Carmelo Anthony still unsure of New Jersey

J.R. · Jan 12, 2011

In the end, the biggest holdup in a trade that would send Carmelo Anthony to New Jersey may be Anthony himself.

According to several league sources, Anthony has not told anyone, not even his representatives, that he will sign a contract extension with the Nets.

One source who has spoken with Anthony since trade talks between Denver, New Jersey and Detroit became public last weekend said the Nuggets forward has never even hinted at signing with New Jersey.

"He has not agreed to go to New Jersey," said the source, who speaks regularly with Anthony. "I have never heard him, in all the times we've talked, say he's willing to go to New Jersey. Not once. Personally, I would be stunned if he went there and signed an extension."

This, of course, does not mean there's no chance of Anthony signing with the Nets. But it does mean the three teams involved in the potential deal that could involve as many as 15 players are working on nothing more than a hunch. For even if they do reach an agreement, Anthony's refusal to sign a three-year, $65 million extension with the Nets would kill the deal completely. New Jersey has been steadfast in its commitment to trade for Anthony only if he agrees to stay with the franchise long term.

Even if Anthony is less than enthusiastic about the prospects of playing in New Jersey, he has never crossed the Nets entirely off his list of potential destinations, as he did with Philadelphia, Washington and Charlotte when those teams showed interest in trading for him earlier in the season.

The Nets, who have pursued Anthony since failing to land a superstar on last summer's historic free agent market, firmly believe Anthony is agreeable to signing with them. That belief is based on numerous conversations with Anthony's agent, Leon Rose, who has worked closely with Denver and New Jersey all season long on putting together potential trade packages.

The natural assumption is that Rose is pushing for a deal with New Jersey because Anthony is amenable to it. But sources say that's not the case.

"He [Rose] may want him to go there," one source said. "But Melo doesn't want to be in Jersey. He wants to play in New York."

Anthony's desire to play for the New York Knicks is well-known. But Denver would rather trade him to New Jersey because it can receive more assets -- a young prospect (Favors), expiring contracts and first-round draft picks -- from the Nets than it can from New York. If Anthony were to agree to a trade to New Jersey, it would be mainly to get the $65 million contract extension. With the owners playing hardball as a new labor agreement approaches, Anthony may have to settle for tens of millions of dollars less if he were to play out the season in Denver and sign with New York as a free agent this summer. The sources say such a scenario is not out of the question for Anthony.

While the Knicks, who do not have a first-round draft pick to offer Denver in a trade, lack the assets the Nuggets covet, Anthony's desire to play there keeps them in the hunt. Anthony will soon sit down with Nuggets executives Josh Kroenke and Masai Ujiri to discuss his future, and if he tells them he will only sign an extension with New York and not New Jersey, Denver will almost certainly have to begin serious trade talks with the Knicks.

To date, the Nuggets have not engaged in any thorough trade discussions with New York. But the Knicks insist there are several teams that will give them a first-round draft pick in exchange for Anthony Randolph that they could use in a trade, and the strong play of Knicks forward Wilson Chandler this season would seem to have increased his value in the Nuggets' eyes.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6013692

Melo says wife LaLa Vazquez has nothing to do with what he does: [rquoter]You all put this in bold words, LaLa has nothing to do with anything. Whatever is my decision she's going to support me. She has nothing to do with me staying here or me leaving or nothing so please keep her out of it, thank you. It doesn't bother me but people...they have to write about something and for them to just come up with 'She don't want to be here', she has nothing to do with that. This is my career. This is my decision. Of course, I got to consult her with everything but it wasn't one conversation I said where she told me, 'Let's get out of here.' It's normal. You got to consult with your family about situations like that, decision making and that's just all that we've been doing. She hasn't had any say so on what should I do and where should go or anything like that.[/rquoter]

'Melo goes on: [rquoter]This is not my last game. I'll be here playing against Miami Thursday I guarantee you that. You all will have another interview with me Thursday. Guaranteed. I guarantee you that.[/rquoter]

http://twitter.com/christomasson

devilsdandruff · Jan 12, 2011

Carmolo crap is more annoying than Queen James news last year.
on news everyday with no progress.

apollo33 · Jan 12, 2011

This trade is a serious case of constipation

Easy · Jan 12, 2011

Dang, they need to do a "What should I do?" commercial with Melo.

t_mac1 · Jan 12, 2011

carmelo anthony needs to do an ESPN decision show himself and says where he wants to go and force the hand.

