Nets Are Scorching

In a very passionate, yet informed fan rant, NetDaily’s Net Income let’s it rip on the folks in the media (and those who back the Knicks) who are predicting that Deron Williams will surely bolt at the end of the 2011-12 season. NI has pointed out plenty of reasons why Nets fans should be positive for a change:

Here’s his full quote from the press conference at the PNY Center Thursday: “I can’t really give any assurances, or say that I’ll be here [because] I don’t know what the future holds. I look forward to the possibility of it; it’s definitely a strong possibility. It all depends on how the next year goes – the CBA, the type of moves we make and the people we bring into this organization.” (Emphasis un-apologetically added)

Missed that, I’ll bet. Why? Because most of the sports writers decided to ignore it and/or focus on the enormous risk of giving away Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two picks (one protected) and $3 million of Mikhail Prokhorov’s cash hoard for arguably the best point guard in the game.  Funny, we didn’t see that much last July about how the Knicks were the only team offering Amare Stoudemire five years and $100 million despite three knee surgeries and a retinal surgery. Nothing much again when Donnie Walsh hinted the Knicks hadn’t been able to get insurance on those knees, those eyes.  Risk much? Only the franchise.

And Knicks fans sitting there trying to convince themselves and Nets fans that Williams will just sign with them in 2012 need to take some math classes. They will already have about $40 million committed to ‘Melo and Stoudemire by 2012 and the CBA, in all likelihood will lower the salary cap, not raise it.

Meanwhile, as NI and others note, it’s a trade the Nets had to be made. Even after losing the past two games, it’s easy to see how much better the Nets look, especially on the offensive end with Williams at the point. It will take time to gel. But it will happen.

The usual “winners” and “losers” of the trade deadline list are out, and like the Oscar’s and Grammy’s, these awards really don’t mean anything, but they’re fun to talk about anyway.

Mostly, the pundits think the Nets hit a home run (I agree) with Deron Williams. CBS Sports dubbed them *the* winner from the Atlantic Division:

Nobody else made a bigger leap into relevancy that the Nets did, and that’s worthy of the winner title.

The Sporting News brings up the Nets fortunes versus the Knicks:

The Nets not only improved their immediate future, but they continued pushing against the Knicks’ dominance of the New York area while establishing a pretty good rivalry with their cross-river foes.

On the flip side, Yahoo’s Marc Spears thinks Deron Williams is walking away from the deadline a “loser” and he also calls out Nets minority owner Jay-Z in a line I can’t necessarily disagree with:

Once Mikhail Prokhorov bought the Nets, he thought it would be important to get Jay-Z, one of the franchise’s minority owners, more involved in the recruitment of free agents. Sources said Jay-Z even received an increase in his ownership stake.

Yet Jay-Z failed to deliver LeBron James last summer and couldn’t get Anthony to commit to a contract extension after meeting with him during All-Star weekend.

I understand that Jay-Z has every right to own a minority stake in the Nets and that bringing a team to Brooklyn must be a cool idea for him, but I hope this ‘Melo stuff is the last we’ve heard of him as some kind of salesman for this team. He may be the most overrated minority owner in sports if that’s possible.

Deron Williams & Carmelo Anthony in their old uniforms.

On this week’s episode of TrueHoop TV (which I’m on every week, so you should always be checking it out), we discuss the megadeals that went down in the NBA in these last couple of days, and who we think got the upper hand (hint: most of the guys agree with me).

Check it out!

In an article that went up just as the Nets were shocking the NBA yesterday and acquiring Deron Williams from Utah, CNBC’s Darren Rovell shared an interview he had with Nets owner during all-star weekend. In addition to some of the expected Prokhorov quotes about his championship aspirations and the state of the Nets, the Russian also had a unique challenge for the reporter:

What happened off camera with Prokhorov was equally as fascinating. Prokhorov challenged me in hand-eye coordination moves from the Tibetan mixed martial arts discipline of Tescao. I, of course, couldn’t do any one of them. He told me he was working on perfecting about 1,000 of the moves. By the time I met him at 10 am that morning, he had already worked out – twice!

Hilarious. It’s a good interview with Prokhorov as well, as the guy continues to come across as strong and knowledgeable in public.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Nets are close to sending Troy Murphy and a second round pick to Golden State for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric. There’s also talk that this trade could evolve into a three-team trade with Devin Harris going to either Portland or Dallas.

I wouldn’t get excited by either of these deals as they seem to be more about acquiring expiring contracts than getting anyone to build around. But hey, that’s what happens when your front office completely devalues your entire roster in pursuit of one player for the last five months. On the plus side, it looks like the Nets haven’t learned a thing and are trying to have a ton of financial flexibility to sign the next Travis Outlaw in 2012.

Update #3: David Aldridge is reporting that the Nuggets are not attempting to flip recently acquired Knicks players for Nets draft picks.

Update #2: Frank Isola of the Daily News reports that the Carmelo Anthony deal to the Knicks as proposed is “done.” Marc Spears of Yahoo! confirms.

The Timberwolves receive Eddy Curry, Anthony Randolph, and $3 million from New York, although Ken Berger is reporting that they were not informed of the completed deal.
The Nuggets receive Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov, a 2014 New York first-round pick, a 2012 second-round pick, and a 2013 second-round pick (both from the Knicks, via Golden State).
The Knicks receive Corey Brewer, Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman, Anthony Carter, Chauncey Billups, and, of course, Carmelo Anthony.

Update: Alan Hahn of Newsday and Marc Spears of Yahoo! are both tweeting that the Knicks-Nuggets deal could be done as early as tonight, and should be finalized by tomorrow.

