Pistons Blog

Category: Pistons

About Billups for Anthony

Have the Pistons and Nuggets talked about the possibility of trading Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince for Carmelo Anthony? Yes.

Are the talks recent and on-going? No.

Is the deal dead? Not quite, but nearly.

Here's the deal (this will be on the detnews.com website in a more formal manner later on tonight): Two weeks ago, Nuggets vice president Mark Warkentien called Pistons president Joe Dumars. A story had leaked out of Denver that the Nuggets were interested in Billups. Warkentien called initially to apologize for the information leak, but in the process, asked Dumars what it might take to pry Billups away. Dumars said, straight-up, Anthony.

They talked about that for a bit. Prince was added because, obviously, Anthony plays Prince's position. But in the end, Warkentien said the Nuggets weren't looking to move Anthony. He asked if Dumars wanted Marcus Camby or Allen Iverson. Dumars said no. If the Nuggets wanted Billups, then he wanted Anthony. That's where it ended. Two weeks ago.

But, the rumors persisted. In the meantime, Anthony started to get upset. He had his agents confront Warkentien about the rumors, which led to the reports Saturday night that the Nuggets "vetoed" the proposed trade.

Now, come on. You can't veto a trade that never got beyond the preliminary discussion stages. You can't veto a trade that you initiated. But, Warkentien and the Nuggets are trying to mollify and reassure Anthony that they still love him. If that means spinning things a certain way, then so be it.

So where do things sit? Anthony's agents -- Bill Duffy and Calvin Andrews -- are meeting with the Nuggets on Monday. Part of the meeting will be to discuss Antony's latest DUI arrest. The other part will be to discuss Anthony's future with the team.

I suppose there is a chance the meeting could go bad -- maybe the Nuggets threated to punish Anthony for the DUI or something -- and the Nuggets decide that they want to trade Anthony. More likely, though, the Nuggets will declare their love for Melo and announce to the world that they are not trading him.