Nuggets fans should write a thank you card to Carmelo Anthony

After all the months leading up to his trade to the New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony was called every bad name in the book. No one could believe that he was demanding a trade while still under contract with the Nuggets. People said he should just play out his contract and then he could do whatever he wanted in free agency. But, as we look back on this deal I can’t help but think that Carmelo didn’t get enough praise for being honest about what he wanted. Now of course he couldn’t tell the media how he truly felt because he would get fined, but he let management know of his desire to leave and that allowed this deal to happen.

And the deal, by the way, turned out to be pretty darn good for the Nuggets who acquired Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Kosta Koufos and Timofey Mozgov. Every one of those players has upside and they can put up solid numbers. By doing the deal early instead of waiting right until the deadline, the Nuggets could also use those new players in other trades to get various assets which they feel would best suit their team.

Carmelo could have sabotaged the entire deal for the Nuggets by saying he would only play for the Knicks. He could have refused to meet with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and minority owner Jay-Z over All-Star weekend. But for the sake of the Denver Nuggets he played along, and remained non-committal after their much hyped meeting. That meeting and the proposed deal by the Nets caused the Knicks to get scared, and offer much more than they were originally willing to give up. Before the reemergence of the Nets in the talks the Knicks never intended to include Felton, Gallinari, or Mozgov in a deal for Melo.

Nuggets fans probably still have some contempt for Melo, but that should have already begun to disappear after a great win Tuesday night by the new look Nuggets. Even though they lack a superstar for the time being things could be worse, they could be the Cavs. You know Cavs and Raptors fans have to be envious of the great package Denver got for Anthony. As everyone knows the Cavs and Raptors were left with largely worthless assets when their superstars bolted for the white sand of South Beach. ESPN’s J.A. Adande puts it best:

“The Cavs and Raptors made last-minute sign-and-trade deals for picks and trade exceptions, but those are just possibilities and cap space. The Nuggets have more tangible assets.”

During these last six months Anthony was also portrayed as being greedy for wanting to sign his three year extension, instead of waiting for free agency where he was bound to lose millions of dollars. Some people said he should give up the money just like Lebron did when he went to the Miami HEAT. With his new extension, Melo will make$ 21.6 million a year. Since he will live in New York he must pay a 7.7% state income tax on that money which would be something around $1.6 million. After taxes his salary will be about $19.9 million. Since Lebron signed with Miami he doesn’t have to pay state income tax in Florida. He makes $19.2 million a year. So is Anthony really being that greedy if he’s making just $700,000 more than Lebron?

Over the summer, after Melo saw the backlash from Cavs fans towards James, he probably thought that he should tell the Nuggets front office asap that he wanted out of Denver. I think he just never imagined that the trade process would take so long and that so many fans would turn on him for having the guts to tell his team he did not see them in his future. He did the right thing, and now his former team’s rebuilding process will be much easier thanks to the good players they were able to acquire for him.

So Nuggets fans get out your pens and start writing because I know thousands of people in Cleveland and Toronto who would die to be in your shoes.