Carmelo Anthony has made it clear to the Denver Nuggets that wants out, and apparently there is no chance at changing his mind. This is a huge blow to the Nuggets that will set them back in the highly competitive Western Conference.

With Anthony now all but officially gone, and recent efforts to move J.R.Smith (which were even more recently complicated by Smith having the police called on him), Denver’s status of powerhouse is swiftly descending into a franchise clearler resembling a team in rebuilding mode.

Man I gotta get outta here.

New owner Josh Kroenke and GM Masai Ujiri will be forced to test the waters of NBA startup.

Realistically, with Melo out of the picture in Denver, how soon is it before Chauncey Billups begins asking to be traded somewhere he can contend? At this point in his career Billups deserves to be somewhere his contributions count, and Denver may as well try to cash in on him for draft picks and youth while also developing Ty Lawson at the point.

Another question Melo’s departure raises is whether or not George Karl plans to stick around and subject himself to this malay. The guy just battled throat cancer, what else dos he need to suffer through? A contender right on the verge of doing something special, or sticking around through the growing pains of a rebuilding franchise?

It has been report by NBA Fanhouse that the Denver Nuggets have placed J.R. Smith on the trading block. Smith is a solid player, but who would want to take on all the psychological baggage that comes with him?

For starters, Smith is inconsistent from year to year, fluctuating from one year to the next. Who wants inconsistency? How do you build with that?

Which J.R. Smith will show up for your team?

Also, it seems like it always takes him the first half of the season to warm up, then start to perform well. Here is a look at his numbers for the 2009-10 season:

Sure everyone likes a strong finisher, but what kind of impact will this have on a team’s first half record?  His scoring is slightly better on higher shooting percentages across the board, but do you really want 46 games at a lower performance level, knowing this is how the guy is and that is what to expect?

Even a few wins make a difference and can cost your team a prime slot in the playoffs.

Smith is also known for a history of not getting along with his coach, George Karl. Disruptive teammates can cause major distractions to team chemistry. The Nuggets have a pension for maximizing the talents of players possessing the “thug” mentality, so what sort of degradation in performance and behavior should a potential trade suitor expect?

Smith has shown us all otherworldly talents on the basketball court. He shows us flashes of absolute brilliance with enough frequency to rekindle the hope that he will someday put it all together. Probably so much for a team to take him via trade and cross their fingers. Realistically though, Smith is entering his 7th year and about to turn 25 in September.

Smith represents the ultimate high risk, high reward potential. The bad attitude and immaturity issues can be a huge detriment, and will likely eliminate him from conservative management.

That being said, where could J.R. Smith end up?

Derrick Rose had a lot on his mind when it comes to LeBron James’ decision to join the Miami Heat, and shared it with ESPN Radio. After discussing his new teammate Carlos Boozer, Rose eventually had this to say about LeBron James:

“If he really wanted to come he would have come no matter what. He is grown, he makes his own decisions, and to him he made the right decision so everybody has to live with it because he has to live with it.”

Driving to the lane is not going to cut it.

Rose clearly looks forward to the challenge, adding:

“Yeah, it’s going to be fun. Playing the Heat is going to be fun,” Rose said. “I don’t know about anybody else’s team but I think my team is ready for war.”

Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah,  and the newly acquired Carlos Boozer will form a solid line up to compete against the “Super Friends” Miami Heat lineup of James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.

Realistically though, Rose must drastically improve his outside shooting to give Chicago any chance of beating the elite. Until he can spread the floor from from the outside, teams can defend the  post and offer up better defense.

Rose will definitively dominate Miami unless they assign Wade the defensive task of trying to slow Rose, which I could easily envision creating problems for the Bulls. Wade has all the bulk and speed to hang with Rose. Wade can beat on Rose for the majority of 48 minutes.

As it stands now, Miami and Chicago and both poised to strike at Boston for supremacy in the Eastern Conference. If Rose starts draining the 3 ball, it will infinitely help the Bulls’ cause.

The Indiana Pacers have solidified their point guard situation, after a 5-year lapse at the position, by acquiring Darren Collision. Although the Pacers had to give up Troy Murphy and take on the inflated salary of James Posey, the Pacers made the right decision by pulling the trigger on this deal.

Collison showed star caliber potential with the Hornets after stepping in for Chris Paul last season, and averaged a not-so-average 18.8 points and 9.1 assists during 37 starts.

