Destination Carmelo

Carmelo Anthony, perhaps the most pure scorer in the league. Young and successful. And no I'm not saying this because he brought my Syracuse Orange a national championship in '03. This is a franchise player up for grabs. He wants out of Denver, and Denver has made it clear he is available (albeit at a hefty price). Waking up every morning I'm just waiting for news to break of a trade. To the Knicks? Nets? Lakers?! Teams just getting tossed into the mix like croutons. I tend to believe there are 2 teams that would be perfect for Melo and perfect for both franchises as well. Denver has shown it wants draft picks and young players. So here are my underdog teams for trades:

A) Los Angeles....

Clippers:

Yes I know, Sterling is still the owner of the Clippers and has always been cheap. We all know this. But think about this....here is an opportunity to bring in a face of the franchise type player. To bring even more hype to the Clips or as I call them....The Blake Show. Trading for Melo would make the Clips an instant contender.

My Proposed Trade:
Clippers receive: SF Carmelo Anthony & PF Kenyon Martion
Nuggets receive: C Chris Kaman, PG Baron Davis, SF Al-Farouq Aminu, (2) 1st Round Picks

Why it would work:
Nuggets would receive Chris Kaman to play C and be able to move Nene to PF. Talk about a very tough post tandem. They also would receive Aminu who is young and has shown flashes of becoming a very capable scorer in the league and he can defend. Taking on Baron would be a drawback but would allow them to move Billups in a seperate trade. This way allowing them to keep Ty Lawson coming off the bench where he best utilized.

Clippers would lose their starting PG but Bledsoe and Foye are both capable of handling the PG duties. Think about this line-up. Bledsoe/Foye...Eric Gordon...Melo...Blake...DeAndre Jordan. Very very solid line-up that would compete every night. Throw in K-mart coming off the bench when he's healthy. This is K-mart's last year in his current contract which pays him $16 mill...so taking that off the books allows Clippers to save money to re-up Blake ASAP.

B) Minnesota Timberwolves

Ok so the Timerwolves were being thrown around as a 3rd wheel team in the Knicks/Nuggets talks. Ok Carmelo probably wouldn't want to play there anyways. It is Kahn we are talking about, it is Minnesota we are talking about, it is Lala we are talking about.  But this deal makes a whole lot of sense. Plus it gives me butterflies thinking about how many former Syracuse players I can fit onto one team.

My Proposed Trade:
Timberwolves receive: SF Carmelo Anthony
Nuggets receive: SF Corey Brewer, PF Michael Beasley, rights to PG Ricky Rubio

Why it would work:

Mmmmm...Flynn....Melo...Wes Johnson. The Timberwolves get their first stud since KG. Rubio will probably never suit up for the Wolves so why not just move him? Let him become the Nugget's problem. Timberwolves have Flynn and Ridnour/Bassy to handle PG, Wesley Johnson is versatile enough to move him to the 2 spot where they also have Ellington. Melo would fit right in at the 3 where he would be backed up by Martell Webster. Kevin Love is an all-star 4 who can stretch defenses allowing Melo to post up undersized 3s and keeping the paint clean. All the Wolves would need is a viable center...Darko is not the answer Kahn, ask Chris Webber....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G848nahXCec

The Nuggets on the other hand receive their PG of the future in Rubio, IF they can get him over here. Billups has one more year on his contract after this season so he becomes a nice trade chip for a team looking to clear some space next year. They replace some of Melo's scoring with Beasley and obtain a nice little bench addition with Brewer (in the last year of his contract).


Rest assured wherever Melo lands, he will help not only in the win column, but help change the culture of the team.