It appears to have come down to this -- if Carmelo Anthony approves a three-year, $65 million (or similar) contract extension with the New Jersey Nets, a complex four-team trade likely will go forward.
According to one report, he has.
New York Daily News Nets beat writer Stefan Bondy tweeted this Friday evening:
Reliable source: Carmelo has approved the deal to the Nets.
The deal could go down as early as tomorrow.
Take that with a grain of salt, but not a big one. Several other reports say no decision has been made, but they have him leaning toward approving the deal.
Word is that William “Worldwide” Wesley -- backroom powerbroker for Anthony’s agent and CAA -- has been pushing Anthony to take the deal. You’d be foolish to think new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov also has not been in contact with Anthony.
Anthony has through the weekend to approve the extension and for the deal to go ahead, or the entire thing falls apart. Nobody wants this hanging over their head going in to camp next week
The trade would break down like this: Anthony would go to New Jersey along with DJ Augustin (probably, that last part not finalized); No. 3 pick Derrick Favors, Andrei Kirilenko and the Nets first round pick (formerly Golden State’s, top seven protected) and maybe more going to Denver; Charlotte getting point guard Devin Harris; while Boris Diaw would end up in Utah. Utah would do this because they would get $5 million under the luxury tax threshold with the salary savings.
There would likely be other parts. And a lot of things could fall out, but reports are that it really comes down to Anthony accepting an extension with New Jersey.
It will mean a step back this year -- Denver with Melo would be a better team then New Jersey with Melo will be. For now. But Denver seems unable to get over the hump in the West and the Nets would be a building team in the East with Melo and Brook Lopez, plus a new billionaire Russian owner. Plus they will be in New York in two years.
Is that enough? Apparently so, but we wait for confirmation.