Through the entire Melodrama — from before training camp up through last week — there was a confidence around Carmelo Anthony. Like he felt in some control of the situation, like he knew what was going to happen.
No more.
Mikhail Prokhorov changed the game. The Nets walked away. Everybody’s fallback option is gone. The Nuggets and ‘Melo are now swinging on this trapeze without a Nets under them.
In a fantastic interview by Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post, Anthony came off sounding unsure and much more humble. So, ‘Melo, what’s going to happen now?“At this point, I really don’t know.
“New Jersey took that deal off the table. In order for me to consider them, I’d have to agree to the meeting. Now, it’s washed under the table.”
I Asked: Are the options strictly New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Denver?
Melo said, “Yeah. But I really can’t say it’s just those, because I don’t really know (what could happen)….”By that he means a trade to teams like Houston or Dallas (or maybe others) where he very well may not sign the $65 million extension on the table. The upside of that for him is he gets to go to New York. The downside is his deal would be under a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and he could make $10 million less or more over the course of the deal. That’s a lot of scratch. In the interview Anthony admitted he’d be “screwed” if it came to free agency.
“There are a lot of things that come into play when you look at this situation. The fact that they can send you wherever they want to. The fact that, wherever they send me, would I sign the extension there? It’s a lot of stuff I think about through all of this.”
Asked what’s going to happen next, Melo said, “I haven’t had any dialogue with (team executive) Masai (Ujiri) or anybody like that. Usually I talk to Masai, but a lot of stuff has died down. I’m pretty sure they’ve been behind closed doors, doing what they do. But I haven’t talked to them personally.”He really has no idea. He doesn’t feel in control. And that has to be a little disconcerting.