Reports surfaced this weekend of a potential four-team trade that would send Carmelo Anthony to the Nets. But it’s Monday now, and Mikhail Prokhorov has yet to release an awesome YouTube video announcing his acquisition. (We’d like to think this is how such a deal would be announced, though never count out “buying a half-hour of network prime time.”) And whether the deal will ever happen depends on which unnamed sources you’d like to believe.
One Daily News source, for example, says that barring a breakdown, it’s just a matter of when, not if, Anthony becomes a Net. Another says that Anthony is committed to joining the Nets — they’d want him to sign an extension if they’re going to part with Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, Jarvis Hayes, and a (one-to-seven protected) first-round pick — and that the delay, in the paper’s words, “has only strengthened that feeling.”
Then again, former Nets including Jason Kidd have reportedly advised Anthony not to go to New Jersey, or in this case, not to sign an extension as part of a trade. (That, if you’re keeping track, comes from “a league source who spoke with FanHouse.”) Sam Amick, the author of that FanHouse piece, points out that this bodes well for the Knicks, who, without attractive draft picks to offer, realistically would need Anthony to make it to free agency next summer without an extension to have a real shot at him.
Marc Stein, meanwhile, reports that the Nuggets spent the weekend trying to get the Knicks, Bulls, and Clippers to make a better offer than the one reportedly on the table. (The Nuggets, in the four-team proposal, would receive Favors, Andrei Kirilenko, and two first-round picks.) “Sources close to the situation” tell Stein that the Nuggets still hope that Anthony “could be convinced to reconsider his desire to be traded once he reports to training camp and starts hearing pro-Nuggets voices again.”
Then there are the sources — ones that have “knowledge of Anthony’s thinking” — that told Stein that Anthony might not report to camp at all if he isn’t traded. But Anthony dutifully showed up at Nuggets media day today, saying that “I’m leaving my options open right now” and that he never asked to be traded. Said Anthony: “At the end of the season, I’ll sit down with my team, I’ll sit down with the Nuggets.” There’s also some stuff involving Jay-Z and World Wide Wes, but to recap: Nothing has actually happened, and it’s possible nothing will happen. So nothing to see here. Move along, for now at least.