Howard to the Lakers

Associated Press

Dwight Howard is finally no longer a Orlando Magic.  The superstar Center as been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade that involved four teams.

The four team trade sent Howard to the Lakers and was completed late Thursday night according to sources.  Howard still stands firm on not signing an extension and becoming a free agent at the end of this upcoming season.  But the Lakers are not worried about that.  Lakers were willing to sign Howard without an extension believing that once Howard gets an experience of a championship culture he would be willing to stay longer.

Who's Really the Winner?

In case you haven't noticed and you've been living under the rock, the New York Knicks are beyond struggling so far this season.  The Knicks went into this season being one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference and they have failed to live up to that expectation.  Then on the other hand you have the Denver Nuggets who were thought to be doomed and would be a while before they bounced backed are having an amazing season thus far and playing really great basketball.  So this has me thinking...

Who really was the winner out of the Carmelo Anthony trade?

'Melo Drama Has Come to An End

Getty Images

February 16, 2011 was Carmelo Anthony's last time suiting up as a Denver Nugget and as of late yesterday Melo will not be suiting up for the Nuggets tonight as they take on the Memphis Grizzlies. After a long drawn out process and lots of acquisitions and assumptions Carmelo Anthony has been traded to the New York Knicks.  Melo had made it clear over the past year that he wanted to be in New York and the deal was made late Monday coming just a little over 2 days left until the trade deadline. Throughout the trade process the New Jersey Nets had taking themselves in and out of the talk of acquiring Melo but the deal seemed to go downhill for them when Melo made it clear that he would not sign a contract extension with the Nets or the Nuggets. It will get pretty interesting to see how the east competition gets turned up now that Melo is a Knick.  The New York Knicks are currently in 7th place in the Eastern Conference. Let's see if Melo helps them move up some spots in the standings.  Below is a chart of who the Nuggets and the Knicks got:

Knicks get:

G Chauncey Billups

F Renaldo Balkman

F Carmelo Anthony

C Shelden Williams

Nuggets get:

G Raymond Felton

F Danilo Gallinari

F Wilson Chandler

C Timofey Mozgov

$3 million in cash

2014 first-round pick

2012 second-round pick (originally Warriors' pick)

2013 second-round pick (originally Warriors' pick)

'Melo Drama

After a meeting was scheduled between Carmelo Anthony and New Jersey Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov on Monday, Prokhorov later cancelled the meeting and told his office to stop the pursuit of the trade with the Denver Nuggets for Carmelo Anthony.  The Nets organization only wanted to sign Carmelo if he would have signed a contract extension which seemed to be a no coming from Melo.  After feeling that Melo wouldn't sign the contract extension, the owner stopped the pursuit of Carmelo Anthony and Prokhorov stated that the deal was becoming too expensive.  Anthony stated that he still feels that he will still be traded by the trade deadline February 25th, but until then he's focused on playing basketball for the Denver Nuggets.  Melo is beginning to get irritated by all of the media attention and speculations with all the trade talks and has stated he will no longer answer any questions pertaining to anything other then the games at hand.

Will He Stay or Will He Go?

The Nuggets have heated up lately as the talk of Forward Carmelo Anthony being traded to the New Jersey Nets have intensified.  Denver has won the last two games scoring at least 130 points in both games, one of whom was against the #2 seat in the East the Miami Heat.  In the game Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns the Nuggets knocked the Suns off winning 132-98 and later in the week, Thursday, beat the Miami Heat 130-102.  

 Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America

The potential trade including Carmelo Anthony would consist of a 3 team, 15 player trade.  According to NBA.com it is stated, "The deal would supposedly send Anthony, along with guards Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter, along with center Shelden Williams, to the Nets. Detroit would send veteran Rip Hamilton to New Jersey. The Nets would send guard Devin Harris, rookie forward Derrick Favors, guards Anthony Morrow, Stephen Graham, Quinton Ross and Ben Uzoh, along with two first-round picks, to the Nuggets. New Jersey would send center Johan Petro and forward Troy Murphy (and his expiring $12 million contract) to Detroit."


Carmelo Anthony doesn't feel that the trade is imminent and later went on to say:


"That's my feeling. I don't think so. I don't want to elaborate on that anymore. That's just my own personal feeling," Anthony said following practice.


"I'm here," Anthony said. "Until something happens, I'm a Denver Nugget."

Heat's Hot Streak Comes to An End

The Heat have now struggled two games back to back after Lebron James suffered an ankle sprain in the game Wednesday 1.12.11 against the LA Clippers.  Wade and the rest of the Heat went into Denver last night with their heads held high hoping they would be able to take down the Nuggets without the help of King James.  D.Wade and the Heat fell to the hands of the Nuggets 130-102 and have now struggled to close out and win the last two nights.  The Heat have now fell back into 2nd place behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference as their 9 game-winning streak came to an end Wednesday.  The Heat are now preparing to head to Chicago to take on the Bulls this Saturday for the last stop in their 5-game road trip.