Could Melo be Houston-bound?

Back in September we looked into if the Houston Rockets had the assets to get Carmelo Anthony and while it seemed very unlikely at the time, a lot has changed in the previous four months.

For one, is the emergence of the Rockets’ shooting guard Kevin Martin. After three injury-proned seasons, K-Mart Jr. has been nearly unstoppable for the underachieving Rockets. In 33 games, Martin has averaged 23 points while shooting .447 from the field, .426 behind the arc and .896 charity stripe.

He has been the lone bright spot for the Rockets this season, which have seen their franchise player go down with yet another injury and has come out of the gates slow to start the season (losing 12 of their first 14 games).

Right now the only downfall to Martin’s game is his defense, but offensively he has been a mix between Reggie Miller and Rip Hamilton. And while he is a favorite of Rockets’ coach Rick Adelman (who also drafted the seventh-year guard out of Western Kentucky), there is no doubt Adelman would rather build his team around Anthony than Martin and it would be tough to see the offensive gurus (who are also defensive liabilities) being successful together.

Also the emergence of Nuggets’ Arron Afflalo and Nene have shown the Nuggets can still be competitive without Anthony. Neither have shown they can be go-to scorers, but both have proven to be complimentary players.

Martin alone won’t get a deal done, but he could be the center piece for the Nuggets (who would prefer not to rebuild). A deal built around Martin, Shane Battier and rookie Patrick Patterson could be enticing for Denver, but it would more than likely mean the Nuggets wouldn’t get draft picks in return. However, if the team would attach JR Smith in the trade they might be able pry a draft pick away from Houston.

While it is a long shot, but the Nuggets runs into a jam they could turn to the Rockets.