TWTWTNBA: The Melo Conundrum is Over

Finally, the Carmelo drama is over. Now, the NBA can proceed with dealing what they need to deal, because the trade deadline has been. As what someone wrote, the new era has arrived. The player power play. Something that Lebron brought to new heights, thanks or no thanks to his decision. Now we look at the two point guards in Chris Paul and Deron Williams and Dwight Howard for speculation.

So, let's fillet the deal...



Denver gets: $3 million in cash, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton and Timofey Mozgov, the Knicks' 2014 first rounder, Golden State's second rounder for 2012 and 2013 that was acquired via David Lee. Raymond Felton gets to be with the man who succeeded him in Chapel Hill. JR Smith on-a-contract-year goes on overdrive. Yes, they lost Melo, but they have decent talent around. Expect a dogfight for the bottom two spots between them, Memphis, Portland, Phoenix and Golden State. Oh, and I expect more trade offers being fielded to Masai Ujiri in a matter of days.

Probable Rotation: Raymond Felton, Arron Afflalo, Danilo Gallinari, Kenyon Martin, Nene, Ty Lawson, JR Smith, Wilson Chandler, Chris Andersen, Timofey Mozgov.

Minnesota gets: $3 million cash, Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph. Kahn throws a bone to his buddy Donnie Walsh. Both players need a change of scenery (but speculations are rife with Eddy Curry buyout rumors). With Minny going nowhere, he'll be playing a lot. But as a Clipper fan, as long as they stink, the 1st rounder we have acquired from them is gold.

Probable Rotation - Luke Ridnour, Jonny Flynn, Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Darko Milicic, Anthony Tolliver, Anthony Randolph and someone from the cesspool of Lazar Heyward, Martell Webster and Wayne Ellington.

New York gets: Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter, Renaldo Balkman, Shelden Williams and Corey Brewer. Sure, they gave up a lot for Carmelo, but they did not really have a choice because of their assets. They're definitely thin up front, so they might try to look for a back-up big to bolster a small unit. They have a glut of guards and small wings that they can use as trade bait.

Probable Rotation: Chauncey Billups, Landry Fields, Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Ronny Turiaf, Toney Douglas, Corey Brewer, Shawne Williams, Shelden Williams

And just as I hear news of the trade, this musical clip came out.

TWTWTNBA: The Prokhorov Presser

While watching the LA Clippers manhandle the Minnesota Timberpups (and feel the frustration of Blake Griffin's double-double streak end while Kevin Love's still chugging along), local tv showed NBA TV's Gametime announcing that Mikhail Prokhorov (yes, the guy who owns the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets) was to hold a press conference on their Night of Russian Culture (a.k.a. their veiled attempt at recruiting upcoming free agent and fellow Russian Andrei Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz). I was relatively surprised at what happened next...

He announced that the New Jersey Nets are exiting out of the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes. He said that he is done with this circus. It was shocking. But it probably might be the right decision. Both the Nets and the Nuggets have been in a tailspin. Even Carmelo's numbers were on a dip until their win at home against Oklahoma City yesterday.

Well, the proposed deal also involved the Detroit Pistons, who already showed their hand with the constant DNP-CD's of Rip Hamilton. The collapse of the deal has shown immediate results as Troy Murphy has asked for a trade.

Obviously this might be good news for the Knicks, who are currently on a 4-game slide. But, they do not have the necessary assets pull off the deal as of the moment. Still don't know if the Pistons are interested. The Grizzlies were rumored to be involved and as much as people want the Clippers to make a move, I and along with some of my fellow Clipper fans, say no to such a deal, because Melo is bad juju to a young and upcoming bunch of kids with OKC-like chemistry blending.

The question now lies with Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri and Nuggets Owner Stan Kroenke, as well as Carmelo. The Nets made their gambit. What is your response?

TWTWTNBA: The Melo Conundrum

So, the Nuggets finally relented and decided to do the inevitable and listen to trade offers involving Carmelo Anthony. They're not going to get full value, but they'll try. Who should be trying to pry away him from the Rocky Mountains?

These are in no particular order, by the way.

1. Los Angeles Clippers. Homerism aside, they have an interesting trade chip (David Kahn's unprotected future 1st round pick. You can thank Adrianna Lima's husband). They can also dangle any combination of Chris Kaman, Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon and Aminu. In the end though, Sterling will nix it for he is Donald Sterling.

2. Chicago Bulls. Any deals that Denver would be interested in would probably involve Joakim Noah. The Bulls would like to jettison Luol Deng out of Chi-town at this point. Other than that, no dice.

3. New Jersey Nets. If this Russian billionaire is like the one that's running Chelsea FC, they will be looking for a star. They struck out on Lebron (for now), so they train their eyes on Melo for the Barclays marquee. They can trade Derrick Favors, a gaggle of big men and possibly Devin Harris.

4. New York Knicks. Because they are Melo's top choice. Unfortunately, they don't exactly have the ammo for a deal. They'll need a conduit third team in the mix.

5. Philadelphia 76rs. The Sixers would be interesting if they can part with Iggy and/or Brand. Yes, Elton pretty much sucked since he left the Clips to sign that huge contract. Iggy played well in Istanbul, but he's a glue guy paid like a superstar (sort of what Rudy Gay is now).

6. Orlando Magic. They are so ridiculously deep that they can offload them onto someone and not miss a beat. Gortat / Bass would be included, as would probably Vince. Hey, they can jettison the rights to the coward named Fran Vasquez.

7. Washington Wizards. Melo grew up in Baltimore, so a hometown trip may be what he needs. He would also be relieving pressure on John Wall to become a scorer and focus more being a distributor. It's unlikely though because it will definitely involve Gilbert Arenas' contract, which is highly immovable.

8. Los Angeles Lakers. Imagine Melo with Kobe and Pau vis-a-vis the South Beach Diet of Wade, Lebron, and Bosh. They'll have to part with Odom and Bynum to do this, for starters. If Kupchak pulls this one off, God help us.

9. Houston Rockets. Given that Yao Ming is the Zydrunas Ilgauskas 2.0, Daryl Morey has some nice trade chips he can use to snag Melo (Kevin Martin or Luis Scola, but not both).

10. Atlanta Hawks. I just think that the Hawks need to shake their offensive lineup a little bit. I have a sense that there is not really much upside left and they need to fix it to compete with the upgrades that Miami and Boston conducted. A Melo-JR Smith for Joe Johnson-Marvin Williams swap could help both squads.