Knicks offer for ‘Melo may be draft pick-less

If the Nets are truly out of the running for Carmelo, a draft pick-less offer from New York may be the best offer Denver can get. (Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

According to the latest bit of Carmelo Anthony news — broken first by Alan Hahn of Newsday and then amplified Wednesday morning by Ken Berger of CBS Sports — the Nuggets might be warming up to dealing with the Knicks after months of rejecting New York’s offers as inadequate. Even more surprising: Denver may now like Anthony Randolph to be included in any ‘Melo deal rather than having the Knicks deal Randolph separately for a first-round pick they would then send to Denver.

This is a strange thing, for this reason: If New York doesn’t acquire an extra first-round pick, it won’t be able to send one to Denver. That would mean the Nuggets, after weeks of saying they preferred draft picks over anything else, would accept some package like Randolph/Young Knicks Player/Eddy Curry’s expiring contract/Maybe Another Young Knicks Player. But no draft picks, at least not via the Knicks.

Why? Because as long as the Knicks lack a 2012 pick — which they sent to Houston last season — they cannot deal any of their first-rounders between 2011 and 2016, according to salary cap guru Larry Coon. Because of various protections on that pick, it could go to Houston in any draft from 2012 through 2015, and thus the rule prohibiting teams from trading consecutive first-round picks effectively applies — for now — in each season through 2016, Coon tells me.

This makes last week’s ESPN Radio report that the Nuggets turned down an offer of Landry Fields/Wilson Chandler/Curry/first-round pick confusing. Where is that first-round pick coming from? Was it just a theoretical pick floated by Knicks officials — “Hey, we can get a first-rounder for Randolph, and if we do that, we can send you this package”?  It’s impossible to know.

A pick-less offer from New York still may the best Denver can do if New Jersey really doesn’t want back in this thing — and some well-connected folks reportedly remain skeptical about Mikhail Prokhorov’s declaration that New Jersey is done chasing ‘Melo.

There are too many unknowns, too many agendas to sort through here. As has always been the case, in the micro-picture, what we don’t know trumps what we do. The macro-picture remains the same as ever.