The old NBA meets the new tonight at the Pepsi Center. No matter who wins the game, it’s pretty clear who’s winning the larger contest for the hearts and minds of star players.
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh & Co. had won nine in a row and 21 of 22 going into Wednesday night’s game against the Clippers in Los Angeles. The player-designed NBA super team is looking pretty good.
Carmelo Anthony watched his 2003 draft classmates unite in Miami, then listened to Olympic teammate Chris Paul openly dream of teaming up with him and Amar’e Stoudemire in New York, during a speech at Melo’s wedding in July, no less.
In seven full seasons trying it the old-fashioned way — stay with the team that drafts you, let it build around you — Anthony has gotten out of the first round of the playoffs one time. If LeBron could abandon Cleveland, which made it to the NBA Finals and is next door to his hometown, Melo could certainly get out of Denver.
Fresh from watching Bosh pull the same stunt in Toronto, Nuggets first-year general manager Masai Ujiri is attempting to acquire enough for Anthony in trade to prevent the Nuggets from hitting rock-bottom for the fourth time in a generation.
But New York doesn’t have much the Nuggets covet, so Ujiri is trying to sell Anthony on New Jersey as the next best thing. Anthony’s refusal to say whether he would sign a contract extension to facilitate a trade to the Nets has turned the entire process surreal, with the two clubs negotiating enormously complicated deals involving multiple teams that could, with a wave of Melo’s hand, turn out to be a pointless exercise in destroying whatever team chemistry they might have had.
The Nets and Nuggets are convinced Anthony will sign the extension if they come up with the right deal. Their faith is based largely on the participation of his agent, Leon Rose, who has helped shape the latest incarnation of the deal, in part to serve the interests of another client, Detroit’s Richard Hamilton.
But conflicting signs persist. Before the season began, Anthony declared that winning was his top priority. So somebody asked why he would sign an extension to facilitate a move to New Jersey, one of the association’s worst teams. Melo replied he never said he would. And he still hasn’t.
He also hasn’t ruled it out the way he ruled out trades with other potential suitors, which is all the opening the Nets and Nuggets apparently needed to spend half the season pursuing it.
Here’s the catch: If the trade makes the Nets good enough for Anthony to want to play there, it devalues the Nets’ first-round draft pick the Nuggets will get as part of the exchange. At the moment, that’s a high lottery pick and a key asset in the deal. If Melo and whoever goes with him get the Nets near .500 in the second half, it becomes a mid-round pick and much less valuable.
When you remove all the salary cap flotsam from the deal that’s been discussed, the Nuggets would trade Anthony and Chauncey Billups for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and some draft picks. Where those draft picks fall in the order makes a huge difference in their value.
Lately, the law of unintended consequences has joined the party. Billups has been explicit about wanting to remain in Denver. His agent has said he would seek a buyout if he were part of a trade to New Jersey. So by including him in a trade proposal, the Nuggets have ticked off their second all-star the past two years without necessarily helping Anthony make up his mind. In fact, if Anthony feels as bad about Billups being dragged into it as he says, it might actually work against him approving the deal.
Through all the drama, the evidence suggests that emulating the Heat and forming his own super team with Stoudemire, and possibly Paul, remains Anthony’s first choice. To join the Knicks as a free agent, all he has to do is play out his contract. But a pending lockout and new labor deal throw a bunch of variables into the equation.
At any point, Anthony could tell the Nuggets he will sign an extension only to facilitate a trade to the Knicks, a step many expected him to take before now. So far as we know, he still hasn’t, which fuels Ujiri’s hopes he’ll ultimately accept a trade to the Nets.
And so the Nuggets remain locked in limbo. Maybe seeing a super team up close will help Melo decide whether to hold out for the next one. This much is clear: He could do everyone a favor just by making up his mind about what he wants.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