Larry Bird had these thoughts to share on how Collison will immediately help the youth movement in Indiana:

“I think it helps out tremendously,” Bird said. “I think this was the piece that we needed. The vision I have for this franchise is to get the core group up and ready to go as quick as we can, and this piece here will accelerate everything.”

Indiana Pacers fans already have shown their approval of this move, as ticket sales have already experienced a jolt after they heard the news. Perhaps they all recall the triple double produced against the Pacers in February.

Hope has arrived in Indiana.

Collison is accustomed to a winning brand of basketball, and he will bring his UCLA heritage of winning and inject it into the culture of Indiana basketball:

“People can look forward to a player that loves to win,I just want to bring that excitement back to the city.What I am is a hard-working player, someone that loves to win and will do anything to win games,” Collison said. “Last year with New Orleans, it didn’t sit well with me because we didn’t make the playoffs. I’m not accustomed to that coming from UCLA.”

Although the Easter Conference has suddenly become more tough with all the free agency action skewing the talent to the east, the Pacers can at least offer their fans hope to return to the playoffs.

The Pacers are stuck dealing with T.J. Ford, whom declined a buyout and will serve as Collison’s highly overpriced backup at $8.5 million this year.

Regardless of any unfavorable situations Ford may cause due to his own unhappiness,Indiana Pacers fans can now rejoice knowing they have solidified  a younger core.

Shaquille O’Neal and the Boston Celtics came to terms on a 2-year contract worth $3 million, adding to the size and bulk in Boston’s front line. The 15-time All Star will end his career with one of the most historic franchises in professional sports.

Shaq will definitely cause hype in Boston, but we must wonder how much diesel is left in the tank. He still has some thump to his game, but he is not getting any faster.

Shaq fills a void caused by Kendrick Perkins, who is recovering from knee surgery.

Shaq is selling yet another NBA jersey this year.

Shaq hopes to reinforce the Celtics chances of retaining their position as the best team in the Eastern Conference,  but will it be enough to keep the new Miami Heat out of the NBA Finals?

The Celtics might have gotten bigger, and possibly better, but they also got slower and much older. The Celtics brass must also know their FT % will be much worse.

Tyreke Evans was a force during his first NBA season, making it look effortless while driving to the rack with and scoring at will. Evans successful rookie season restored hope for the Sacramento Kings fan base, and he highlighted his impact season by taking home the NBA Rookie of the Year award.

I often questioned Evans’ decision making skills during his rookie season. I won’t lie, I am partial to Stephen Curry, and thought Curry was more intelligent with the ball in his hands, and overall a more potent player. Evans had a tendency to opt to call his own option too much for my taste, sometimes creating distance from his teammates within the offense.

Tyreke, this is a basketball, not a purple Benz.

This offseason Evans committed a big time “no-no” derived from a similar mindset of not using sound judgment.

He drove through the lane with reckless abandon. Unfortunately for Evans, this particular lane is otherwise known to residents of the Bay Area as Interstate 80. Evans drove while exceeding speeds of 120-130 MPH.

Here is the video footage, captured by California Highway Patrol air patrol.

Evans was eventually stopped and arrested at gun point.

His game might have won him rookie of the year, but it makes you wonder if this is the beginning of offseason behavior that can lead to the eventual derailment of an NBA career. Hopefully he has more common sense than J.R. Smith.

Let’s all hope he gets it together, because Evans’ future is bright, and we all want to see Sacramento Kings basketball return to a competitive level again.

Chris Paul is unhappy in New Orleans. Over the past three years the Hornets have fired the coach CP3 loves and traded away his good friend Tyson Chandler. They are in complete dissaray. and based on the way the Hornets management has made their moves, who can blame CP3 for wanting to leave?

You can only take so much James.......

In light of what has been happening in Miami, CP3 is now letting it known he wants out of New Orleans. It is fair to say he was patient, and gave them plenty of opportunities to make something happen with the franchise, but it is quite clear that the Hornets failed to deliver.

Now the Hornets face the sad reality that Paul wants to be sent to a team with a future. He wants the New York Knicks, and has a short list of other teams he will play for that includes Orlando, Dallas, and Portland.

New York Knicks

Oddly enough, if the Knicks could make the play for Paul, they could have quite a turnaround season. Paul would fit well into an uptempo system with Amare Stoudemire. Young gun Danilo Galinari is like Peja on steroids, but unlike Peja, he also rebounds and plays defense a ton better.

