Melo drama only just beginning

 On the night his wife's self-absorbed reality show (wait, that was redundant) debuted on VH-1, Carmelo Anthony was the bigger story. Both ESPN and AOL FanHouse late last night reported that the Denver Nuggets are now listening to offers -- let's emphasize that, they're at this point just listening and not actively shopping him or preparing to make a move -- for Melo, who continues to make it clear that he and Lala Vazquez have little interest in keeping Denver as their winter home.

Let the Melopalooza begin.

And let the next wave of speculation and conjecture follow, with the list of suitors from the very reasonable (Nets) to the absurd (Houston Rockets), with the Knicks -- the team we are led to believe (by friends of the family) is his top choice -- nowhere near the conversation.

Before you get your power blue headbands in a bunch, Fixers, you have to accept the fact that the Knicks, right now, can not make a competitive bid. That's reality (in fact, way more reality than what we saw in the debut of Lala's Full Court Wedding). They have two unproven commodities in Danilo Gallinari, Anthony Randolph and Timofey Mozgov (seriously) and the earliest they can yield a first round pick is in 2014. The Clippers can do better than that without even touching Blake Griffin (but Nugs GM Masai Ujiri has to go hard after Eric Gordon).

The Nuggets are going to get some solid offers for Carmelo and don't sleep on those Clippers, either. You may note from Lala's show (as if you really stuck with the Manning Bowl beyond the third quarter last night), the Anthony family spends a lot of time in Los Angeles. Sure, we're talking about the Clippers, but they do have a very talented young team with a solid veteran point guard. They just don't really have any real sustainable structure above equipment manager. How much of that will matter to Melo? If it's about quality of life, not quality of basketball, then Melo has an easy decision here.

As we told you last week, the Nets are very much in play and want to be. Jay-Z is still smarting over losing out on LeBron (though Bron still got a VIP ticket to the Yankee Stadium show, so perhaps the spat is over) and the Nets are reeling from having a very Nets-like offseason. Mikhail Prokhorov didn't absorb all this debt just to chill with Travis Outlaw and Jordan Farmar. 

The Knicks? As we've repeatedly said, all they can do is hope this thing carries deep into the season (and, from what we believe, it will) and that their portfolio of young assets increases in value. And even then, if Gallinari, Randolph and Mozgov are tearing it up and Denver is interested in two of the three (plus, of course, Eddy Curry's expiring just to make the salary match work), the Knicks still have to believe that's the best move for the franchise.

And Denver's hands-on owner's son/executive Josh Kroenke has to want to trade him to the Knicks, where he knows Melo wants to go (that was made clear when Chris Paul toasted the idea right in front of Josh and his dad, Stan, at Melo and Lala's wedding in July...can't wait to see THAT scene on the show).

Melo, too, has to believe wherever he agrees to go is the best move for him (and, of course, Lala). That's what limits Denver's options. They could get some great offers from teams that Melo would never accept (this means you, Memphis), so he still holds some veto power. 

But inevitable changes to the CBA and the likelihood of a very strict (read: hard cap) new system could mean a loss of millions in potential salary for Melo if he rides this out until July and jumps into the shallow waters of free agency in 2011. The Nuggets, aware of how the Cavs and Raptors were abandoned, feel like this is their trump card.

But, hey, didn't LeBron just leave $30M on the table in Cleveland?