The Situation · Jan 12, 2011

Just waiting for Melo to announce he's taking his talents to H-Town

YourSecretLover · Jan 12, 2011

This whole Carmelo Anthony situation is getting pretty annoying now just like the whole situation with Lebron James and where he wanted to sign during the summer. It is getting pretty ridiculous.

thejav · Jan 12, 2011

He needs to wait it out and just go to the garden next year...

pips · Jan 12, 2011

If you're annoyed then just don't ready anything until you see something that is along the lines "Carmelo traded to---!". It isn't that hard. I haven't seen so many people whine about reading since the 3rd grade.

jopatmc · Jan 12, 2011

This whole thing comes down to this:

Melo is going to have to decide which is more important to him, a max contract or the Knicks. It's that simple.

javal_lon · Jan 12, 2011

I hate him since Syracuse days...

everyday eddie · Jan 12, 2011

jopatmc said:

This whole thing comes down to this:

Melo is going to have to decide which is more important to him, a max contract or the Knicks. It's that simple.
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Exactly, can't have it both ways. I hope Denver doesn't eventually give into his demands if it's really true that he's saying "only Knicks".

SunsRocketsfan · Jan 12, 2011

The Situation said:

Just waiting for Melo to announce he's taking his talents to H-Town
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unfortunately no one with amazing talent want to take their talents here..

delta69er · Jan 12, 2011

"Man, this is tough, but I want Denver to ship my talents over to New York"

jopatmc · Jan 12, 2011

everyday eddie said:

Exactly, can't have it both ways. I hope Denver doesn't eventually give into his demands if it's really true that he's saying "only Knicks".
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That's why I think we could possibly come front and center here. We can hand Denver the opportunity to rebuild on the fly and totally dump out their contracts in the process. And we could take Melo as a rental, and if we can't get him to agree to an extension, the next best thing would be to get him and the Knicks to agree with us beforehand on a trade of him after the season for a set amount of talent. If we could pull Nene with Melo, then we would at least still have Nene left behind combined with a huge trade exception and a couple players like Chandler and Randolph. I'd take renting Melo for half a season and trading him for that type of deal for our expirings and some of our current talent.

J.R. · Jan 12, 2011

KBerg_CBS

Despite corroboration of @carmeloanthony's hesitation about NJ, #Nuggets/#Nets continue working on deal, sources tell @CBSSports.

But uncertainty on multiple fronts surrounding the complicated trade has opened the door for the Rockets and Knicks, sources say

Meanwhile, the Knicks wait on the sideline, confident in their negotiating leverage but not desperate to break up team for Melo.
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SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas -- In a spring-break town deserted but for a few basketball junkies, NBA executives and scouts have gathered for their annual pilgrimage to the NBA Development League Showcase. Their end game is to find a player who can fill in nicely on a 10-day contract, or perhaps longer.

At this rate, several players discovered here will go on to be included in the next Carmelo Anthony megatrade; that is, if the first one ever gets done.

Nerves were frayed Wednesday among executives trying to push the Anthony-to-New Jersey deal to its merciful conclusion. The latest source of confusion was another report that Anthony does not want to sign a contract extension with the Nets and has never indicated to anyone -– including his agent, Leon Rose, who has been pushing the trade -– that he would. The reporting from ESPN.com mirrored similar reports from CBSSports.com and ESPN.com on Dec. 12. Despite the latest wrench in what has become an excruciating process, two executives told CBSSports.com on Wednesday that the Nuggets and Nets continue working on their aspects of the blockbuster, which also would have the Pistons sending Richard Hamilton to the Nets to join Melo.

The Nuggets, unfazed by the corroboration of past reports about Anthony's reluctance to take his talents to Newark, N.J., regard the notion of Anthony's reluctance to sign with the Nets as "inaccurate," according to a high-level source in daily contact with the organization. The Nuggets "continue to strongly evaluate scenarios," the person said.

As for the Nets, the team's front office also continues to doggedly pursue Anthony despite more evidence that their efforts could be for naught. Many observers have been dubious that Anthony's representatives would be pushing this trade so persistently without at least tacit approval from Anthony, and have also doubted that Anthony would be willing to have the deal fall apart -- which could greatly diminish his chances of getting a three-year, $65 million extension before the enacting of a new, less player-friendly collective bargaining agreement.

"If he wants to leave all that money on the table, that's for him to decide," said one rival executive who has been on the periphery of the trade talks. "Good luck."

The other significant hiccup, as CBSSports.com reported Monday, is that reports last week of the three-team deal being close to completion were significantly ahead of the actual negotiations among the teams. Denver, in particular, felt rushed and pressured and began backing away over the weekend -- when executives Masai Ujiri and Josh Kroenke privately chastised other team execs for the public nature of the discussions and began trying to extract more from the deal. Ujiri wants a young talent in addition to the Nets' Derrick Favors, and has his sights set ultimately on the Trail Blazers' Nicolas Batum -- though multiple people involved in the talks say Batum is likely to be pursued in the aftermath of an Anthony trade, not as part of one. The Nuggets also want more cost savings out of the deal and are trying to get someone to take either Al Harrington or Renaldo Balkman.