Newly acquired Anthony Randolph could represent CP3s new alley oop partner, and that combo has thepotential to give birth to a new brand of basketball in Madison Square Garden.

Orlando Magic

CP3 could join Dwight Howard to be the best big man and little man combination in the league. Hard to see this happening though, unless the Magic can convince the Hornets to take on some more bad contracts in exchange for CP3. See: Emeka Okafur.

Who in their rightful mind woudl want Rashard Lewis or Vince Carter at this point in either of their careers? Odds are one of these guys, if not both, would be packaged into the deal to make this happen. Can’t see the Hornets allowing that to happen.

Dallas Mavericks

Look for Mark Cuban to do everything in his power to make this happen. Paul is the caliber of player Cuban needs to put around Dirk Nowitski in order to give the Mavericks a chance to make something happen in the west this season.

Can you imagine the damage CP3 could cause as a Maverick. The tutelage he would recieve from Jason Kidd, and having Kidd as a backup gives Dallas a disctinct advantage at the PG position. Kidd as areserve would create the most dangerous second unit in all the NBA.

Portland Trail Blazers

There have been murmurs of CP3 being coveted by Portland for years now. Out of all the teams on Paul’s list, the Blazers have enough desirable assets to help facilitate this trade.

Rudy Fernandez, fan favorite and oft under-used, is unhappy in Portland. The Blazers have 3 starter-caliber centers in Greg Oden, Marcus Camby, and Joel Przybilla. All three have great trade value.

They also have PG Andre Miller.

A package with Andre Miller, Przybilla, Rudy Fernandez and could very easily work in matching the numbers. Portland would also be willing to take a bad salary back like that of none other than: Emeka Okafur. Sorry, it’s just too hard not to pick on that contract.

At the end of the day, when you look at all of these teams, Portland seems to be the best fit for making CP3’s desire for immediate title contention into a reality.

Pairing  Chris Paul with Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden, and Marcus Camby gives the Blazers the best squad to contend for a title. The Blazers are also the only team with enough quality assets to have the largest potential impact after a trade.

Orlando, Dallas, and New York would all have to give up too much talent to get Cp3, inevitably thinning their roster to their own detriment.

The Golden State Warriors have a new look, new ownership, and added a few new faces after clearing roster space to acquire David Lee via a sign and trade deal with the New York Knicks. Unfortunately, some of the Warriors misfortunes have followed them into the new look era. 

Ekpe Udoh, the number 6 overall draft selection in the 2010 NBA Draft has injured his wrist, becoming yet another Warriors draftee being injured. He is not expected back for at least 6 months. So the 6^th pick is injured for 6 months? What an unfortunate coincidence. 

Meanwhile, Greg Monroe has used his opportunities this summer to awe with his post and passing skills.  Oh yeah, he is healthy too. Hard to think about how the Warriors passed on his talents when they are relying on Andris Beidrins to hold down the middle. 

The biggest loss for the Warriors will be Anthony Randolph. Sure Don Nelson had zero faith in him, but when the kid played, he played hard. Sure he made mistakes, but it is hard to argue anyone in the league plays as hard as Randolph does. 

Randolph is now destined to follow the path of many ex-Warriors who will develop into NBA all Stars and have great success with a new team. Maybe he will be the latest ex-Warrior to deliver New York success a la Latrell Sprewell.  He is too multidimensional not to excel under a nurturing and understanding coach like Mike D’Antoni. 

The Warriors gave up a lot to get Lee.

Will Don Nelson be sacked? Let’s all hope so. Watching him coach has been nothing less than absolute torturous the past few seasons. It worsened once the league official informed him he could not be soused during his post game press conferences.  

Nelson has influenced too many bad personnel moves, the most recent including the banishment of Randolph. Rather than trade Randolph when he could have gotten higher value last year, he places him in the doghouse and lowers his value. Typical Warriors of old. 

To be fair, David Lee stands to benefit within the Warriors system, especially when you pair Lee with a backcourt containing Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry. 

Lee is be a beast on the boards and can flat out fill the lane on the break. This looks to be a match made in heaven. I still cannot condone giving up Randolph. He is far too promising and young to let go. 

If Biedrins shows up and avoids getting to the free throw line, the Warriors could have some serious rebounding on both ends of the glass. 

