On Thursday night, it appears that the Denver Nuggets and the New Jersey Nets have reached a point at which they must now get Carmelo Anthony to sign a three-year, $65 million extension in order to complete a trade. According to Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski, both sides have agreed on the players to be included in this deal. The Nuggets would send 'Melo, Chauncey Billups, Melvin Ely, Renaldo Balkman and Shelden Williams and then receive rookie Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, Troy Murphy, Ben Uzoh and four draft picks.
The main portion of the deal is the Melo-Billups swap for Favors-Harris and the draft picks. The other players are either expiring contracts or inclusions to balance the salary swaps. The four draft picks would reportedly be two 2011 first-round draft picks, a conditional first-round pick the Golden State Warriors owe the Nets and a future first-round pick.
Just like before, the Nets will only make this trade is if Carmelo Anthony will sign an extension with them. Supposedly, there could be an All-Star Weekend meeting between Anthony and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who canceled his previous meeting with the player and then called off the entire trade during a Jan. 20 press conference.
In some ways this is a better deal than the one discussed back in January. It cuts out a third team (the Detroit Pistons before) and has the Nuggets receiving two more first-round picks.
[UPDATE] However, Wojnarowski later updated his report to mention that Murphy and a draft pick or two would be sent somewhere else later.
Will Carmelo Anthony still be in a Nuggets uniform when the season starts up on Tuesday?