Carmelo Anthony Ready To Leave Denver For NY + Tracy McGrady Signs With Detroit

Sports | hiphopucit | August 19, 2010 at 11:57 am

All signs continue to point toward the eventual divorce between Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets.

League sources say it is now a matter of when, not if, Anthony and the Nuggets will go their separate ways.

Anthony is weighing whether to sign a three-year, $65 million extension offered by the Nuggets. His dilemma, league sources say, is what affords him the best chance of continuing his career elsewhere. Anthony could sign with Denver and convince the team to then trade him. His other option would be to not sign the extension, thereby forcing the team to move him rather than risk losing him next summer as a free agent.

During his annual basketball camp in Colorado on Saturday, Anthony said he had no timetable on when he’ll decide whether to sign the extension.

In either case, “he’s going to make it real clear that he’s not coming back,” said one league source.

But both Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke and Anthony already are well aware that they don’t have a future together, sources say. That became clear to Kroenke at a reception after Anthony’s July 11 nuptials to La La Vasquez in Manhattan.

A series of toasts at the wedding reception, initiated by New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, suggested Anthony leave Denver for the New York Knicks. Paul suggested it playfully, one source said, but subsequent guests — including Knicks power forward Amare Stoudemire and Anthony’s brother, Robert — made the point more forcefully.

Then Kroenke stood up to give a toast and the room was filled with an awkward silence, one wedding guest said. Kroenke tried to make light of the situation by suggesting Paul could come to Denver but that elicited no response.

While Anthony stood and applauded Kroenke when he was recognized, he apparently did nothing to discourage or dismiss the suggestions that he should leave the Nuggets.

“There were other people saying, ‘We’re going to get you guys together,’ but it doesn’t become a runaway train if Melo says something,” said one source. “Maybe he didn’t perpetuate it, but tell people to stop or say, ‘Stan, I’m sorry.’ He didn’t do any of that.”

Paul has since met with Hornets management and appears less eager to leave New Orleans, but all the signals from Anthony are that he would like to be in a different uniform this season.

Wedding signals included.

Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, could not be reached for comment and the Nuggets declined to comment.

Tracy McGrady Signs With The Detroit Pistons

DETROIT – Tracy McGrady has agreed to a one-year, $1.35 million contract with the Detroit Pistons, a source told ESPN.com.

McGrady played in just 30 games last season for the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks. He had major surgery on his right knee in the middle of the 2008-09 season.

The seven-time All-Star and two-time scoring champion drew some interest from the Chicago Bulls this summer.

Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson told “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000 that McGrady had “a very good workout” for the team, but didn’t fit with the Bulls’ plans.

“He’s a good guy. But we just felt that given where we’re at, and the way we want to play, we do want to be more of an up-tempo team on the offensive end. We want to run and push the ball,” Paxson said.

“It was more based on the youth of our team and where we’re at. He’ll do well. Tracy looked like he was just going to turn the corner physically,” he said.

The 6-foot-8 wing averaged 8.2 points last season, his lowest-scoring season since 1997-98, when he was a rookie with the Toronto Raptors after skipping college. Just two years ago, though, he averaged 21-plus points for the eighth time in his career.

If McGrady accepts his role, likely as a reserve, he could prove to be a bargain playing for the veteran’s minimum even if he doesn’t approach his career scoring average of 21.5 points.

“I’ve made a lot of money over my career and I could retire right now and I could be fine financially,” McGrady said in February after he was traded by the Rockets to the Knicks while making $23 million in the last year of his contract. “My kids can be fine when they get older. Money is not an issue for me.”

McGrady, who is from Bartow, Fla., was drafted No. 9 overall in the 1997 draft by Toronto. He went to Orlando in a sign-and-trade deal in 2000 and was dealt four years later to Houston.

His last healthy season was five years ago. He missed 34 games during the 2005-06 season with back problems; elbow and knee injuries led to him missing 16 games two years later; and microfracture surgery put his career in jeopardy about 1½ years ago.

If he’s relatively healthy, happy and effective for the Pistons, McGrady will provide a boost for a team that missed the playoffs this year for the first time since 2001 with its worst record since 1995.