ESPN’s Chris Broussard has some more information on last month’s proposed three-way trade between the Nets, Nuggets and Cavs that would have brought Carmelo Anthony to New Jersey. And boy is it a doozy:
Denver would have received Favors, Devin Harris and three first-round picks. Cleveland would have received Murphy and one or two first-round picks, and the Nets would have received Anthony, Al Harrington and the Cavaliers’ trade exception, the sources said.
Beyond the sticking point of Anthony accepting or refusing to sign the long-term extension with New Jersey, the deal fell apart because both Denver and Cleveland wanted the 2012 first-round pick the Nets got from Golden State in the Marcus Williams trade. That pick is protected through the first seven slots.
While Denver never asked for the Nets’ five first-round picks, New Jersey might have wound up sending those five picks to the Nuggets and the Cavs. Losing all those first-rounders makes the Nets squeamish, as does not getting back a point guard if they have to give up Harris.
And naturally the great “sticking point” is still unresolved. My next question is what happens if the Nets finally can get Denver to agree to do something and Mikhail Prokhorov and Avery Johnson’s “pitch” to ‘Melo goes over with him as well as it did with LeBron James? Then what?
The trade proposed here is awful for the Nets. Just awful. I don’t even think a starting line-up of Farmar-Morrow-Anthony-Harrington-Lopez is good enough to make the playoffs in this league, no less be a championship contender. And the team would have zero assets to bring in an additional player unless they think someone is still clamoring for the last four-and-a-half years of Travis Outlaw’s contract. I know I was admittedly cranky earlier this week about the state of this team, but I can’t imagine any Nets fan looking at the logistics of this trade saying afterwards, “well, you got to do what you got to do.” If they do, then my guess is they’re just blindly parroting the company line of the front office.
