Denver's last stand.

Carmelo Anthony's reluctance to sign the conract extension offered him by the Nuggets leads one to believe he has no desire to remain there. If that is indeed the case, where would the player known as the leagues most prolific scorer fit best?


Anthony has expressed interest in being traded to the Rockets, Nets, and Knicks. Out of this group, the Rockets make the most sense for the Nuggets. They have the best talent pool from which the Nuggets can acquire talent and wouldn't completely deplete their ranks in the process. A trade of Chase Budinger, Kevin Martin, and either Patrick Patterson or draft picks would leave the Rockets with a nucleus of Aaron Brooks, Courtney Lee, Anthony, Jordan Hill, and Yao Ming. Not bad! The Nuggets would also come out ok as they would have get a promising young SF in Budinger who while not as prolific as Anthony, could one day be a star. Their nucleus would be Chauncey Billups, Martin, Budinger, Patterson, and Nene. While that roster isn't as talented as the one containing Melo, its still a playoff team in the west.


I don't see the other two teams having much of a shot due to their inability to compensate the Nuggets for Anthony's services. The Nets could trade the promising duo of Devin Harris and Derrick Favors but that would leave the Nets completely devoid of any talent outside of Anthony. The Knicks are even worse, as they only talent they have to deal is Amare Stoudamire and that's not going to happen.


I think the best suitor for both Anthony and the Nuggets is an unexplored one, the Orlando Magic. With the emergence of SG J.J. Redick in last year's playoffs, Vince Carters days in Orlando are numbered. Trading him would defuse a potentially cancerous locker room situation when Redick begins to garner a more significant portion of the SG playing time. Also tradeable would be well respected scorer Rashard Lewis. With Carmelo's arrival, Lewis would be expendable which would give the Nuggets two proven scorers in exchange for one exceptional one. For the Magic, this would help them circumvent the improvements made in Miami as they would have their own All-Star trio in Jameer Nelson, Anthony and Dwight Howard. Coach Stan Van Gundy would also have at his disposal a long range marksman in Redick and a stout defender and erratic scorer in Mickael Pietrus. That would make the Magic's chances of repeating as divisional champs significantly more realistic.