But with Ekpe already down, and with Brandon Wright with a separated shoulder away from joining him on the sidelines, what will the Warriors be able to do to in order to avoid over-exhausting their stars before the All Star break? 

The media has officially been set ablaze after LeBron James and Chris Bosh agreed to join Dwyane Wade to form the Miami Heat troika.

The Miami Heat is about to conquer the world.

LeBron has been highly criticized by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and the media for his decision.

I cannot see James making a better decision than he did. He wanted to win. NBA Players would rather play in Siberia than they would Cleveland. Cleveland should praise LeBron for not demanding a trade earlier.

But what does LeBron’s decision prove? It proves that he does value winning over everything else, especially his own self-love and his brand. He proves it by accepting less money in order to surround himself with better talent, and a better organization, and his first real chance at making a run at multiple championships.

And how do we know it is a better organization? Miami entered the league in 1988 and has already won a title. That settles any debate in my mind.

Or maybe it is the fact that Miami players stick with the organization after their careers are done, or that Wade could have left, but instead stayed and made this happen because the Miami organization instilled in Wade a sense of ultimate loyalty.

Fans in Cleveland have been burning his jersey to make their opinions known. I can’t really blame them, I do not really see any purpose to a Cavaliers Jersey or t shirt, other than kindle for the fire.

Nothing gets a fire going like Cleveland Cavaliers apparel!

But as time passes and wounds mend, and regardless of your disposition to James, you will have to marvel at watching the greatest combination of NBA players ever assembled on a single roster. It is going to be unfair for the rest of the league for a long time. Possibly the greatest run in NBA history since the Bill Russell Celtics era.

This decision by James paints him in an entirely different light to me. I have written about how he needed to make this move in order to truly grow his global brand, because everyone loves a winner. How can he possibly dilute his brand by winning multiple championships?

LeBron’s friendship with Wade and Bosh grew stronger with their experiences while winning the Gold Medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It allowed them to foster a fellowship that has made this happen. They all sacrificed financial gain for the sake of winning. To me, that is what the game of basketball is all about.

We are going to be treated to the best basketball we have seen in a long time. Wade, James and Bosh are all unselfish team-oriented players. They are willing to make the extra pass, and work extremely hard on defense.

Wade will be able to terrorize teams on offense like never before. Expect Wade to surpass Kobe Bryant as the greatest shooting guard in the NBA. Due to Wades supporting cast, teams were able to limit his brilliance. Now we can finally see it because Wade will have great players around him, just like Kobe has always had during his career.

James will have the best drive and dish options he has ever seen. Expect James passing skills to lead to more comparisons to Magic Johnson. For the first time since Oscar Robertson, a season-long average of a triple double is very possible.

Bosh will have the best one-on-one options down low. Defenses will have to sacrifice the damage by Bosh in the paint to try and slow Wade and James. We will see massive increase in Bosh’s efficiency, and whatever two players  Miami puts out with the big three will have an easy night every night.

LeBron James has a twitter account. Heck, he even launched a Facebook profile page as well. What is LeBron James missing?
Oh yeah, it’s an NBA Championship ring.

Articles covering the destiny of King James continually focus about how LeBron will abandon $30 million if he heads to Miami and how he risks deluding his brand as a result of possessing a supporting cast featuring Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

How in the world could this combination of NBA All Stars do anything but be a marketing team’s dream? It’s enough to leave everyone, LeBron included, scratching their heads.

Seriously dude how much can somebody love themself?

Is LeBron self-absorbed to the degree that even he can’t fathom the fact that his best opportunity at winning multiple rings in rapid succession should automatically come second to any branding strategy? It should be nothing less than his prime directive focal point.

People love winners. When all else fails in someones life, people forget everything bad that was said, or even in extreme cases (cough cough), they forget something like a highly publicized rape case involving arguably the best player in the NBA.

Hint, he just won his fifth ring this year, and he has changed his jersey number twice. If you have not figured that out yet, you might be a member of LeBron’s marketing team.

LeBron should seriously question his brand marketing ideals. Either it’s marketing experts providing ill advice for their own greed and profit, or it’s James’ own gigantic ego overriding all wise and sensible moves to follow his narcissistic needs and desires to focus more on money and his own brand then on winning.

Either way they are eluding the main aspect of successfully branding a star athlete.

People love winners.