Melo Trade Gives Nuggets Plenty Of Cap Room

The Denver Nuggets and the decision they made last February was one of the major talking points during the lockout negotiations. The Miami Heat issue put small-market teams on notice about keeping their superstars. They feared the extend-and-trades that allowed Carmelo Anthony to leverage a trade out of Denver to New York, the place he chose. It gave the players all the leverage to force teams to do what they wanted. Owners hated not having the power. They sought to institute the 'Melo Rule that would prevent extend-and-trades or severely limit them. They did not quite get that. It certainly is one of the losses the owners suffered in the new collective bargaining agreement. But something happened that not many people may have noticed. The Nuggets, in acquiring a bunch of young players from the Knicks for Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, created a team that was too young to know it should not have had a successful second half of the season and a team with a ton of cap ro...