Adrian Wojnarowski’s sources have told him that the Nets are fielding multiple offers, and that the Portland offer isn’t even in the lead. One of these deals is a three-way between Dallas, New Jersey, and Denver which would land Harris in Dallas and Felton/Mozgov in New Jersey. No word if this is independent of a Gallinari deal, but even so, I don’t think Cuban would take on Harris with Kidd and Terry already in the rotation.

As an aside, Carmelo will be on Conan O’Brien tonight. However, the show was pre-taped. Oops.

Another day of Carmelo Anthony.

Today’s been a pretty wild day regarding the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors, so let’s take a quick look at what’s been going on.

According to Fred Kerber of the New York Post, Carmelo was going to indicate whether or not he would plan to sign an extension with New Jersey today. As of the time of this writing, there is still no word on that, although Chris Mannix has tweeted that the Nets have pulled out of negotiations. I wouldn’t count on this as hard fact, but it seems that the Nets are essentially out of the running.

However, an interesting wrinkle has emerged: multiple sources are reporting that if the New York Knicks end up dealing Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, and Timofey Mozgov (with other assets) for ‘Melo, the Nuggets would then flip Mozgov plus one of the other three (likely Gallinari) to – get this – the Nets, for two unconfirmed first-round draft picks. Now, if these picks are of good value, I’ll be a little disappointed – I don’t think those guys are worth giving up multiple lottery picks for. But as a fan of Gallinari, Chandler, and Felton, I think that’d be a great deal to pull off. Plus, it would really stick in James Dolan’s craw.

Also, Al Iannazzone recently reports that the Nets are still trying to find a home for Devin Harris, who appears more and more every day to have played his final game in a New Jersey Nets uniform. While no one is interested in the albatross that is Travis Outlaw’s contract, a deal of Devin Harris and the expiring Troy Murphy for Andre Miller & Joel Przybilla has been discussed. The talks are allegedly “not close,” but since this trade has been floated for months and is now just gaining steam, there’s a good chance there’s fire in the smoke. Troy Murphy has also been rumored for a day or two to potentially be going to Golden State for Brandan Wright, and that deal is still on the table. These deals would only go down if the Nets didn’t acquire ‘Melo, but are independent of the Mozgov combo deal.

I wish I could tell you definitively that this will all be over tomorrow, but I’ve thought that on about 50 different nights since September. However, the trade deadline is looming large, and it should be done by Thursday.

Stay tuned.

Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z got their audience with Carmelo Anthony last night and at the end of the day, the common consensus is still that the Denver star prefers the New York Knicks. But the Nuggets prefer the Nets package of young talent, expiring and four draft picks.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, this could be a game of chicken between Denver and ‘Melo that goes all the way up until Thursday’s trade deadline:

Nevertheless, the Nets’ best hope remains that Denver refuses to do a deal with New York, gets to the trade deadline on Thursday and simply tells Anthony: If you want your $65 million extension, you can only get it with the Nets. If not, we will keep you and let you go to free agency.

“Denver still wants the Nets deal, not New York’s,” a league executive told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday night.

Ultimately, this may still come to a bluff between the Nuggets and Anthony. Are the Nuggets willing to lose him for nothing and let him go into free agency? Is Anthony willing to finish the year with Denver and go into the uncertainty of free agency and a new collective-bargaining agreement that could cost him tens of millions of dollars on a max contract?

It’s a sad statement on the Nets organization that their only “hope” of becoming relevant is if the player in question is essentially dared into coming here. We get it. Anthony does not want to be a Net. Not before, not now. Does that mean the trade won’t happen? I don’t know, but I had infinite more respect in Mikhail Prokhorov when he wasn’t going to beg – and he’s seemingly begging again, which is pathetic.

With reports that Knicks owner James Dolan is now spearheading negotiations for Carmelo Anthony, it seems like the Knickerbockers are increasing their offer to Denver to counter the Nets standing (and seemingly agreed upon deal) of Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, Ben Uzoh, Troy Murphy and four first round draft picks.

However, there’s a feeling from some that with Mikhail Prokhorov now in Los Angeles, and the Nuggets still preferring the Nets offer to the Knicks, that Anthony will follow the dollar bills to Newark. Chris Mannix writes:

Will it happen? Probably. Prokhorov didn’t fly thousands of miles to watch Favors compete in the Rookie-Sophomore Challenge. At some point, in the midst of all the madness, the two men will find a quiet room to have a conversation, and the real bargaining can begin. Despite what has become an obvious desire to play for the Knicks, several rival executives have told SI.com they believe Anthony will ultimately agree to sign a long-term extension with the Nets for the simple reason that, as one executive said, “Anthony is all about the money.”

After watching this blow up on the Nets twice before, I still can’t shake the feeling that this is all about Denver using the Nets for leverage in their talks with the Knicks. If Anthony senses he’s close to going to his preferred destination, unless Denver tells him explicitly the Knicks deal is off the table, why would he consider coming to the Nets. That’s not even considering how the Nets, as Mannix writes, are pulling a Ricky Williams type deal here for the guy. The Nets are never getting any further than the first or maybe second round of the playoffs with a team built around ‘Melo, and so much can change with the CBA you can’t bank on the Nets being able to attract a Chris Paul or Deron Williams in 2012. I still don’t get why 42 wins a 6th seed in 2011-12 (if there is a 2011-12), essentially what the Knicks are headed towards now with Amare, is such a desired destination for some Nets fans and for the front office.