“Now that the Denver Nuggets have their management team in place, they’re developing a strategy to keep All-Star Carmelo Anthony(notes) in powder blue and gold.
At his introductory news conference Tuesday, Masai Ujiri, the team’s new vice president of basketball operations, said he’s been in contact with Anthony and will meet with him soon.
The Nuggets offered Anthony a three-year, $65 million extension through 2014, but if he rejects it, the team will have to consider trading the forward who has guided them to seven straight playoff berths.
“I think I’m going to convince him to be a Nugget,” Ujiri said, smiling. “No, I don’t know, I can’t make a judgment on that. Like I said, it’s a process and until he tells me that … we want him back, the city wants him back, ownership wants him back.”
There have been hints that Anthony might be thinking about moving on: his mansion in the Denver area is on the market and at his New York wedding to TV personality LaLa Vazquez this summer, there was that now famous toast by New Orleans point guard Chris Paul(notes) about reuniting with Melo in Gotham to form a super-team along with Amare Stoudemire to counter the Miami Heat’s terrific trio.
Anthony has never come out and said he wanted to be traded, however.
At his basketball camp this summer, Anthony dismissed all the speculation of his impending departure from Denver: “I’ve been hearing that for five years. I’m a Denver Nugget. I’m here, I’m with the Nuggets. I don’t become a free agent until next year, if I decide not to take that extension.”
He said then that he was just taking his time making a decision.”
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