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[OC] To honor Carmelo Anthony’s retirement, here’s how the famous Melo to New York trade 12 years ago is responsible for bringing four players to the current Denver Nuggets. Full flowchart of all players/picks included.



On February 22nd, 2011, the Denver Nuggets traded their franchise player and previous “best Nugget to ever wear #15” to the Knicks in a 3-teamer involving Minnesota… putting to end a saga involving the future first ballot Hall of Fame SF.

The Nuggets traded Carmelo Anthony, four players who would not return to the Knicks the next year (Billups, Balkman, Carter, Williams), and a distant future 2nd to the Wolves in exchange for, at the time, a pretty large haul.

Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Kosta Koufos, a future 1st, rights to swap another 1st, and two 2nds. In today’s crazy trade market, that may not seem like a lot, but it wasn’t common practice for teams to trade 3 starters, a 1st, and a 1st swap for anybody, even a top 10 player in his prime.

A lot of these pieces where dealt around, and it created a pretty complicated situation, that I decided to map out to find out how it affects today’s Denver Nuggets.

[FLOWCHART](https://i.imgur.com/5MD8mLb.png)

I won’t write up all the minute details here, but Denver would wind up receiving through these trades:

Jamal Murray (by moving up in the 2016 draft)
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Zeke Nnaji
Ish Smith
Vlatko Cancar

plus, in the past…

7.5 years of Wilson Chandler
6.5 years of Danilo Gallinari
4 years of Timofey Mozgov (before trading him for 2 1sts and then punting both those 1sts)
7.5 years of Will Barton
3.5 years of Kosta Koufos
3.5 years of Mason Plumlee
5 years of Monte Morris
1 year of Andre Iguodala

The 2016 pick swap for Jamal Murray is the game changer. It was only two spots, but looking at the 2016 draft after Jamal Murray, the only needle-movers in the next 20 picks after Murray were Poeltl and Sabonis who wouldn’t fit with Jokic. So those two spots could have been absolutely huge, above everything else they got in this trade.

**EDIT: Big thanks to /u/BrewtusMaximus1, for pointing out I missed Kosta Koufos in the original Carmelo trade, eventually leading to Vlatko Cancar (a 5th player on the current roster), and hooking up again with Monte Morris. Edited the flowchart**

by BetweenTheBuzzAndMe

25 Comments

  1. JalenSmithsGoggles

    This shits too complicated and probably just cherrypicking. You could probably trace it back to the Wilt Chamberlain trade in 1968 if you wanted to.

  2. Curious_Success_377

    One of the most overrated players of all time.

    Inefficient shot chucker who is a blackhole on offense.

    Shane Battier is Carmelo Anthony’s father

    Can’t playmake for shit, was never a Top 5 player even in his prime.

    The Nuggets will retire #15 for Jokic not Melo’s ball hogging stupid ass.

    Imagine thinking 8 jabsteps in a possession is basketball lmfaoo couldn’t be Jokic. He elevates his team that Melo could never.

    Carmelo Anthony is just a fatter Bradley Beal. No wonder why he’s not only ringless, he has no MVPs whatsoever.

  3. Wallstreettrappin

    If it wasn’t for the Melo trade, Iguodala wouldn’t have been drafted by the Nuggets. Therefore Warriors dynasty wouldn’t even exist

    Edit: Iggy was drafted by the Sixers.

  4. IndycarFan64

    Noah Vonleh is def a name I haven’t heard in a long time

    Also who is that bottom arrow supposed to represent?

  5. northernpace

    Thanks Op, this is dope. Love a good trade tree.

  6. infographic11222

    Wait why did Cavs trade 2 firsts for Mozgov? Was he a bonifide superstar or something? (I get that they are very heavily protected but even still 15-30 2x is a lot of him)

  7. BrewtusMaximus1

    It’s five players total on the roster.

    Nuggets also got Kosta Koufos from MN in the Melo trade

    Kosta was traded in June 2013 to Memphis for Darrell Arthur and the draft rights to Joffrey Lauvergne

    Lauvergne was traded August 2016 to OKC for two 2017 2nd round picks

    The first of those picks ended up being #49 – Vlatko Cancar; the second was #51 – Monte Morris

  8. Do people think of Melo as a Knick or Nugget when he first comes to mind? I’m a Nuggets fan that grew up in Denver so I’m curious what others think

  9. referee-superfan

    You would have gotten 100x the attention if you post this during the middle of the off season. With that being said this is really cool.

  10. King_of_yuen_ennu

    Don’t understand why all of this love for Carmelo now, yet there was no appreciation for him while he was a star at NY. All I heard back then was that he was “ball hungry” and stifled offensive motion. Not to mention the stories floating of how poorly he treated JLin

    Overrated star

    Stay M7lo

  11. TomLinkon

    I always thought that was a terrible trade. New York gave away so many pieces to try and win at the time, and it’s taken them years to recover and be competitive again.

    I felt they could have just waited and Melo would have came in free agency, joining a talented young team vs. a depleted one.

    The melo years were mostly fun but still think they gave away too much.

  12. TheIgnoredWriter

    And yet New York could’ve kept all those players and signed Melo if they just waited for the off season

  13. onlylovehere

    Can u do this with Kawhi. What did the spurs get

  14. Open_Union6843

    It’s how miami ended up with butler bc of the previous 3 trades with melo that sent dlo to the Lakers for Norris Cole and & novicic to the Timberwolves and miami got jimmy plus a 2027 1st round protected pick

  15. rswsaw22

    I was such a huge Wilson Chandler fan. Dude was fun when healthy.

  16. apokalypsezz

    retirement? i thought he require years ago…he’s done long time ago the styles and the way he played.

  17. and lebron was in conference finals that year too

  18. LongjumpAdhesiveness

    Damn, bro. This is awesome! Plus the flowchart is next level.

  19. TinTinsKnickerbocker

    And Nuggets fans are still offended a family valued New York over Denver

  20. Fifth_Element_Matrix

    Timofey Mozgov

    PTS 93
    FG 10/15
    REB 29
    BLK 3

    Never forget

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