Denver star Carmelo Anthony is more than 1,600 miles away from New Jersey, but still manages to cast an oversized shadow all the way to Nets practice — and he might keep doing it all the way to Dec. 15.
Two people close to the negotiations say the teams are having dialogue, but there is no move imminent. With the Nets having arguably the best pieces to offer the still-shopping Nuggets, it could come down to Dec. 15, when free agents signed this summer can get traded.
“A lot more players become available. The pool gets bigger. Generally deadlines make people make decisions,” general manager Billy King said.
He couldn’t speak directly about Anthony or face tampering charges, but when asked if a big deal was imminent he responded “No, I don’t see anything.”
The Nets could offer a package centered around third overall pick Derrick Favors, picks and the expiring contracts of Troy Murphy ($11.968 million) and/or Chris Humphries ($3.2 million). Favors has averaged just 7.3 points and 5.1 rebounds this preseason, with coach Avery Johnson reiterating yesterday that he’s not ready to start, despite having shown improvement over the last three games.
As Denver GM Masai Ujiri fishes for the best offer, King exhibits the patience he learned in Philadelphia, including sorting through trade partners until the right match is found.
“It’s a grind. You keep plugging at it and throwing darts against a wall and hopefully get what you want,” King said. “You keep trying to figure out what they want, and that’s how it ends up four or five-team deals. You try keep figuring out what everybody wants, keep shuffling the deck and give everybody different playing cards.”
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The Nets cut center Brian Zoubek, while Murphy (back) is expected to do some non-contact work today, and go through half of Monday’s practice, although Johnson said playing in Wednesday’s opener would take “a miracle.”
“I’m just trying to get things going a little bit. They wanted me to shut it down and let the medicine work, [do] shooting, light running. [Today] I’ll do a little bit more, ramp it up,” said Murphy, who hasn’t let bring linked in Anthony trade rumors vex him.
“Not really, it kinda is what it is. I understand it’s a business and that’s pretty much it. It can happen anytime.”