While the Denver Nuggets may be in preliminary talks with the Los Angeles Lakers to make a Carmelo Anthony trade, the New York Knicks remain very much in the picture. The may be the leading team, according to Mitch Lawrence of the NY Daily News. However, a deal is not imminent.
According to Lawrence's sources, the Nuggets are likely to trade Melo right around the deadline on Feb. 24. Any number of teams remain as a possible landing spot, though apparently those reports linking Andrew Bynum of the Lakers in a Melo deal have been greatly exaggerated, if not flat wrong.
The current Knicks-Nuggets deal involves the Minnesota Timberwolves as well. The Nuggets would receive Wilson Chandler from the Knicks and Corey Brewer and a first-round pick (which year no one is quite sure yet) from the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves would receive Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry. The Knicks, ultimately the winners in this trade, would get Melo. Lawrence indicates, though, that other proposals are being exchanged.
While the Knicks are Anthony's preferred destination, there will likely be several teams (the Rockets and Mavericks among them) who would be willing to trade for Anthony and watch him leave at the end of the season. The Nuggets could fold on the trade table and keep Anthony for the rest of the season, play as far as they can with him and then see him depart through free agency.
We'll find out what happens in at most two weeks.