris has been the starter in New Jersey for the past four seasons, but would he be willing to back up the emerging Lawson as he did in Dallas his first three years?
Either way, Denver's back court depth would grow with this move.
And trading away Anthony leaves a major void at the small forward position for Denver, but third-year guard-forward Anthony Morrow could step into that role or at least split time with Gary Forbes. Morrow can flat-out fill up the basket, scoring 12.8 PPG on 45.9 percent shooting from the field this season, and he's a career 45.1 percent shooter from beyond the arc.
Morrow's 6'5” 210 pound frame suits the shooting guard position more than it does small forward, and Karl could also start JR Smith—as he did when Melo was out due to injury earlier in the year—at the three spot and let Morrow backup the two. Plus, Morrow gives the Nuggets more depth at shooting guard, meaning they could be more likely to trade away Smith, who is in the final year of his deal with Denver.
Derrick Favors, the 6'10” 245 pound power forward, was the most coveted piece in the deal for Denver, because he's a rookie and the Nuggets desperately need to move younger in the front court. Kenyon Martin will likely remain the starter for the time being, but he's in the last year of his contract and Favors could transition into Denver's starting four next season.
Favors is an athletic and lanky power forward who loves to crash the boards. In around 19 minutes per game with the Nets, Favors has averaged 6.7 points and 5.1 rebounds, putting him 26th in the league in rebounds per 48 minutes, far ahead of the Nuggets' Nene. Meaning when his minutes rise, he could be one of the better rebounders in the NBA.
Also included in the trade to Denver would be Ben Uzoh, a 6'3” 205 pound rookie guard (2.9 PPG, 1.4 APG) and Stephen Graham, a 6'6” 215 pound veteran guard-forward (4.0 PPG, 2.2 RPG). Both Uzoh and Graham would simply provide depth; Uzoh would likely replace Carter as the third PG and Graham could help play the three spot as his brother Joey did last year.
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