On Wednesday the Russian Billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets quashed the widely-held assumption that the Denver Nuggets were closing in on a deal to send star forward Carmelo Anthony to New Jersey.
"[The deal] has taken too long. It has been played out in public. The uncertainty has taken a toll on the players ... and I believe it has cost us several games," Mikhail Prokhorov said at a press conference.
The same might be said of the Denver Nuggets, who--as the Denver Post reported this week--seemed distracted by the constant swirling of rumors surrounding Anthony.
The difference for the Nuggets is that the rumors won't end here. The team still has to decide what to do about Anthony. If GM Masai Ujiri and President Josh Kroenke do not make a deal before the February 24 trading deadline, Melo will become a free agent at the end of the season and the team will risk losing its star for nothing in return.
So where do the Nuggets go from here?
As ESPN's Chris Sheridan said on Thursday, the New York Knicks now move into the drivers seat in negotiations. The Knicks are the one team that Anthony has publicly said he would like to play for. However, the team has yet to assemble a package of assets that would be attractive to the Nuggets. Donnie Walsh, the Knicks' president, has never publicly stated that he's interested in Anthony, but anonymous NBA sources told ESPN this week that the team was looking to acquire another first round draft pick to sweeten a potential Anthony deal.
Yahoo sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported before Prokhorov's bombshell on Wednesday that Anthony's representation was reaching back out to the Chicago Bulls, a team that Anthony has expressed interest in playing for. However, negotiations between the Bulls and Nuggets never gained much traction this summer.
The Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks have also reportedly expressed interest in "renting" Anthony for rest of this season even though Anthony is unlikely to sign a long-term extension.
As for the rest of the Nuggets, they're realistic about the drama likely to ensue. "That's just how it's going to be for the next month," Chauncey Billups told the Denver Post.