As the season gets closer and closer it seems that the marriage of the Denver Nuggets and Carmelo Anthony is destined for divorce. According to a report by Yahoo! Sports, the Knicks and Bulls are the two top destinations on the prolific scorer's new list.
You can pretty much eliminate the Knicks right now because they have nobody who the Nuggets would want which leaves just the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls could give them a replacement small forward in Luol Deng, a very solid young backup power forward in Taj Gibson, and a draft pick.
I know, you're thinking the Nuggets would never do that in a million years. And under normal circumstances you would be right. But right now they have two options. Lose their franchise player for mid level talent, or lose their franchise player for nothing. Don't expect any team to throw the kitchen sink at them. Beggars can't be choosers and right now the Nuggets are beggars. More likely than not they are going to get far inferior talent in return for the man who was once considered the cornerstone of their franchise.
Despite Anthony's wishes of going to either New York or Chicago. The New Jersey Nets, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Houston Rockets have also expressed interest in obtaining the still young all star. All of those teams have more available assets than the Knicks or Bulls. The problem is Anthony is heading into the last year of his contract which means he will need to sign that 3 year, 65 million dollar extension before any trade. The fly in the ointment is that he won't sign it if he knows he would be going somewhere that he doesn't want to go.
A lot needs to be ironed out before any deal is made but nobody close to the situation is confident that Anthony's going to be staying in baby blue for much longer.
