And here comes the four-team trade…
Every rumor needs a four-team trade and this is the final chance for the Denver Nuggets to deal Carmelo Anthony before training camp and they are working hard to get it down. If a deal can’t get done, expect Anthony to have to answer numerous questions on Monday at media day and be put on the spot.
The rumored four-way trade (which sounds pretty likely to be completed) by ESPN would deal Anthony to New Jersey, Devin Harris to Charlotte, Boris Diaw to Utah and the Nuggets would receive Andrei Kirilenko, draft picks and Derrick Favors in return. Obviously there has to be other pieces to the puzzle, maybe J.R. Smith and one of the other young Nets players (sounds most likely to be Damion James). Not exactly ideal, but it gives the Nuggets a mix of young and old players to go along with draft picks.
New Jersey in this situation seems like they are giving up more than they need by dealing Harris instead of Troy Murphy, but if that is what it takes to get Anthony to sign the extension than it is worth it.
Kirilenko is long and athletic, but has a history of injuries. And if he does stay on the team through the next season Denver will have almost $50 million in expiring contracts (depends on what Chauncey Billups and Nene do).
The Nuggets were also exploring ideas on how to land Chicago’s Joakim Noah, Josh Smith and Al Horford from Atlanta, the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and even Andre Iguodala from Philadelphia. But Noah and Curry were practically untradable and Philadelphia didn’t want to help their rival Nets get better.
If this trade doesn’t go through, and there is a very good chance it doesn’t, expect the Los Angeles Clippers to jump back into the mix. If it falls back to that there is a possibility that the Clippers would add Kaman, rookie Al-Farouq Aminu and the rights to the Minnesota pick that they own.