The confusion, smokescreens, competing agendas and fresh indications that Anthony is not on the same page with his agents have conspired to fuel the chances of two teams that have waited patiently on the sideline while the Nets and Nuggets have woven their perilous web: the Rockets and Knicks. If the New Jersey deal falls apart, Houston is regarded as the team with the next-best package of young players, cost savings and draft picks that could help the Nuggets salve the pain of having to trade their star player.

But the team with a puncher's chance to swoop in if the Nets fail in their pursuit of Anthony has always been the Knicks, if for no other reason than the Nuggets would be forced to at least entertain trade talks with them because New York is Anthony's preferred destination -- and the only place he would agree to an extension if traded, as CBSSports.com reported Dec. 12.

The Knicks' patient, almost detached posture in the Melo sweepstakes has been confusing to some but not to those who have seen team president Donnie Walsh's poker face before. Since September, when it first became widely known that Anthony wanted out of Denver and wanted to push for a trade to the Knicks, Walsh has been silent on the topic. One reason, according to a source familiar with the organization's strategy, is that Walsh has always known that "if Melo wants to play for the Knicks, he'll go play for the Knicks" -- as a free agent after exercising his early-termination option following the season.

For that reason, the Knicks currently have "zero role, none," in the Melo trade talks, according to a second person directly involved in the team's decision-making process.

Despite the uncertainty over the new CBA, Walsh has been able to wait patiently and let the negotiations come to him. But there are additional, more complicated reasons the Knicks have been reluctant to participate in the kind of guns-blazing pursuit of Melo that the Nets have engaged in. For one, they don't have to; unlike the Nets, the Knicks have a core of young players who are beginning to fit together and a superstar, Amar'e Stoudemire, to build around.

Also, the person directly involved in the Knicks' decision-making said there is significant hesitation from at least one key player in the team's hierarchy who has doubts about whether Anthony would be the best piece to complement Stoudemire. While it is irrefutable that the Knicks are interested in Anthony, there is concern about how destabilizing it could be to the organization and coaching staff if an enormous price is paid for Anthony in a trade.

For one thing, the Knicks are reluctant to break up the first promising core of young talent they've had in more than a decade, with Wilson Chandler beginning to display borderline All-Star production and Danilo Gallinari continuing to tantalize coach Mike D'Antoni with his potential.

"People think you can only win with another star," said the person plugged into the Knicks' internal strategy. "That's wrong. You win with a team. ... They're not going to blow up their team for Carmelo."

Which brings us to the next and equally important factor: Any team that gives up multiple players and other assets for Anthony, while also giving him the $65 million extension he covets, will be in effect, turning the franchise over to him -- and, by extension, to Creative Artists Agency powerbroker William "World Wide Wes" Wesley.

"When you give up your whole team to get a guy, you're at his mercy," the person said. "And you bring in Wes, who then thinks he can run your team. None of that is very appealing."

It is a risk that the Nets, desperate for a star to usher them into their new home in Brooklyn in 2012, are justifiably willing to take -- but one that the Knicks do not have to take.

The linchpin in the Anthony talks remains what it has always been: Once a trade with New Jersey has been agreed to -- if it ever gets agreed to -- then Anthony must say once and for all whether he will extend with the Nets. If the answer is no, it's back to Square 1.

How long could this drag on? Though it's unlikely given the momentum toward a trade and the chaotic environment in Denver that has ensued, one possibility would be for the Nuggets to announce they're shutting down the trade talks and revisiting the matter after the season. If a deal more to Denver's liking can be found in June, Anthony could still get his lucrative extension all the way up to midnight July 1, which would still beat the expiration of the CBA and, as nearly everyone involved in the NBA business acknowledges, an ensuing lockout.

And sadly, it would mean months, not days, before the Melodrama finally ends.
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http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/14541580/nuggets-brass-keeps-working-while-melodrama-drags-on

Entropy · Jan 12, 2011

This keeps up, Houston is gonna be renting Melo.

Z-Ro&Trae · Jan 12, 2011

t_mac1 said:

carmelo anthony needs to do an ESPN decision show himself and says where he wants to go and force the hand.
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no he should just have a radio show on sirius instead so wont too many people hear it until later.

Rockets_4_life · Jan 12, 2011

Melo should go ahead and wait until the summer and sign a max contract with this Knicks, I mean why harm your future team by costing them assets...

Prince · Jan 12, 2011

It's ok to rent Melo. then while he's here, we'll make him in love with our city. Ger er done Morey!

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