If ‘Melo ends up getting traded to the Rockets for some Knicks draft picks it would be quite the sick twist of fate for New York basketball fans…
The Denver Nuggets are lending an open ear to N.B.A. suitors clamoring for Carmelo Anthony, a potentially distressing development for the Knicks in their efforts to land the three-time All-Star.
In preliminary conversations, the Nuggets have told the Knicks that they do not possess the assets they are seeking if they decide to trade Anthony, according to a Knicks official. The official did not want to be identified because he was describing private conversations between the teams.
For the moment, the Knicks are left hoping that Anthony remains in Denver through this season, which would allow his contract to expire. If that happens, the Knicks could then pursue him in free agency with cap room that will be created by the departure of Eddy Curry.
And in a twist that will make the Knicks and their fans even more frustrated, the Houston Rockets are one of the teams aggressively pursuing Anthony. The Rockets are doing it in part by offering at least one of the draft picks they acquired from the Knicks last February when, in a three-way trade that also involved the Sacramento Kings, the Knicks cleared Jared Jeffries’s salary off this year’s payroll and landed Tracy McGrady’s expiring contract.
The Rockets obtained the right to swap first-round picks with the Knicks in 2011 in the deal, which allows them to offer whichever pick is better to the Nuggets.
They can also offer the Nuggets the Knicks’ 2012 first-round choice, which they also obtained in the trade.
The picks give Houston flexibility in trade talks with Denver that the Knicks do not have. N.B.A. rules prohibit a team from trading first-round picks in consecutive years. So with their 2012 pick gone, the Knicks cannot trade their 2013 first-round pick as part of any deal for Anthony. That could be one reason Denver may be uninterested in what they can offer.
Read more details via the New York Times
